Welcome to the Dispatch podcast. This is Declan Garvey, editor of the Morning Dispatch, and today we're talking to Alan Fung.

Fung spent 12 years as the mayor of Cranston, the second biggest city in Rhode Island, and is currently running for one of the state's two congressional seats.

Axios recently labeled him the GOP's most moderate candidate this cycle, and if he wins, he'll be the first Republican to represent Rhode Island in Congress in nearly two decades.

I spoke with Fung on Wednesday morning about his decision to run for Congress, what he'd like to see happen in a GOP-controlled house, and why he thinks so-called Rockefeller Republicans have struggled so much in recent years.

He was very much in campaign mode, so make of that what you will, but I thought it'd be interesting to talk to him and look forward to hearing what you all think.

Alan, thank you so much for joining us on the Dispatch podcast.

Thanks for having me, Alan Declan. You've run a lot of political campaigns in your life serving as mayor of Cranston for 12 years.

You were Rhode Island's Republican Goobin atorial nominee in 2014-2018, but this is your first time running for federal office.

So what's been the biggest difference about this experience compared to your earlier races, and how do you think those experiences as mayor and as the Goobin atorial nominee have prepared you to be a member of Congress?

Well, I think what is important that I'm reminding a lot of the voters in the district as well as the people in the state of around is, you know, I've been mayor of our state second largest city for 12 years where I have the opportunity to, you know, take a city that was hurting financially, working across the aisle in a bipartisan manner to two things in a right way, and make sure that, you know, we turn the city around into one of the best cities to live in America.

And that's the record that I bring to the table. The experiences that I have of leading governing during it in the right way is what is needed right now, especially since, you know, many people in the district, many people in around, many people across the country are hurting right now, you know, hurting from the failed policies of this president Joe Biden.

And this Congress led by Nancy Pelosi that's ratcheted up spending so much that we're at 40 year record high inflation that driving up, you know, prices not just for gas, but groceries, eggs, milk, spread the essentials that everyone needs.

So, you know, as I've been out there at the doors, fairs and festivals at big events, just talking to voters, I'm listening to their stories. I want to be a voice for them down in Washington, you see, and having that experience in, you know, the win at my back, it was really helping in this campaign because it is a cost of living crisis that we're all living through.

I'm talking about those issues, unlike my opponent who wants to distract from everything else.

You know, I've talking to members of Congress over the past three or four years that I've been a journalist and I've got the sense, especially among those who have had previous executive experience, but there's a lot of frustrations moving from, you know, a mayor's position or the the gubernatorial mansion to a legislature where, you know, you have less say in and of yourself of what's getting done and kind of you have to work more collaboratively.

And get kind of frustrated with the gears of Congress grinding like that. Do you anticipate that being a kind of a frustration that you see or how do you think that you'll be able to bring your mayoral experience to Congress?

Well, that's the other thing too, because not only during that mayoral experience where I had to compromise, negotiate, whether it was with, you know, the unions that we had on a lot of collective bar agreements with the council on important legislation, but even taking a step back, you know, a lot of people forget that I served two terms on the city council as well, you know, that legislator experience where you had to, you know, sit across the aisle from individuals to judge.

And so I have that unique blend of experience at both the legislative level, governing level as a mayor, and those are the types of talents I want to take the Washington DC because where I see a real need is, you know, that balance, you know, I want to bring back that voice of that brand of New England Republicanism that's been missing for the past couple of years down to Washington DC.

And so, in the back, we don't have a single Republican, not just in Rhode Island in the federal delegation, but, you know, in all of New England and the House is, you know, a missing voice and I want to be that we birth to bring people together just like I've done in cramps and just like what I've done for Rhode Islanders.

And both your group and editorial campaigns against Gina Romando, who has spent the last year and a half as president Biden's Commerce Secretary, I noticed on your campaign agenda, you have a plank about modernizing the supply chain and that kind of stuff.

How do you think that former governor Romando has been doing in her new role?

Well, you know, one of the bills that I would have supported in that bipartisan nature is that chips act because I wholeheartedly agreed that we've got to bring back some of the chips manufacturing to our country, especially since, you know, the, you know, China Taiwan relationship is extremely rocky and dicey right now.

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