HARRISONBURG, VA (Rocktown Now) — The following is a transcription of an interview with Virginia U.S. Senate Candidate Hung Cao. To hear the full interview with Hung Cao, as well as incumbent Tim Kaine, click here.

Question 1
Let’s start with your background and why you think you would be a good fit for the Senate.

Hung Cao:  You know, I came here as a refugee from Vietnam, and I grabbed onto the American dream. I went to the top schools in the country. But you know what? I wanted to pay back my education and everything else that this, this country gave me with 25 years of service in Navy special operations. I was a Navy deep sea diver that recovered John F Kennedy junior, his wife and his sister-in-law. And I also, you know, diffused bombs from our SEAL teams and special forces teams in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia.
I think this country needs change right now and change is not going to come from a 30-year career politician, you know, and who wants to stay until year 2030 to fix everything he screwed up. I mean, if he couldn’t do it the first 12 years in Senate, I don’t think he can do it in the next 6 years.

Question 2
What do you think the biggest challenge Virginia is facing right now? How do you plan on addressing that?

CAO: The economy is the biggest issue in Virginia. I mean, Americans can’t put food on the table. They can’t afford to put gas in their cars, and they can’t afford to buy a home. And this is all because of the high inflation and also not being energy independent in this country. But also, the influx of illegal aliens that are coming across the southern border. We’re paying a billion dollars a day or more for housing and to feed illegal aliens. We should be using that money to help Virginians and Americans across the country. I mean, during Hurricane Helene for example, we had Americans stranded on their rooftops and, you know, while two Virginians are dying, Tim Kaine was at a pig roast and we should be using the money that we’re spending on illegal aliens to medevac Americans out of there and put in the hotels that we’re putting illegal aliens in where they’re eating, you know, from room service.

Question 3
You mentioned inflation. How do you think the federal government could slow inflation?

CAO: The inflation, everything goes up when the price of gas goes up. And the price of energy goes up, everything goes up with it, right? I mean, if it takes more for our farmer farming land or trucker to bring the goods to the stores, it drives everything up. And we saw this four years ago. I mean, four years ago, we paid less than $2.00 a gallon for gas and everything was a lot more affordable. And today, the price of food, price of commodities, everything has gone up because you know they basically have crippled us and made us depend on oil from countries that hate us.

Question 4
You talked about a lot of things rising in price, and we see that with health care. How do you propose to improve healthcare, especially the rising costs and things like that?

CAO: Yeah, healthcare is a big, you know issue for a lot of Americans and what we need is more competition. Competition pushes innovation. Competition also forces competitors to lower prices to get more clients. But you know, don’t be fooled by this Medicare X that Tim Kaine is trying to propose because it’s just a Trojan horse for single payer government run program. I mean, if you like your lines at the DMV, then you’re going to love the lines at this government run healthcare especially, I mean look, I know, because we do the same in the VA where you know you have to wait forever to get a consult from your primary care physician. So we need more competition in this country, not just a single payer. And let’s just face it, anything the government touches, they screw up. So, let’s get government out of it and let’s get industry in there to drive the cost of prescription medicine and healthcare down.

Question 5
And you mentioned getting the government out of things kind of going more in depth with the healthcare side of things. Reproductive freedoms have been a big issue in the past few years since the overturning of Roe V Wade. Where do you stand on that?

CAO: Well, I want to be very clear to everybody. Listen here. I will not vote for any federal ban on abortion. The reason why is because when you push it up to the federal level, what it does is it takes it out of hands of voters in Virginia and it puts in the hand of a senator in California and a congressman in Idaho. We don’t want that. We believe that Virginians know what’s best for Virginia. We need to keep at this level. And what Tim Kaine wants to do is push it up to the federal level so that he can have what he wants which is unlimited abortion up to including the moment of birth. And if you don’t believe that, then why did he vote against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act? He’s also trying to say that I’m against IVF or something like that. I’ve never said anything about IVF. In fact, I have 5 kids and three of them were from fertility treatments, so why would I deny any family the ability to increase their family members through IVF? I mean, it’s just ridiculous and I don’t know where he gets the stuff from. And but again, this is a man who’s been in office for 30 years, who’s saying hey, give me another six years. I promise I’ll get us out.

Question 6
Kind of switching gears here, what are your thoughts on the current foreign policy that the United States has with the Middle East and Ukraine?

CAO: OK, I don’t know if this administration has any foreign policy experience. I fought in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, and I’m telling you right now that under Donald Trump, for the first time, in my adult life, we had peace in the Middle East and that’s through the Abraham Accord. And so once he left, what did Iran do? They’re trying to thwart that because it really threatens their existence because the other Gulf Coast nations want peace and so also under Biden administration, they’ve pulled up all the sanctions allowing for Iran to be richer and to have more resources to fund the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah. And that’s why all these things happen. I mean we need to, we need to push more peace into the Middle East, and the only way to do that is to a cripple Iran financially, and then enable for these Gulf Coast nations to stand up on their own to create like a basically a Gulf Coast Nation Response Force where they rotate around the duties of, you know who’s in charge and then who’s the air component Commander, land component Commander, Maritime component Commander. Let them push peace on their own instead of having American troops over there.

Question 7
You’ve been out campaigning, so what’s the number one concern that you’ve heard from voters?

CAO: Voters are very worried about the economy, and they’re also worried about the illegal immigration, and I want to be very clear to anybody, I’m an immigrant to this country. Don’t ask for the American dream if you’re not willing to obey the American laws and embrace the American culture. I love this country so much. I wrote a blank check up to including my life to defend this nation. But when we’re spending so much money on illegal aliens and not taking care of Americans it hurts us all. And in fact, I mean even small rural counties in southwest Virginia, they’re affected too, because, for example, a sheriff was telling me that when they pull over somebody or actually they arrest an illegal alien for trespassing or anything like that, they’re out 500 to 1000 dollars because they have to hire a translator to help with the paperwork, to help with the court case, if that person even shows up. And so, these small-town sheriff’s offices, 500 to 1000 dollars, that’s a lot of burden that they’re taking upon themselves and it affects us all. But Virginia’s want a stronger economy. We all remember what our wallets and our bank accounts look like four years ago. And right now, we’re all hurting and that’s why I’m running for office. Because, you know, look, this is not my dream. I’ll be honest with you. I’ve never wanted to be a politician. I wanted to serve in the Navy, and I love this country so much, but watching what’s going on in this country, how they’re turning this country and what I ran away from, this is why I’m running for office.

Question 8
Just to kind of sum everything up, you’ve mentioned it a little bit, but what would you say your main goal is with being in the Senate?

CAO: Well, my main goal in being Senate is to really let America thrive again, but also strengthen our military. We have a lot of issues going on in this country that people don’t understand, you know, besides the balloon flying over there, we had Chinese drones that flew onto Langley Air Force Base and stopped F22 flights for eight days. We had a Chinese national caught outside Norfolk naval Base who was taking pictures through drones of every ship out there. We had Jordanian nationals who are trying to ram the gate at Marine Corps Base Quantico. Right now, we have transnational gangs you know, taking over complexes up in Colorado, but also the worst thing is there’s 13,000 convicted murderers and 16,000 convicted rapists that are running free in this country, and they’re killing our citizens. Up in Sterling, VA, it’s a grandmother by the name of Melody Waldecker, down in Chesapeake is a young lady by the name of Lauren Nicole Leonard, who both were killed by illegal aliens. And a 12-year-old girl in Manassas was abducted on her way to school. We have to protect the American people, the federal government’s main job is to provide for the common defense, and they’re not doing that. And that’s why I’m running for U.S. Senate because I want to protect the American people. I want to protect American businesses, and I want to let our economy thrive.

Question 9
And is there a website or anywhere you would like to direct people to?

CAO: Yes, it’s at hungforva.com. Please go on there and see what we’re about. Look, this is the election of our lifetime and I’m telling you right now, I’ve been to 40 countries in my lifetime and if we lose America, there’s nowhere else for us to run.