Inside Chris Messina's Election Night watch party

We also want to check in with the other candidate in that race. That's Chris Messina and Fox 35's Matt Trezza joining us live from that watch party. Matt, how are things there this evening? Yeah, it's definitely upbeat here at the watch party for Chris Messina. And I'm here with the man himself to get his thoughts. So tell me, how are you feeling right now? We're cautiously optimistic. We're waiting for the precincts to come in. We knew that we'd be a bit behind after the mail-in votes came in and early voting because that was all front-end loaded by my competition. But we're cautiously optimistic and we're just excited. We're people of faith, so I'm just trusting God with the outcome. I think it's fair to say that you're a more conservative voice in this contest, and Orange County, heavily blue. Do you feel like an underdog? If not, why not? Tell me what your thoughts are. We've always been an underdog. We've had one-tenth the funding of the other candidates. We have no special interests backing us. We're backed by small business owners, retired people, tradespeople, and students. So, you know, even in this current round, we have one-sixth of the capital of our opponent. So there's a lot of special interest backing her, and we're backed by the people. And so we're hopeful that the people will carry us through to a successful finish. Tell me what this campaign's been like for you. It's been really gratifying because... Because we've really had a chance to talk with the voters and understand their concerns and think about ways to address problems that don't require taking more money out of their pocket. And so we've gotten a great response from... The average voter who's tired of paying so much and really getting relatively little in terms of support for educational opportunities, public safety, quality of life, infrastructure improvements and so those are all things that we're really focused on improving. You've run for Orange County Mayor before. If things don't go your way tonight, where do things go for you from here? You know, I have a wonderful family. I've had a great business career, and so there are plenty of other options for me. And, you know, you never say never, but for me, I think two shots will be... Yeah, we'll be enough, but I won't rule anything out at this point, but we're hoping and trusting God and our team that we'll win, and if for whatever reason that doesn't happen, then I have plenty of other options, and I really need to spend, I haven't spent as much time as I'd like with my family, which, you know, are my... just are my... We're partners in life, and incredible. Let me give you this one last question, which is, you are involved in a lot of things here at Orange County. You have philanthropy work that you do, you work with local nonprofits. Is there anywhere where you think you might want to focus your efforts going forward if things don't turn out the way you hoped? You know, that's a question I'll address, you know, kind of afterwards. But one thing I'm glad to see is it looks like Amendment 3 is going to move forward. And I think that's incredibly important that we stop taking so much money from our taxpayers and giving them relatively little in return. So, yeah, that's my focus. On that topic on Amendment 3, while I've got you, I have spoken with political leaders. The mayor of Oviedo, for example, she said, Well, if Amendment 3 doesn't pass, we may just have to go ahead and raise the millage rate, which overall just kind of negates the whole purpose of it. I mean, do you worry that municipalities might go that route? I think that's a very wrong-sided approach, and it's also very insensitive. It's insensitive to what's going on with our voters. They're struggling with... With affordability, with financial challenges, and we have to give some relief to our voters. They deserve it, they need it, and it's incumbent on us to do that. Excellent. I appreciate your insight. Thank you so much for speaking with me. Thank you so much. Best of luck tonight, and that's how things are looking here with the Messina campaign. Garrett, I'm going to send it back to you.