The Other J.D.: Meet the Candidate (and Pitcher) America Can Agree Upon

Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out.

I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is.

I'm 44.

I'm beer and a half in.

My legs are pretty tired.

And let's call it a day.

Right after this ad.

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JD Shelton, how old are you?

I just want to get this on the record for everybody who's not familiar with your work.

44 years old.

And all the things that have been like the headlines and all that, the fact that they lead with that is a little disappointing, but I know that's part of the story.

Well, hold on, though.

Hold on.

Because yes, that is young for a a sitting congressman, but for a pitcher, a professional baseball pitcher, this is why I'm talking to you today.

It's both of these things in combination.

Life's a little bit surreal right now and a little hectic, but, you know,

how do you make God laugh?

Have a plan.

Okay, so it is late July and the American news cycle, if you have not noticed, is drowning in surreal and hectic stories of plans gone wrong.

Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt.

Kamala Harris replaced a malfunctioning Joe Biden.

And then the focus recently turned to J.D.

Vance, the guy who got the call to be Trump's vice president.

All of it has been a lot.

But there is one story, a local sports story, which went national, that I wanted to make sure you heard today.

Because the man at the center of it, it turns out, is a very different kind of politician.

Even though he also happens to be named JD.

At six feet, six inches.

Santa

with someone you believe

in.

J.D.

Schulton says he wants to take economic opportunity to new heights, claiming what is good for Wall Street is not necessarily good for Iowans.

60% of Americans can't handle a $500 emergency and the average 30-year-old makes what a 30-year-old did 30 years ago.

And a few weeks ago over Independence Day weekend, State Representative J.D.

Schulten received an emergency call of his own.

For those of you that haven't seen the Kevin Costner film, For the Love of the Game, it follows a 40-year-old Billy Chappell pitching in the major leagues.

And while it wasn't in the majors tonight, the Sioux City Explorers got a taste of Hollywood when they called on 44-year-old J.D.

Schulton to start against Milwaukee.

That's right, member of the Iowa House of Representatives and former Morningside and Nebraska pitcher, J.D.

Schulten, got the nod to start for the Sioux City Explorers.

The Sioux City Explorers are a minor league baseball team in Iowa in the American Association of Professional Baseball, which is partnered with Major League Baseball.

And so it employs lineups that are full of former and future major leaguers, these real live pro athletes who tend to be a lot younger than some middle-aged local lawmaker.

And so the first thing I needed to find out about J.D.

Schulton was what he had been doing, what his plans actually were on the day that he got.

the call.

We have this big music festival here in Sioux City called Saturday in the park where bleachers were headlining and i volunteered for the last five years and so my friend had a pre-festival party i stopped there had a beer and a half i was just finished delivering a bag of ice or a bunch of bag of bags of ice and i looked at my phone and my phone was blown up i had like 10 missed calls and uh the manager of the sioux city explorers he texted me said call me asap So your manager in the present tense is this guy, Steve Montgomery, whose nickname is, I believe, Mongo.

My name is Steve Montgomery, field manager, Sioux City Explorers everyone's calls me Mongo.

I knew my guy had a stiff neck, almost a pinched nerve in the neck.

So the starter said that night, I should be good to go.

I think, you know, one more day.

He comes in the next day for a six o'clock game.

We're hitting BT at three o'clock.

Obviously, starters there roughly 3.30, 4 o'clock.

He comes in.

He's in worse shape than he was the previous day.

I literally just drop everything and I run to my phone.

I start calling five, six college kids, you know, just, hey, who can be here?

July 4th weekend, as you can understand, a lot of people out on vacation, family events.

And

I remember having a conversation with JD, him saying, if you ever need anybody, just give me a call.

That was about 3.15.

And he said, hey, our starting pitcher went down.

We're desperate.

We went through 10 pitchers of the two previous nights.

Is there any chance you can give us a couple innings?

I'm just like, man.

He's like, is this a prank?

Is this like a practical joke?

I'm like, no, I'm dead serious.

I got a guy with a pinched nerve.

I told him I have to call him back in 10 minutes because I needed somebody to cover my shift because I wasn't going to leave Saturday in the park high and dry either, you know?

So I talked to.

the people who are overseeing the volunteers and they're like, no, go do it.

You're good.

We got you covered.

He calls me back 15 minutes later, says I'm in.

And he's like, what do you expect out of me?

I said, you give me what you can give me because whatever you give me, whether it's two innings, three innings, sporting, it's a huge bonus to me.

When opportunity knocks, you got to open that door.

And that's kind of how it started.

Your day job is you're in the Iowa House of Representatives.

We just call it state rep.

But yeah.

So, so I was an elected official.

I won my election in November of 2022.

So I just finished serving my term, or I guess it goes till the end of the year, but my two sessions.

And then now I'm up for re-election come this November.

But there's another reason why Mongo knew to call this state representative after, yeah, those aforementioned five or six college kids all turned him down.

And the reason is that J.D.

Schulten had pitched for the Sioux City Explorers before.

17 years ago.

Yeah,

this was back when baseball, like politics, was a pretty different game.

And back in 2007, J.D.

Schulten had an ERA of 8.25 for the Explorers, which, you know, not good.

But in the years since then, He was at least keeping his arm loose.

JD had played Pro Ball internationally and he was playing on a local amateur team in his town league.

Both because JD still loves the game

and also because starting pitching kind of felt like a relief.

I use baseball as a form of stress relief.

You know, being able to throw, get on a mountain, just throw

helps me tremendously because like politics is pretty.

cumbersome and overwhelming these days and polarizing and all that jazz.

And I'm the only Democrat Democrat in 32 counties in northwest Iowa.

So like

I'm kind of a blueberry in a bowl of tomato soup is what I like to say.

So for me, baseball has always been a way to just like talk to people before I even got into politics.

And then when I ran for Congress twice, that's U.S.

Congress in 2018 and 2020.

That's when I really focus on the baseball because it's a thing that can bring people together.

For an example, our state legislature is from about June until April, May.

There's no official closing date.

And so during that time, we were supposed to be in Des Moines Monday through Thursday.

I found a baseball academy that's just pretty much you punch in a code and it's 24-7 access and it's just a bunch of batting cages.

They have some mounds.

And so I've thrown bullpens at 10 p.m.

I'm throwing them at 6 a.m.

But for me, I would always get my throwing in because it's such a big form of stress relief for me.

And so like, I did that all this legislative session.

Well done.

Okay.

So you have this concoction inside of you, a beer and a half.

And tonally, it doesn't sound like they're saying, hey, JD, we've been scouting you.

We think it's time for you to finally get your well-deserved chance.

They're kind of saying, hey, JD,

we're.

Can you help us?

I had to fight traffic to get to my house, to get my equipment, to head to the field, grab a bite to eat.

And then I get to the game probably about an hour and 45 minutes before start time.

and then it's uh signing a contract what are the details on this historic contract i got the league minimum so 1400 a month so um probably should have get an agent or something i don't know yeah yeah i recommend i recommend uh a financial advisor on the next deal perhaps

what are you wearing like what's the uniform situation how does that work they were scrambling to get me one they just had a bunch of stuff and then you get an option of what you wanted to wear luckily one of the other pitchers he's 6'7.

I'm 6'6.

And he had an extra pair of pants because all the pants were a little short.

And so I wore his on the first night.

And then they just gave me number 50.

I don't know if that was

just to show I'm old or what.

I don't know.

He was sitting in my office and he told me, no, normally I don't drink on game days.

And I'm like, drink on game day?

Like you were drinking?

He was like, yeah, I had a beer.

He didn't tell me the half, but he did tell me he had a beer at lunch.

So just again, the mental image here is you're wearing some other dude's pants yeah you have a beer and a half that you've now sort of like uh i believe absorbed by whatever food you just ate what did you eat by the way what was what was the pregame meal i tend to have a specific burrito from chipotle it's a carnitas half both beans uh like a half of the rice white rice uh cheese it's it's actually my ex-girlfriend's from a few years ago, her order.

I'm finding out a lot on this episode.

It just, it's saved in my uh app

so you are wearing another dude's pants you have in your stomach your ex-girlfriend's chipotle order and you're wearing a number that you haven't worn before that might be an allusion to the fact that you are 44 years old about to get into this game

and so the scouting report jd The scouting report on JD Schulton, as constituted, as your teammates are now trying to piece this together, what's happening is what?

What should they know about you, the thrower?

I don't throw anything down the middle.

I'm the corners guy.

I have a cutter, slider, and a changeup that just really

change locations, change speeds, keep things out of the middle.

Pitching isn't complicated, but it's the execution of doing that that is the complication.

Precision is what you pride yourself on.

I was going to wonder, like, would you call yourself a junk baller, but it sounds like you have a different sort of scouting report.

People will want to say this or compare me to this or that.

I think the closest would probably be more like a Bartolo Colon later in his career.

He can manipulate the ball, change speeds, locations, and just like really spot.

So, those combinations don't allow too many barrels.

And so, for me, that's all I need.

I christened the

little sexy.

If you're looking to add something special to your next celebration, try Remy Martin 1738 Accord Royale.

This smooth, flavorful cognac is crafted from the finest grapes and aged to perfection, giving you rich notes of oak and caramel with every sip.

Whether you're celebrating a big win or simply enjoying some cocktails with family and friends, Remy Martin 1738 is the perfect spirit to elevate any occasion.

So go ahead, treat yourself to a little luxury, and try Remy Martin 1738 Accord Royale.

Learn more at remymartin.com.

Remy Martin Cognac, Feen Champion, 14 Alcoholic by Volume 40 by Remy Control.

USA Incorporated, New York, New York, 1738, Centaur Design.

Please drink responsibly.

J.D.

Schulton, he was a Sioux City Explorer in 2007.

Actually, 2003 through 2007.

What year were you born?

I was born in 2003.

So when he made his professional debut, I was not yet born.

It's been a crazy day and what's been a crazy week and what's been just around every corner, something new here.

Here's the 0-1 to Sermo.

They'll swing around.

The first inning, dude.

Yeah.

What is your memory of just how it begins?

The game of baseball has changed, and I didn't know if my stuff could play at this level anymore.

And so there's all of that.

And then first batter

hits a seed up the middle.

He line to center.

that'll be a base hip with reggie pruitt jr on the oh wide like i'm not used to getting hit hard uh and so like i forgot how hard these guys hit it i mean there was multiple guys in that lineup that played triple a the year before and a big leaguer from two years before so like this this isn't like i don't know uh just walking in from the cornfields or anything it's not guys like me just showing up randomly

And so first guy gets a hit, steals second.

Into shadow center field.

On a third goes Reggie Pruitt Jr.

Stolten base.

They overthrow, so he goes to third.

Next guy hits a sack fly.

Powered out towards center.

Harris will break in now.

Should score the run, though.

Two batters in.

I'm down one, nothing.

And I'm just like, oh, geez.

Okay.

Here we go.

Then the next guy, their three-hole.

Ground ball up the middle.

That's a base hit.

Just under the glove.

Hits one right back at me up the middle so hard.

It was a grounder.

It was so hard that.

Even before my brain was like, get your glove down.

It was way past me.

Like, it was hit so hard.

I don't know what the exit velocity on that was, but like, that's when I was like, okay, don't hurt yourself, JD.

Just get through this.

The straw pulling in the dugout right now, not going great for a state representative, Schulten, at this point in the first inning.

Then proceed, the base is loaded, one out, and then they have this lefty up.

And in my mind, I'm like, okay, if I can get on top of my sinker, he can roll over.

And that's exactly what happened.

Our second baseman made a great play and got out of the inning that'll do it they get a run the inning coming home on it and that's when i was just like whoo okay one run got out of it because two nights prior they scored 17 runs in the first two innings so so

giving up one run was a lot uh better and so The boys scored a run in the second or third.

So it was 1-1.

And I got through that inning.

And then it was about the third inning.

We scored two more.

And I went out and threw a donut.

Here's what hit out toward left.

Montano's rifting back.

There he is at the track, reaching up, makes the play.

That's a shutdown inning, sir.

Back to back, nonetheless.

And that's when we're like, oh, this, this, there's, there might be something here.

I'm noticing you're using a lot of general terms like the boys or the second baseman.

Do you know the names of your teammates at this point, or are you, is that still a work in progress?

Most of them.

I like you being your own political aide, trying to figure out, oh, God, okay, I got to figure out what this guy's name is.

Let me Google this on my phone real quick.

That's exactly right.

I wish I had a staffer who could prep me on all that stuff.

Back out there for the fourth inning.

And I'm going to be honest, entering this game, I didn't know if we'd see him enter the fourth.

And, well, he's really proved himself.

Things were starting to build up.

Like, after the third inning, we got the lead, 3-1.

And then a couple innings later, we blew it out.

First pitch to Harris is driven into left field this one's pretty well hit at the wall turning around see you later kiss it goodbye it's out of here a three-run shot for chase harris and the explorers extend their lead to 9-2

we have a big enough lead they want me to get my pitches in go as long as i can to help uh save the bullpen And so that's kind of where my mind was.

Okay, let's just pitch outs.

3-2 count.

This one is a slow roller on to first base.

Nakowski picks it up.

He'll step on the bag himself.

Four out number three.

Three up, three down.

And JD Schulten is through five complete innings.

And the crowd was really getting into it.

They're like, if a guy got on base, they were yelling 6-4-3 or 4-6-3, depending on right or left hitter.

4-6-3.

And the fans are chanting 4-6-3.

A double play chance.

Right, exactly.

And like, just when we get two strikes on the guy, like, like, the crowd was get crazy.

And like, it was the crowd was awesome that night.

And this one's ripped over to John Negowski, picks it up off a hop, steps on the bag himself.

That's out number three.

The X's able to do another

shutout inning as JD Schulton, the Iowa state representative,

just continuing to shove right now for the Explorers.

Six innings, just two runs allowed for the 44-year-old.

But the good news is that you get into the seventh inning.

Yeah.

It's remarkable.

I mean, this is objectively impressive at any level of baseball, let alone one that is harder than I think maybe the brand label would indicate.

But you've thrown 100 pitches.

You're two outs into the seventh at this point.

And Mongo, Mongo makes another call.

I've been involved with professional baseball since I've been 19 years old.

So we're looking at, you know, know, 31, 32 years.

And going into that game, I didn't know if this was going to be a one-time thing or if this was going to be a two-time thing.

You know, basically, hey, get me through until my guy can come back and

rejoin the team.

Him being from Sioux City, but wanted to make sure he got his ovation.

Said, I'm going to walk out and talk to him.

And he goes, you deserve.

to get recognized and to get an ovation.

And he goes, now you can either go get this last out, but then then you'll have to pitch to at least one better in the eighth, or

uh, you can go out now.

And like, the competitor in me is like, let's go, let's do this.

And then, but then I was like, you know what?

Uh, I'm 44, I'm beer and a half in, uh, my legs are pretty tired.

Just had a bunch of my ex-girlfriends' beans.

Yeah,

and uh, let's let's call it a day.

He's getting high fives all around as he'll make his walk back to the exes dugout.

And man, the night that was never expected is over for jd shulton but what a performance

the crowd just gave me a standing ovation one of the most emotional moments of my life i would say just because

how much like this town means to me you know i get to not only represent it at the capitol i get to represent it with our uniform across my chest saying sioux city and to have all these people that i i've either grew up with or know through different avenues to just be there and be so supportive.

It just, I will never forget that night and that standing ovation.

But the thing about J.D.

Schulton's pro baseball renaissance is that it isn't simply about that one magical night and that standing ovation.

Because JD, it turns out, has now made four starts for Sioux City in the month of July, and the dude has been a $1,400 revelation.

He's had three wins, no losses, and an impressive 2.82 ERA.

At age 44, he is pitching better than he ever has in his life.

And yet pitching is just the beginning of why I wanted to talk to Little Sexy, as I will now continue to insist on branding him.

Because this juncture in American politics has been, if nothing else, a reminder.

A reminder of how we all hunger for elected officials who hunger for something other than money and power.

And as we kept talking, it became clear to me that JD is not like most elected officials from either party.

And that I also had zero idea how the guy balances all of the jobs he has.

The state legislature is January until April or May.

So

if I were to join the team at the beginning of the season, then there might have been a little bit of overlap.

But now it's this time of year.

There's meetings and different things, but we're mostly focused on the re-election.

Now, the one thing that really

like put in a wrinkle for the next start is the fact that we had some major flooding here and people in my district were impacted by it.

And so the second start was up in Fargo and I couldn't travel with the guys because I had meetings to help make sure our flood victims got the resources they needed.

And so we are a part-time legislature too.

So that means I also have a day job to go along with all this.

Wait, what is your day job?

It was working at a law firm, Cunio Gilbert, and Leduca.

But

not just because of baseball reason, there's a lot of different things.

And like, I loved working for them, but I did put in my two weeks.

Oh, wow.

And so I thought with the election coming up and like, I've made the rotation at this point.

I think I was like, okay, I'll try and find another job.

But like right now, I just need to calm some things.

And so I stepped away from that.

And so definitely banking on that $1,400 a month.

I was going to say, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I just want to also remind everybody how and why you got into politics, because it wasn't obvious, it seems, like you would be trying to do all of the things you're doing today.

I mean, as a Democrat, I think the 2016 election influenced a lot of people.

I was living out of state and my biggest inspiration in my life was my grandmother.

And she was a fifth grade teacher, wonderful woman.

When I was playing professional baseball previously, my offseasons, I tend to take care of her and live with her.

And we got to be very, very close.

And she wasn't doing that well.

And the last thing she said before she passed was, you need to move back to Iowa and you need to take care of our farm.

And we rent our farm out to a family friend.

I'm first generation to be raised in town.

So like I wasn't hopping on the combine anytime soon.

But it made an impact because when she passed away, I gave the eulogy and it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

A month after that was the inauguration.

And the next day I'm in Seattle and I went to the women's march.

And I was just so blown away by the raw power and energy of that day.

I was like, I need to do more.

I had a very comfortable life, but I needed to get uncomfortable and do something.

And one of the things I did was I called my folks and I told them.

It was a weird call because I go, I got news and they go, we have news for you too.

You go first.

I go, well, I'm moving home.

And there's just a long pause.

And they said, we're moving to Minnesota.

So I ended up buying my childhood home for my parents.

And that snowballed into running for Congress against Steve King.

When you see the polls and how frustrated people are with folks in D.C.,

it's bizarre that they keep on getting reelected.

And

well, Congressman King did run on term limits when he first ran.

And I'm trying to hold him to that by allowing him only to be at eight terms.

For people who are not familiar with Steve King, this man is maybe the most famous Iowa politician because he's an institution unto himself.

I mean, this is a longtime far-right, hardcore conservative.

Like the quote that comes to mind, I mean, he tweeted under his own name, quote, we cannot restore our civilization with somebody else's babies.

Yeah.

That was like just one of the things.

Yeah, like he was very close with Victor Orban before anybody else, the fascist president of Hungary.

And then famously in the 2018 campaign, it came out that he went on a Holocaust trip and then took a side trip to meet with neo-Nazis in Hungary while he was over there.

Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King is facing widespread criticism for retweeting a Nazi sympathizer.

British white supremacist Mark Collette tweeted a screenshot of a story from conservative news site Breitbart regarding mass migrations to Italy.

He included the caption, Europe is waking up.

Representative King then shared the post, writing, Europe is waking up.

up.

Will America end time?

I mean, there's the whole racist side of him and all that, which is awful.

But then there's this whole other side where he wasn't doing anything for the district other than giving it a bad name.

And he wasn't doing the work that a member of Congress should do.

And that's the disconnect of a lot of it.

And so Trump won my district by 27 points.

King won by 20 every time, except for one.

And that's when I was like, you know,

I'm going to try and just do something different.

And all I wanted to do was raise enough money to get a used Winnebago RV because they're made in the district, throw my logo on the side and go non-stop.

This is our third 39-county tour.

We're doing 39 counties, 39 town halls, getting out there to the people.

And we call it the Camp Fake Showing Up Tour.

Until the last about month of the campaign, I was driving that thing everywhere.

I would joke, but it was true.

I spent more nights in a Walmart parking lot than I did in my own bed.

But like, i was willing to put like that those six or 16 17 months of my life on hold because i was so passionate about what i was trying to do and in order to win in a in a very difficult seat like that that that's what you have to do what i'm realizing is that you were quite literally doing retail politics You were in the parking lot of a Walmart and going to meet and greet Iowans in a state that, I mean, again, Iowa is famous for anything, is famous for how important it is to go out and meet people and travel around.

This is the, its position in American politics is that, if nothing else.

And that's the thing.

When you go out and talk to people and just stop into places, like if you lead with the fact that you're a Democrat, you're going nowhere.

But if you just lead with these conversations you have and talking about how

you meet some farmers having coffee around their

diner, you stop in and you start talking about how they're getting squeezed between the input and the market side of their economy and and they relate and they're like yes i mean it was a lot and a lot of work it was 15 months to build to that last month and we got lightning in the bottle then and

um it was one of those things we got all this national attention uh there was a poll that showed we were within one In another hotly contested congressional race in Iowa, Republican Steve King took the lead over Democrat J.D.

Schulton with 50% of the vote to 47%.

King claimed victory in the race last night in Sioux City, and he told them he's not going to tolerate name-calling when he heads back to Congress.

Ultimately, to come within three percentage points of beating the aforementioned Steve King, which was eye-opening.

Again, it was a victory

in an election that sorely needed more of them, but it was optimism.

And so, you know, it gets to the point where like you become a character that now, okay, the national picture is beginning to recognize.

You run for Congress again in 2020.

I remember seeing a photo of you.

You're at the Iowa State Fair holding a giant minion.

So this is where

I would say the baseball has.

starts getting picked up again because at that time i hadn't picked up a ball in years and they had a radar gun and so my staff was kind of egging me on, like, hey, let's see what you got.

And those things are a little bit rigged too.

So I don't know if what it was, but I hit over 80.

And so I got the big prize or whatever.

And

I picked the life-size minion.

Now, at the same time, about a month into COVID, I went, I probably had a few too many whiskeys that night.

And I went on a Saturday night and I went down a rabbit hole on YouTube on pitching mechanics.

That's how much of a nerd I am.

I love it.

Wait, you're like, you're like finding like uh

pitching ninja like drive line absolutely oh man i wake up and and i was like i'm gonna buy a net and a couple dozen balls and that's where it started and then i was like okay if i hit 80 at the state fair then My goal is to hit 87.

So work on it all summer and hit 87 in August.

And so again, the world was shut down.

We didn't have a state fair.

So I went to a baseball academy in Des Moines that a friend had, and it took 60 pitches, but I hit 87.

And then, from there, the next year, then I started playing ball again in 2021.

Well, I would say that this is all like a very on-the-nose Kevin Costner screenplay.

But before I say that, I should point out that Kevin Costner actually did narrate one of your 2020 political campaign ads.

It is here

Among the rolling hills,

along the endless road,

in the wind.

My campaign ads, both from 2018 and then the 2020, we did a field of dreams kind of knockoff, I think it won awards.

It was beautiful.

And then when I decided to run again,

somehow my media firm, which is Wynne Media, shout out to them.

They got Kevin Costner to do the voiceover.

And I mean, was just breathtaking.

It is here,

rooted within us.

Within him.

It still gives me chills.

So you go from that, all of that, to you finally get elected to the House.

This is now the state legislature in 2022.

It's District 1.

You run unopposed.

And simultaneous to this, I want to point out, it sounds like, JD, you've been working on your pitching for what sounds like mental health slash physical upkeep reasons.

Like, how would you describe your ambitions as you're also entering the state legislature?

Definitely, but also I've had this feeling since I left the game in my 30s that there was more.

And I always knew like there's just, if I had more consistent mechanics, then I could do a couple more things.

And now, like,

that's, I think the the root of it all is that I still couldn't, like, I was so disappointed in that I wasn't a better pitcher back then.

And that's the thing that to me just has kept me motivated.

And like

nine times out of 10, if this happens, if we relive this or whatever, I still work my tail off.

And I wasn't training for this or was to do this, but like,

I was just training it for myself.

And I feel like when you're honest and true to yourself and always try to better yourself, that's that's when you put yourself in positions to have that good luck.

Um, and that's, I think, an old Thomas Jefferson quote saying, The harder I work, the luckier I get.

And that's that's uh, both politically and in baseball, that's where my mindset has been the past few years.

The landscape that you're entering politically, just to reaffirm the degree to which this is a Republican institution historically.

I mean, it's a it's it's the governor, the attorney general, both chambers of the house, right?

Like, this is how every federal,

every statewide, other than our state auditor, is Republican.

Every member of Congress, every senator, right now.

But like growing up, it was not that.

We were proudly purple.

We had almost four decades of Tom Harkin being the Democrat senator and Grassley being the Republican senator.

And that's the Iowa I know.

And that's the Iowa I'm striving to get back.

Right, because the Iowa that I have sort of been monitoring as a person, again, trying to parse the, and this is an overused word, but I use it because I'm in it, the largely dystopian political scene.

You know, it's a legislative body, the one that you now serve in that tried this past session to legally redefine the words sex and male and female to exclude, to discriminate against trans people, intersex people.

It's a laboratory, it sounds like for some of the worst political instincts that you are seemingly

trying to fight against.

Yeah, I call it punch down politics.

I mean, that's what it is.

They're just, they're trying to find a group just to knock them down for no no reason other than to bully.

And so that's, that goes into more of my bigger message.

I mentioned I'm kind of an anti-monopoly person.

That, that's just protecting working class people from the bully corporations.

It's protecting trans kids from bully politicians.

It's protecting women's rights from, again, bully politicians.

And to me, like,

it's not the Iowa I grew up in.

And that's why I'm so passionate about fighting for it to come back to where we were.

Let's talk about the other JD who's in the news these days for political reasons.

JD Vance, for people who are not familiar, what's interesting about your entire philosophy here is that it is, in other words, a populist one.

And yet JD Vance is all of the time, along with Donald Trump on that ticket, selling populism as their core identity.

And that makes you, as guy in Iowa, making $1,400 a month playing professional baseball.

How does that land with you?

I mean, it's a faux populism.

You know, it's not populism when you give and you say the one thing that Trump did during his presidency was give tax breaks to the super wealthy and huge corporations.

That's not populism.

Populism is putting FTC Lena Khan

as chair of the FTC and the work that she's doing.

Populism is having a strong antitrust division at the DOJ on the work that Jonathan Cantor is doing.

Like that's populism helping out folks, everyday folks, whether it's junk fees, whether it's the price of insulin,

all these things that just help everyday Americans.

And

like to me, there's two things that I cannot stand in politics.

The first one is the fact that we're the wealthiest country in the world and we don't have universal health care.

Like when I was playing Minor League Ball before, like when I was in my 20s, I was my like prime body shape and everything like that.

In the offseason, I had to decide to pay either pay rent or my health insurance.

And so, there was times I would not have health insurance.

My mom doesn't want to hear that, but that's the reality.

And so many Americans are like that, you know.

And it's only gotten exceedingly worse since I was that age.

But the thing that I think is the exact point of what's wrong in politics is this: it's the fact that the maximum that you can donate to a federal candidate is right now, I think it's $3,300.

When I was running in 2018, it was $2,800.

And so it rises with inflation, but the minimum wage stays at $7.25

and has been that way for 15 years.

Like that is insane.

That,

okay, when it comes to giving campaigns money, it rises with inflation.

But the fact that the minimum wage is $7.25, that's nuts to me.

The other jd um and i think about stuff he has said on the record before i can't stomach trump i think that he's noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place he's comparing him to an opioid which is a a fraught metaphor with great resonance across the working class of the united states and now i mean you watch the rnc and he says effectively the exact opposite that he is a champion of the working man for the last eight years, President Trump has given everything he has to fight for the people of our country.

And I just want to, again, for people who are

not fluent in the way that money and politics is tilting right now, the people in Silicon Valley, the tech billionaires, the Elon Musks, the Peter Thiels, the David Sachses,

they are the people funding the quote-unquote populism

that is being worn as a costume, effectively.

It's the best return on investment they can have right now is to invest in Republican politicians to do their dirty work for them.

We're seeing that at the state level.

We're seeing that at the national level.

And like, I think COVID put a big spotlight on a lot of this stuff.

You have meat packing workers working in dangerous conditions.

You have farmers being squeezed on the input and market side.

You had consumers paying the most they ever have for meat.

Meanwhile, you have all those corporations, the four corporations that control 85% of the beef industry or 70% of the pork or similar to the chicken, all of them came out with record or near-record profits at that time as well.

Meanwhile, more foreign entities are buying up farmland in this country.

It's larger than the size of the state of Ohio.

And you have J.D.

Advance, when he was a venture capitalist, and he invested in in one of the main companies that is doing all this bidding for this investment of buying farmland.

So like for him to come out and say like he's this isolationist or doesn't want like the global impact and all this stuff.

Well,

let's see the receipts.

And what the receipts are is that like he just did it to make money.

He'll say what you want to hear.

That's that's a politician.

Like JD Vance is just will say whatever just so he can get ahead.

And like, that's the type of crap that I hate in politics.

And that's why, like, I don't even like politics.

I do it because I'm passionate about it.

Like, I would love to just play baseball.

I would love just to have a job.

And like, I'm so envious of so many of my teammates who just don't follow politics,

you know.

But at the end of the day, like, I've seen behind the curtain and

that's the thing that fires me up.

And that's why I continue to do this.

So I do want to point out that

since that debut appearance you had,

that fateful day over Independence D again, it's all very, it's just a cliche, JD.

It was Independence Day weekend.

Also, I'm just like, come on, what are we doing here?

But since then,

it's continued.

I mean, you just had another start, you know, got into the sixth inning, two earns, 79 pitches, 53 strikes, two walks, three strikeouts again.

Round balls and standing ovations feels to be the JD Shulton story for Sioux City.

And meanwhile,

you know, have people talked to you about like the national stage since all of this?

Because I've been seeing on Twitter, just again, it's Twitter, there are people who are unironically saying like, hey, this dude, again, there are many, many names in the vice presidential hat right now, but they're like,

this guy.

And so how does that make you feel when you are also being, you know, just discussed in these terms that, that maybe are

a lot to process along with everybody else?

I mean, if I were to become VP candidate, and this is more of a joke, so to take that, just to be very, very clear,

it'll take away from what I'm looking forward to as one of the greatest months of my life, being on the road playing minor league ball again after all these years.

So,

no, I mean, I.

it, you know, I get a lot of run for governor here, run for senate and different things like that.

And I mean, I'll be honest, I have talked to some members of Congress and about the congressional baseball team as well.

Oh, my God.

Right.

I don't have political ambition.

That's, that's the thing.

Like, I just hated Steve King.

And that's, that's how all this started.

And here I am a few years later.

And,

you know, I'm passionate.

I feel like being a state representative, I feel is a huge honor and get to represent Sioux City, the place that I love, huge honor.

Don't get me wrong.

But at the end of the day, like, if I never run for anything bigger than just this seat, I'm okay with that.

Like, I don't have, like, I'm not a JD Vance.

I'm a JD School.

Like, I'm comfortable in my own skin and where I'm at.

But unlike Joe Biden, it sounds like.

You are maybe on pace to continue to break records for the oldest guy in your profession to keep winning.

And the all-time list has ahead of you guys like Satchel Page at age 59, Jamie Moyer at 49.

The record belongs to Bill Lee, I should point out, the San Rafael Pacific, 65 years old.

So I guess what I'm really saying is, as you try to diplomatically establish what you're really after here,

are you going to break that record, J.D.

Shelton?

Oh, I mean, that's 20 years away, isn't it?

Like 21.

How old was he?

65.

65.

Oh, my goodness.

That's that's impressive.

I have no idea how much longer my body can hold up or any of this.

So like, I am so appreciative just to be on the mound.

And like these mounds are so nice.

Swing it away, guys.

See you later.

It's just the little things I appreciate now.

And just focusing with the Sioux City Explorers this next month.

I'm very much looking forward to this next month.

Yeah.

JD Shulton, thank you for currently

being the old guy refusing to give up.

It's an honor.

And for more from J.D.

Schulton, by the way, you can subscribe to his sub stack, because of course the guy is a substack.

It's at screwed.substack.com.

And the title is, You're Probably Getting Screwed.

It's a newsletter about, quote, how we are living in the second gilded age where economic concentration works for a few, but leaves the majority of us behind.

This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out, a Meadowlark Media production.

And I'll talk to you next time.