How Brady Cupples Took His One Small Step Into Politics and Leadership

Talk about unchecked immigration. I mean a lot of these people are coming from you know third world countries and it's when they come here you know they don't they make our country look like a third world country. You know you have pockets here in America where it's like it doesn't look like America you know and you know things like that is kind of what really you know moves me I guess you would say and it's you know I think immigration is probably it's in my opinion it's it's the issue of our time and you know that's why I have a lot of respect for at least you know what Trump has done to the moment he came down the escalator you know in terms of taking on and tackling you know this issue it's it's really I would say made me passionate about in my convictions and in the political arena so. I know that in Bloomington normal area where McLean County is for folks who aren't as familiar as Central Illinois. Yeah. Has competitive legislative races are there any state issues that you're most passionate about. Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so. This is American Potential. Welcome to the American Potential Podcast. I'm your host David Fromm. We're coming to you live from Springfield Illinois where we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Happen to be here also in the land of Lincoln on Lincoln's birthday and you know as we reflect on the founding fathers and all the the the principles that they believed in and fought for and moved forward it's worth noting that a lot of them were young people. It's always shocking to me as to how young they actually were but they they saw the need their responsibility to fight for freedom for the generations to come and form this great nation that we all love. So today we're talking to a young person who just got involved a few years ago. I took that first one small step to get involved in this community to get involved in public policy to try to make his you know the nation and the state a better place. So I'm happy to welcome Brady Couples who's the co-chair of the McLean County Young Republicans. Thanks for joining us on the podcast. Yes. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Well I'm really I'm glad that you've kind of gotten involved in the public policy space and in politics. You might regret that someday but I'm kind of curious like well first of all just tell us a little bit about yourself. You grew up central Illinois. Just tell me where you grew up. Yep. Born and raised here in central Illinois. Grew up in Bullman's and Normal. Lived here most of my life and yeah born and raised here in central Illinois. So. So did you ever grown up or high school or in college I have a desire or like an interest in politics or anything related to it. When I was very young like my favorite subject in school was social studies. So I was into history and the presidents and stuff like that. But as I grew up kind of that interest kind of waned a little bit but I kind of got a renewed interest in it right around 2020 when everything was going on in the world at that time kind of piqued my interest again and I've been interested in it since then but finally got the urge really in 2025 to really do something to get involved and see how here I am now. So it's so funny we hear of people of all ages really who lived through 2020 and the pandemic shut down and all that. It was such a dramatic thing and so eye-opening for so many people. It was just an inflection point where so many people got activated and I just hear that you know older folks who are now you know I was talking to someone who's a state legislator in another Midwestern state and they were like well during the pandemic but business got closed I got activated now they're in the legislature. There's so many stories like that. It's you know for my generation 9-11 was one like that where a lot of people you know we talked to a lot of veterans who just say 9-11 happened I joined up you know that's what I needed to do and I've probably talked to a few dozen who've said that. So you decide you kind of your eyes kind of get open you get a little more interested. What was your pathway in more recently like just getting involved? Yeah so I got my interest in politics really got even more I guess intense when you know when Charlie Kirk was assassinated really kind of convicted me and maybe really want to you know do something to you know kind of carry on his legacy I guess and so from there I just you know kind of looked around and you know reached out to my local you know you know you know political organizations and Bloomsen Normal and I went to a dinner that we had in town that was kind of right after his assassination kind of and honoring him and you know a memorial for him and from there I got heard about the volunteer orientation for our county GOP so I went to that and then at that meeting is where I met our former chairwoman of the young Republicans McClain County young Republicans so from there I got connected with her and connected with that organization and then from there just been to several events you know helped out with a few campaigns and now our the chairwoman that I got connected with she's stepping down she's moving on with her career and so when she stepped down she approached me asking if I wanted to have a role a higher role with the with the group and I said yes and eventually became the co-chairman so that's kind of how it all went for me so so like in your soul kind of like what makes you really want to be involved why do you want to do the work that you're not getting paid for yeah well a lot of it has to do again like how I got involved or how I started paying attention it was kind of you know seen how I guess for lack of a better word how messed up and everything is and you know we have you know the other side is very radical and progressive that I think is just it's bad for our country and you know we need people like me and other young conservatives to get involved because if it's not us getting involved then you know the other side will be involved in the political process so you know when I see them you know in the way that they respond to any type of conservative you know like like Trump for example their response to him their their outrage at him it gets them activated and you know makes them want to institute change that that they believe in you know so if people like us and me if you know if we don't kind of have that similar feeling of you know of a conviction to to be engaged in our political process then you know the other side is going to take it away and go from there so well yeah so this is I realize this year is my 30th year that I've been involved in mostly Illinois politics so I live up outside of Chicago and it's been very different Illinois politics in particular because it's really lurched to one side I mean I've worked for two Republican governors in Illinois and but that was a long time ago and it's very different so I mean it can be discouraging at the state level I mean the national stuff's always interesting but Illinois doesn't play a big role in it but yeah what what kind of what what part of the what level of politics has been really engaging to you and do you feel like you want to make a difference in well obviously you know if if you pay attention to social media or the news I mean obviously it's the federal or even world politics for that matter that really it's kind of in your face all the time and that's kind of you know especially obviously if you know if we're talking about 2020 that's a world you know historical events that went on you know at that time and so that's kind of what really you know and really engaged me and you know and got me interested but you know obviously local level is important too in terms of you know education system and you know in terms of the type of communities our children grow up in you know that's stuff that you know as I have you know hopefully children the future you know what kind of community you want to raise them in what kind of schools you want to go to that kind of you know that's also you know a concern of mine as well so are there any issues that are most important to you or that you feel like were preeminent and motivating you to kind of really get involved? Well in terms of like national I would definitely say immigration is an issue for me that really I feel pretty passionate about and it's you know it's a contributing factor too to my involvement you know seeing you know the left's response to immigration enforcement by the duly elected president. I mean I mean yeah the idea that securing the border should be controversial is kind of absurd. We actually did a show down at the border with the walls of backdrop just a few months ago down in Yuma Arizona and it's to listen to this to talk to the mayor or a few other people there to listen to the impact that unchecked undocumented immigration was having on that on those communities. Communities that embrace immigration like they were lying on it for their economy but not just blatantly illegal immigration I think that it was really eye-opening. I mean just you know things like that I mean talk about unchecked immigration I mean a lot of these people are coming from you know third world countries and it's when they come here you know they don't they make our country look like a third world country you know you have pockets here in America where it's like it doesn't look like America you know and you know things like that is kind of what really you know moves me I guess you would say and it's you know I think immigration is probably it's in my opinion it's the issue of our time and you know that's why I have a lot of respect for at least you know what Trump has done to from the moment he came down the escalator you know in terms of taking on and tackling you know this issue it's really I would say made me passionate about you know in my convictions and in the political arena so I know that in the Bloomington Normal area your McLean County is for folks who are in the Smiliers Central Illinois yeah has competitive legislative races are there any state issues that you're most passionate about yeah kind of going back to education I mean that's kind of a big thing here in our state and like you mentioned it with it being a deep blue state you know that what they want to teach in the public schools is very I think dangerous to teach young children I certainly want to want my children learn some things that they're teaching and so I would say that's that's a big issue for me and the other thing too is this is crime you know when you have seems to me that you know Democrat officials are pretty soft on crime and you know Chicago was once a great city of the Midwest is now you can barely you know you want to go there at all you know what you certainly don't want to take public transportation or you know walk certain places at night it's it's crimes of a big issue and you know yeah with it with it being a deep blue state they did it's maybe not a concern from them from what it seems like so so now that you're co-chairing young Republicans McLean County what are you guys doing and like what do you hope to do in that leadership role yeah I mean we just first and foremost is when I get as many people involved as possible you know from there we'd like to be sort of a pipeline to get people working for elected officials working on campaigns and just you know doing whatever they you know they feel as there could be their route in the political and their political involvement just you know if we can be kind of a starting point for that would be kind of my goal and and also just to be able to build relationships with elected officials you know people that are running for office is kind of kind of have a relationship with them and and get them connected with our group and just kind of be you know somewhat well known in our in our county so that people know who we are and and you know something that's attractive to be to be a part of so yeah what do you think is the key to attracting people to your cause yeah that's the organization specifically it's a some we try to think about every day I mean a lot of things we try to do is you know just have fun outings fun events we've done like pizza outings or like top golf type things before things like that movie nights we went as a group just to last week to go see the new Melania movie in theaters so stuff like that just you know you know make it something that's you know social you know some people well a lot of people that are especially conservatives they don't you know they may have social circles or you know co-workers family that they can't talk politics with and so it'd be nice if we can create kind of a social space for people to come and and be proud to be conservative be you know proud in their beliefs and discuss it with other like-minded people and so if we can provide that for people that be I'd hope we be able to do that so yeah so if you were talking to somebody who you know maybe it's you a few years back and you're not sure whether you're involved you know he's watched stuff on the news get upset about things or you have strong opinions but you don't know whether or not to take that step to to really get involved in your community or involved in organizations involved for you know fighting for the values that they leave in what would you say to them as like why or how to take that step well first I'll start with why is that kind of going back to what I said earlier is like for me I kind of view it I really view it as my obligation to get involved because like I said if people like me aren't getting involved and doing something then like I said the other side will and they are and so I think it's very important so you know if I if I'm talking to someone they and they already do feel you know convicted and feel a strong way about what they believe in I would just say you know why not what other option do we have like we need people like you and me to do this so that would be the why in terms of the how I would just say just show up like I did because I didn't know how to do it either and so I just I heard about you know follow social media follow you know our group on social media you know other conservative and Republican groups on social media that know they'll advertise events and things like that go to the events you know get connected with people to start meeting people you know you know be likeable and make connections and build relationships and then from there on you know who knows where it'll take I mean when I showed up to my first event I certainly didn't think I'd be co-chairman of the young Republicans and if matter of months so mm-hmm I would just say show up and and meet people really so just finally what kind of you know when you're young person a little bit younger than me and you know you have your whole future in front of you you know you deeply care about this nation in your state because you're already young age being really involved like what do you want to see for this country in the future well I would say it's I was definitely animated by the Trump Revolution and you know his message of America first so I think you know Trump's obviously on his way out in a number of years and I think it's important on us it's on our part to to continue on that that message and that agenda of putting America first in terms of you know the you know the issues that we care about you know in turn and particularly on a national level in terms of immigration foreign policy trade you know if our politicians are putting the interest of the American people first I mean that's that's definitely what I'd like to see for our country and I think we got a good start at that with these now five years of Trump's presidency and I think you know he's got three years left and then from then on we just got to continue to build upon that and I hope I hope we do that and that's why that's why I'm here as well so cool well I think I love obviously as a guy's been around for a little while to see young folks get involved even so she ended in a tough state like Illinois I mean yeah I I'm someone who's lived through ups and downs in Illinois politics and national ones for sure but the if we don't build the infrastructure to try to take advantage of like a wave election or an inflection point you know that happens then we're never gonna be able to take advantage of them but when we do put that work in and recruit people and educate people and have that infrastructure in place it's it's one of the reasons that Americans for prosperity exists is that we try to drive that narrative we try to educate people help them understand what's really going on and then when something you know even in a tough state kind of clicks where it can change the trajectory of the politics we can take advantage that hopefully find new leadership and get busy passing better policies saving our state not having people like you move out of it yeah something so yeah yeah well I really appreciate you joining us and appreciate the work that you're doing yeah thank you thank you for having me thank you well folks if you like this podcast please like and follow us on our channels and also come visit us on YouTube Instagram and Facebook and always remember freedom and liberty are easily taken for granted do not take them for granted go out there and defend liberty and freedom thanks for joining us and we'll see you on the next episode thank you for listening to American potential you may listen to more stories from Americans working every day to expand freedom and opportunity in their communities by visiting American potential.com