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Marty O’Donnell spent decades creating some of the most iconic music in video game history. Now, the Halo composer is devoting his creative energies to an entirely different type of project: a conservative upset in one of America’s most competitive swing districts.
Speaking with Fox News Digital at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas, the Nevada Republican candidate explained how he plans to bring his real-world business experience and innovation to a Washington perennially clogged with career politicians.
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“How did being a composer prepare me to run for Congress? Well, frankly, I don’t think it does. But I don’t think anything prepares anybody to run for Congress. What I’m tired of…people who have their entire career in politics. They have never made anything, they don’t really know anything, and we don’t need more people like that.
“I’ve had an entire career creating stuff, shipping stuff, working with other teams, leading teams, making businesses, making deals. That’s what I think prepares me for Congress.”
O’Donnell puts basic kitchen-table economics at the foundation of his outsider bid for Nevada’s third district:
“I really believe that it’s time to get back to a place where one good job is enough…enough to raise a family, buy a home, get your kids a good education, take a vacation. That is the way I grew up. That’s the America I grew up in. And there’s no reason why that shouldn’t be able to come back.”
He has a fighting shot, but in a district long represented by 4-term Democrat Susie Lee, he needs to hone his appeal to political independents:
“The independent part of Nevada, and especially the district I’m in, CD3, is huge.
“The left has gone so far left that the only thing that we need to be able to present to the people who are in the middle is that we believe in common sense solutions. We believe in common sense. Not nonsense.
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“You know, transing your kids, boys in girls’ sports, having open borders, the ever-growing federal government and fraud, that all has to stop and I think people are ready for that, and I think the independents are ready for that.”
With a business background and a common sense approach, O’Donnell argues that his mainstream appeal will carry him through in the Las Vegas suburbs.
“Well Las Vegas is a town that has grown up being all about hospitality and casinos and hotels and entertainment, but it’s also becoming a high-tech place.
“I think the business community here, especially in the district I’m from, which is on the northwest side of Las Vegas, is ready to just explode. Summerlin area, there are all sorts of business opportunities there. And it’s unique because it’s a diverse community. We have a huge Asian population, Hispanic, people who have retired, people who work in hospitality and are part of unions.
“But these people are, are family people and family people are what I consider to be normal people and I think this midterm could be the revenge of the normies. I think normal people are going to come out and say they’ve had enough with the crazies.”
O’Donnell strongly supports Donald Trump’s foreign policy and is not adverse to military action to topple the longstanding communist regime in Havana:
“I am absolutely ready for Cuba to have the same fate that Venezuela had. The people of Cuba have been suppressed almost my entire lifetime. It’s time for Cuba to be free again. The people of Cuba deserve to be free. Fidel Castro died a long time ago.
“There are so many smart, successful people from Cuba, especially in Florida, Marco being one of them, of course. And it’s time. We don’t necessarily need to do a military intervention, but if that’s what needs to happen, I would be all for it because, I think the administration knows what needs to happen in Cuba, and I’m looking forward to a free Cuba over the next year.”
Finally, O’Donnell pledges to hold the line on spending and not fall victim to the establishment GOP drift to big government spending:
“My plan is to take the ring of power and throw it into the fires of Mount Doom. That’s a little shout-out to my nerd friends. Listen, the government is too big. There was a point where President Clinton said ‘the era of big government is over.’ Obviously, he didn’t mean it, but it appeals to people still to this day.
“There’s so much fraud, there’s so much waste in big government. How is it not time for the government to balance its budget, to cut… 10 percent, at least, of every program it has and go after all the fraud and waste that is just rampant? We cannot continue to spend like drunken sailors. We can’t continue to increase the budgets and tax the people. It’s just unacceptable.”
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