Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds. We're on vacation this week, but that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean we don't have an amazing show for you. Today,
Speaker 1: Florida House Representative Anna Eskimani talks to us about the
Speaker 1: realities of living in desantiss Fascist, Florida. But first we
Speaker 1: have Ken Martin, the chairperson of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer
Speaker 1: Labor Party. Welcome to Fast Politics, Ken.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having me. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1: We're delighted to have you. Tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about what your title is, what you do, and how
Speaker 1: you got this job.
Speaker 3: Well, my day job, so to speak, is as the
Speaker 3: chair of the Minnesota DFL, which I've served in for
Speaker 3: the last thirteen years. I also serve as the president
Speaker 3: of the Association of State Democratic Committees, which I've served
Speaker 3: in since twenty seventeen, as well as a vice chair
Speaker 3: of the Democrat National Committee.
Speaker 2: You know, I'll tell you in terms of the day job.
Speaker 3: My paying job as chair of the DFL thirteen years
Speaker 3: ago after helping to elect Governor Dayton as he's handing
Speaker 3: out great jobs in the administration. He asked me to
Speaker 3: come over and be party chair. My first response was, held, I.
Speaker 2: Want a job.
Speaker 3: You know, no one really aspires to these types of positions.
Speaker 3: In fact, I'd spent most of my career working on campaigns,
Speaker 3: running presidential campaigns here Minnesota to US Senate, gubernatorial, congressional.
Speaker 2: Et cetera.
Speaker 3: And you know, again, never thought about coming over to
Speaker 3: do this important work. But Governor Dateon asked me to
Speaker 3: do it. I said, hell no. I went back to
Speaker 3: my wife at the time, who's still my wife, I
Speaker 3: should say. I went back to her and she said, look,
Speaker 3: you just told the incoming governor. Know you better to
Speaker 3: get back and tell him. Yes, I will tell you.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I immediately came in and started to build out a
Speaker 3: ten year plan right, a sense.
Speaker 2: Of what we needed to do to rebuild.
Speaker 3: And I never thought I'd still be here after those
Speaker 3: ten years, or even up to those ten years. I
Speaker 3: thought it was going to be a quick sort of
Speaker 3: two year gig. And here I am, I'm still doing this.
Speaker 1: You are still doing this, but you're doing it quite well.
Speaker 1: And I mean we have had other state party chairs
Speaker 1: on from Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: We love ben Ricklair. Yes, the words, Yeah.
Speaker 1: The best. So I was curious. This seems like, or
Speaker 1: at least we're hoping, this is sort of a new
Speaker 1: generation of state chairs who really understand the stakes. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I think every state party understands the stakes and
Speaker 3: have for years. The reality what we're seeing now is
Speaker 3: people within the ecosystem understand the importance of state parties and.
Speaker 2: That hasn't been there in some time.
Speaker 3: And the reality is is state parties are probably one
Speaker 3: of the most important pieces of the infrastructure that is also,
Speaker 3: at the same time one of the most forgotten and
Speaker 3: underfunded and under resourced. And the fact of the matter
Speaker 3: is this is, you know, when you think about the
Speaker 3: democratic ecosystem, state parties are the one entity, or one
Speaker 3: of the few entities that's really focused on building long lasting,
Speaker 3: endurable political infrastructure. Most of the committees, and one of
Speaker 3: my complaints about the committees in DC is that they
Speaker 3: are myopically focused on just this upcoming election. And that's
Speaker 3: true of the DNC as well, and I will say that,
Speaker 3: you know, that's been to their own detriment in peril
Speaker 3: just focusing on this upcoming election. You know, Wayne Gretzky
Speaker 3: a famous hockey player.
Speaker 1: And I may not know a lot about sports, but
Speaker 1: I do know who Wayne Gretzky is.
Speaker 3: There you go well as a Minnesota and I have
Speaker 3: to use some sort of hockey analogy here, But what
Speaker 3: you know, he said famously once is that you have
Speaker 3: to skate to where the puck will be, and not
Speaker 3: where the puck is.
Speaker 2: And that's really what state parties have to do.
Speaker 3: We have to have an eye not only on this
Speaker 3: upcoming election cycle but future election cycles, but really are
Speaker 3: superpower within the ecosystem. And the one thing we do
Speaker 3: that no one else can do is that we are
Speaker 3: uniquely situated to raise both soft dollars and hard dollars,
Speaker 3: co mingle those together and coordinate directly with our candidates
Speaker 3: and build campaigns around that. And there's no other entity
Speaker 3: for pack, no national committee, no independent expenditure group that
Speaker 3: can do what state parties can do. And so I
Speaker 3: think folks are starting to realize now that you know,
Speaker 3: in the past where they would steal from Peter to
Speaker 3: pay Paul, that they can't do that anymore.
Speaker 2: They have to do both.
Speaker 3: They have to make sure that the candidate campaigns are
Speaker 3: independent and expenditure groups and state parties are well funded
Speaker 3: and equally funded so we can win.
Speaker 1: So what does that look like.
Speaker 3: Well, I think there's a lot of different ways that looks.
Speaker 3: And let me be very clear, there's no one way
Speaker 3: to run a state party. Every state is uniquely different
Speaker 3: with different set of a sort of cultural electoral expectations.
Speaker 3: The reality is is every state has unique challenges and opportunities.
Speaker 3: But what I would say is, you know, clearly the
Speaker 3: Minnesota DFL is probably, if not one of the strongest
Speaker 3: state parties, the strongest state party in the nation. And
Speaker 3: people look to this as a model, including Ben Wickler,
Speaker 3: who spent a lot of time over here before he
Speaker 3: was elected, learning from what we've been able to.
Speaker 2: Do successfully here in this state.
Speaker 3: And so you know, for us, it is an understanding
Speaker 3: that you know, it's a three legged stool. You need
Speaker 3: well funded and good candidate campaigns. You need a very robust,
Speaker 3: well developed and thought out independent expenditure side of the equation,
Speaker 3: and then you need a strong state party, which is
Speaker 3: by the way, when Governor Dayton asked me to come
Speaker 3: and do this, why I decided to do it because
Speaker 3: we didn't have a strong party went into that twenty
Speaker 3: ten election cycle. And so since I've been elected, we
Speaker 3: haven't lost a state wide election. We've won two triflectors.
Speaker 3: You know, we've won a lot more than we've lost.
Speaker 3: And we've built a permanent and durable infrastructure that are
Speaker 3: candidates and progressive organizations on the ground here rely on.
Speaker 3: And that's ultimately, I think what we need every state
Speaker 3: party to be doing, which is to build an organization
Speaker 3: that serves as a center of gravity within each of
Speaker 3: their states of driving electoral strategy and providing value and
Speaker 3: service to all of our progressive partners and stakeholders in
Speaker 3: each of our states.
Speaker 2: And we're certainly doing that here.
Speaker 3: I've been very grateful to be able to do this
Speaker 3: work and to build it the way we have. But again,
Speaker 3: you know, it's not possible in every state, but it
Speaker 3: needs to be.
Speaker 1: Some of the stuff you're doing is pretty amazing in
Speaker 1: the state. Can you explain to us about some of
Speaker 1: the more progressive stuff that's happening in Minnesota.
Speaker 2: Well, there's a lot.
Speaker 3: And look, there's been no state in the country that's
Speaker 3: used the power that they had in this last legislative
Speaker 3: session to pass an agena that's working for their state
Speaker 3: like Minnesota has and you know, I would say this
Speaker 3: one of the things that I was most disappointed and
Speaker 3: ten years ago on the last trifecta, was that there
Speaker 3: was so much that was left on the cutting room floor.
Speaker 2: Right, my older agent politics.
Speaker 3: Now and someone who's been doing this since the early
Speaker 3: nineties when I started with Paul Wellstoney, is that you know,
Speaker 3: this really isn't about candidates. It's not even frankly about
Speaker 3: our party anymore. It's about our values. Issues we care
Speaker 3: deeply about. Those are on the ballot every single Psycleary election.
Speaker 3: And what has been disappointing to me over the years
Speaker 3: is when we work our tails off to get people
Speaker 3: elected office in our party and then of course tho
Speaker 3: so books disappoint you because they're moving so slowly and
Speaker 3: not using the power that they have when they have
Speaker 3: it to make the biggest difference they can. And you know,
Speaker 3: shortly after the election in November or this past November,
Speaker 3: I sat down with the legislative leaders and the governor
Speaker 3: and all of us agree that there's been such a pent.
Speaker 2: Up demand for action in this state. We were one
Speaker 2: of the.
Speaker 3: Few divided legislatures in the nation, as you remember, and
Speaker 3: there was such a pent up demand to actually break
Speaker 3: through a lot of the gridlock that the Republicans created
Speaker 3: and get something done, and that we had to I
Speaker 3: wouldn't even say throw caution to the wind, but we
Speaker 3: had to move. We had to use the power we had,
Speaker 3: and we had to be bold about that. And that's
Speaker 3: what our elected officials did. I mean, I want you
Speaker 3: to think about this. We passd the Paid Family in
Speaker 3: Medical Leave Bill, which is the largest paid family in
Speaker 3: medical leave in the nation, twenty weeks of paid leave.
Speaker 3: We have the largest child tax credit in the nation
Speaker 3: right now, which will cut childhood poverty by a third
Speaker 3: in our state, Free college for low income families, free
Speaker 3: school meals for all Minnesota children, three billion dollars worth
Speaker 3: of tax cuts for working families and low wealth communities,
Speaker 3: the largest investment ever in our school system over four
Speaker 3: billion dollars over the next four years. Got significant gun
Speaker 3: violence prevention measures that passed.
Speaker 2: We codified abortion.
Speaker 1: Right, transgender rights.
Speaker 2: Protection, carbon free energy by twenty forty.
Speaker 1: Driver's license for undocumented, restoration of voting rights.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, we made Juneteenth the state holiday.
Speaker 3: We banned conversion therapy. We've legalized adult use cannabis. I mean,
Speaker 3: you can go down the list of things that were
Speaker 3: accomplished here, automatic voter registration.
Speaker 2: There's so much that was done right.
Speaker 1: One billion dollar investment, affordable has in.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: It's funny you're listing some of these because in some
Speaker 3: ways a governor and I were just sort of laughing
Speaker 3: the other day because you oftentimes forget all the things
Speaker 3: we did. Open scale of it is just tremendous. And
Speaker 3: really what drove that, to be honest with you, was
Speaker 3: a not only an alignment amongst our legislative leaders and
Speaker 3: our rank and file legislators, but frankly, this again, this
Speaker 3: notion that power is fleeting and if we don't now
Speaker 3: in new years, we could be out of power and
Speaker 3: have missed the opportunity. And I don't say this in
Speaker 3: a cavalier way, but sometimes if you lose, you still win.
Speaker 3: And that's something I said, which is if we lose
Speaker 3: because we passed all this legislation, which by the way,
Speaker 3: I don't think we will, but if we lose, we
Speaker 3: still win because generations of Minnesota's are going to feel
Speaker 3: the positive impacts of this legislation for years to come.
Speaker 1: In should you be talking to National Democrats.
Speaker 2: I do all the time. I'm a vice nial the DNC.
Speaker 1: So you know, we're in June July, which are the peak.
Speaker 1: You know, will have just finished all of these insane
Speaker 1: Supreme Court decisions, many of which were not as insane
Speaker 1: as they could have been, but still quite out of
Speaker 1: what everybody seems to want it? Does hearing you say
Speaker 1: this teams really relevant, especially because there's such anxiety about
Speaker 1: Democrats messing with the courts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, let me just say this.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, clearly I would say President Biden
Speaker 3: and Vice President Harris also have taken the same sort
Speaker 3: of zeal to their work. Right, There's been no president
Speaker 3: president who's done more in their first two and a
Speaker 3: half years in terms of legislation and significant legislation passing
Speaker 3: and improve people's lives and than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Speaker 3: So I think Americans overall are just frustrated with inauthentic
Speaker 3: politicians who promised them the world and then get into
Speaker 3: office and don't do anything to really push to deliver
Speaker 3: on that.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm often reminded of my friend and
Speaker 3: mentor Paul Wellstone, who people Minnesota didn't agree with him
Speaker 3: on every issue, but one of the reasons they supported
Speaker 3: him is because he always stood up and fought for
Speaker 3: what he believed in. Right, even when they disagreed with
Speaker 3: them on those issues, they gave him the benefit of
Speaker 3: the doubt because they knew that he believed in what
Speaker 3: he was doing and he was willing to fight for it.
Speaker 3: And that's what people are starting to see with the
Speaker 3: Democratic Party again, right president and vice president who are
Speaker 3: standing up and willing to fight for what they believe in.
Speaker 3: And here in Minnesota a governor and our legislative leaders
Speaker 3: and others who are willing to stand up and fight
Speaker 3: and use the power they have to actually help make
Speaker 3: a difference in communities throughout this state. I think in
Speaker 3: the end that's so not only the right thing to
Speaker 3: do right, it's always the right time to do the
Speaker 3: right thing, but it's also politically the right thing to do.
Speaker 3: I think we will win because we're actually making a
Speaker 3: difference in people's lives.
Speaker 1: So I want to ask you about this carbon free
Speaker 1: electrical grid. Hottest summer ever. It's June, and Texas and
Speaker 1: Florida are both experiencing the beginning of a malaria outbreak.
Speaker 1: Hopefully the end too, but we are having malaria in
Speaker 1: this country for the first time and whatever long time
Speaker 1: and or maybe ever. I'm not a malaria historian, but
Speaker 1: obviously there's that there's this extreme heat wave, we've got fires.
Speaker 1: You know, we can't go for walks outside I live
Speaker 1: in New York because of the air quality. So talk
Speaker 1: to me a little bit about this carbon free electric
Speaker 1: grid by twenty forty. How does that work?
Speaker 3: Well, it's really important because what you're referencing there are
Speaker 3: all symptoms of the problem we have in this world
Speaker 3: right now, which is we have had such a negligence
Speaker 3: to pollution into greenhouse gas and to climate change and
Speaker 3: aversion to actually addressing this the right way that you know,
Speaker 3: we're seeing many parts of this country becoming uninhabitable right
Speaker 3: in many parts of the world, and so there is
Speaker 3: an urgency of now, right at this moment, that we
Speaker 3: actually address this, and that requires every state to do
Speaker 3: their part right. And when I'm proud about Minnesota is that,
Speaker 3: you know, we put forward this proposal to have all
Speaker 3: of our public utilities be carbon free by twenty forty
Speaker 3: and we're well on our way to doing that.
Speaker 2: This comes on the heels of Governor Walls.
Speaker 3: Last year signing one of the largest electric vehicle requirements
Speaker 3: in the country. You know, Minnesota, of course is a
Speaker 3: climate refuge place as well, because we don't have the
Speaker 3: type of extreme weathers. Albeit our winters are pretty extreme,
Speaker 3: but we don't know the type of extreme weather patterns
Speaker 3: that other parts of the nation are having. But that
Speaker 3: doesn't mean we don't have a responsibility to be leaders
Speaker 3: on clean energy and making sure we're doing our part
Speaker 3: to address climate change in this world. And so Governor Walls,
Speaker 3: our legislative leaders made it a priority to once again lead.
Speaker 3: And you know, one thing that folks are referring to
Speaker 3: this legislative agenda Minnesota as as a Minnesota miurclob part
Speaker 3: two right and part one was really in the fifty
Speaker 3: years ago, in the early seventies, Minnesota was really leading
Speaker 3: the way on so many quality life pieces, really leading
Speaker 3: the way in terms of progressive policy. And now once again,
Speaker 3: I would say, based on the last two legislative sessions
Speaker 3: here in Minnesota, Minnesota once again is a national leader
Speaker 3: on so many different issues, including on addressed and climate
Speaker 3: change in this world.
Speaker 1: Why do you think Minnesota I mean, I live in
Speaker 1: a blue state of New York State. We don't have
Speaker 1: these kind of progressive things past. I'm a Democratic senators,
Speaker 1: democratic governor, Democratic mayor. Why do you have that? And
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: Well, I think there's a couple of pieces here. One
Speaker 3: is I think culturally Minnesota. You know, we have a
Speaker 3: lot of Scandinavians, We have a lot of folks from
Speaker 3: Eastern European countries who came over here in their late
Speaker 3: eighteen hundreds to mine in northern Minnesota.
Speaker 2: It's a very progressive state. It always has been.
Speaker 3: Even the Republican Party here over the years, not in
Speaker 3: recent years, but over the years was fairly independent and progressive.
Speaker 3: And so culturally, I think that's one thing that contributes
Speaker 3: to Minnesota being a state that's led on these issues. Right,
Speaker 3: we believe in government. We always have the highest voter
Speaker 3: turnout in the nation. Right, people participate in our civically
Speaker 3: engaged and so you start with the cultural peace. I
Speaker 3: think the second piece is and I was just talking
Speaker 3: to someone about this, because you do have long standing
Speaker 3: blue states like New York and Illinois and California as examples,
Speaker 3: who I think because they have baked in try effect
Speaker 3: as and maked in power. It's created a reverse effect
Speaker 3: of people not feeling an urgency of moving.
Speaker 2: Quickly to address these issues.
Speaker 3: And so, you know, in some ways, you know in
Speaker 3: New York, people just believe, look, we can take this
Speaker 3: up at some other point. Why do we need to
Speaker 3: ruffle people's feathers now? Why don't we take a more
Speaker 3: incremental approach on this? And that's fine. You know, our
Speaker 3: government was set up to take an incremental approach, right,
Speaker 3: that's the founders of this country structured it in such
Speaker 3: a way that you want a deliberative thought, you know.
Speaker 3: But what I would say is sometimes that sort of
Speaker 3: mentality allows gridlock to set in even in states where
Speaker 3: you have pretty well established democratic control. And I don't
Speaker 3: sense a type of urgency in a state like California
Speaker 3: or New York or Illinois like you do in a
Speaker 3: state like Minnesota.
Speaker 1: California has done a lot of really progressive stuff. Yes,
Speaker 1: and Illinois also that governor is pretty like I would
Speaker 1: say New York that we are actually sort of the
Speaker 1: least well off in that crew. And remember our state
Speaker 1: lost Democrats the House this election cycle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's a larger point about New York
Speaker 3: that is definitely distinct and unique from Illinois and California.
Speaker 3: Part of it is the role and function of the
Speaker 3: party there, right, And I've talked a lot.
Speaker 1: About this day and Jay Jacob should resign. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: I can say that because I'm an opinion writer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Here's what I would say, which is true, is
Speaker 3: that for years the Democratic Party in New York has
Speaker 3: been run out of the Capitol.
Speaker 1: In Albany, and it's been sort of fake liberal. I'm
Speaker 1: going to say that.
Speaker 3: No, I'm not going to say, But what I would
Speaker 3: say is this is that the party has been somewhat
Speaker 3: of the state. Party has been somewhat of a instead
Speaker 3: of being a center of driving electoral strategy, right, it's
Speaker 3: really beat on the sidelines trying to peek in, and
Speaker 3: so you don't have a statewide operation as a Resultually,
Speaker 3: one of the reasons you have a very strong Working
Speaker 3: Family Party and others is because that party, instead of
Speaker 3: bringing people in, has pushed people out right to try.
Speaker 2: To hold on to power.
Speaker 3: And you know, when you look at the DFL makes
Speaker 3: us unique is that the nature of the DFL, the
Speaker 3: Democratic Farmer Labor Party, right, we are a coalition party,
Speaker 3: and we believe that you win through addition, not through subtraction.
Speaker 3: And when you create a tent that's big enough for
Speaker 3: everyone's voice, guess what, you don't have people from the
Speaker 3: outside trying to take you on and challenge you. You
Speaker 3: have a zeal of working together. We are a very
Speaker 3: big tent in our state. I've got ilhan Omar in
Speaker 3: the fifth district, and i had Colin Peterson, one of
Speaker 3: the most conservative Democrats in the district over right.
Speaker 2: It's a very diverse and unique state.
Speaker 3: But one of the things we do here is we
Speaker 3: play well together because we realize this is about building
Speaker 3: power around the issues we care about, and to do that,
Speaker 3: we have to be smart and strategic, and most importantly,
Speaker 3: we have to work together.
Speaker 1: What you're saying is this is all Andrew Cuomo's fault.
Speaker 2: I am not saying that.
Speaker 3: What I am say saying is is that the party there,
Speaker 3: there's there's great upside and an opportunity right for the
Speaker 3: party to play that role.
Speaker 1: They would have to actually do it right.
Speaker 3: And some of the elected officials there don't want the
Speaker 3: party to have that much power or to be that
Speaker 3: central to the operations because they want to control it,
Speaker 3: and you know I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't blame j Jacobs or anyone necessarily.
Speaker 3: But you should, though I will say culturally, something's got
Speaker 3: to change there because it's not working.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, So Minnesota nice and I'm just
Speaker 1: New York in trying to get you to be New
Speaker 1: York mean, we're working on it. Thank you. And Eskamani
Speaker 1: is a member of the Florida House of Representatives. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Fast Politics, Anna.
Speaker 5: Thanks so much for having me. It's good to be here.
Speaker 1: Explain to our listeners who you are and what you
Speaker 1: do well.
Speaker 5: My name is Representative Ana Viskamani.
Speaker 4: I'm a State House rep here in the Sunshine State
Speaker 4: in Florida, and today I feel like the line between
Speaker 4: freedom and fastistom in our state as we've seen erosion
Speaker 4: of our democracy and laws that have stripped away our
Speaker 4: bodily autonomy and individual freedoms. But I'm border raised in
Speaker 4: Orlando and grew up as a daughter of working class immigrants.
Speaker 4: I went to public schools and University of Central Florida.
Speaker 4: I have a background and not just community organizing, but
Speaker 4: I actually worked at Planned Parenthood of Southwest Central Florida
Speaker 4: for six years. Before I ran for office. I was
Speaker 4: a planned parented patient before that. And when I made
Speaker 4: the decision to run for office as a first time candidate,
Speaker 4: I was a part of that wave of women running
Speaker 4: at twenty eighteen, and I flipped my seat from Republican
Speaker 4: to Democrat.
Speaker 5: Who've kept it that way since.
Speaker 1: So your state has been sort of like used by
Speaker 1: your governor as a kind of testing ground for all.
Speaker 1: He's sort of pansased your state past all the conservative
Speaker 1: legislation he can in order to try to run to
Speaker 1: the right of Is your state going to have a
Speaker 1: Kansas like backlash? Are you seeing that or are people
Speaker 1: unhappy with it? Or are they delighted with fascism?
Speaker 4: Well, to echo your point, you know, Florida has been
Speaker 4: grad zero for a lot of fascism, and I'm sure
Speaker 4: folks have seen the images of Nazis outside Walt Disney
Speaker 4: World and just the rise in homophobia and trisphobia. But
Speaker 4: I will say that overwhelmingly the people of Florida do
Speaker 4: not like the direction that our state is going. It's
Speaker 4: not even just on social issues, it's also on the
Speaker 4: economic issues. I mean, we have a foble housing crisis
Speaker 4: here in this state, We've seen homelessess increase dramatically, especially
Speaker 4: in our cities.
Speaker 5: We have property insurance crisis where folks can't afford.
Speaker 4: Their homes, are losing their loans because they can't afford
Speaker 4: the proper insurance rates. And of course, on top of
Speaker 4: all of that, you know, we don't see mitigation when
Speaker 4: it comes to the effects of climate change, that it
Speaker 4: comes to the exodus of educators from our schools, and
Speaker 4: so so we're starting to see, you know, more and
Speaker 4: more a political people get involved, and especially more moderate
Speaker 4: Republican voters express opposition to Destantus, especially as it pertains
Speaker 4: to corporate decision making. His attacks of what Disney Worlds
Speaker 4: have really turned off a lot of people.
Speaker 5: I mean, Disney's one of the most popular brands in
Speaker 5: this state.
Speaker 1: The happiest place on Earth right and one of the
Speaker 1: largest employers correct.
Speaker 4: And I'm someone who definitely challenges corporations, especially context of
Speaker 4: corporate greed. Like I don't raise money for corporations. I
Speaker 4: want to see corporations pay their taxes. But even I
Speaker 4: know that it's foolish to demonize and belittle and attack
Speaker 4: a company like Walt Disney World. It just does not
Speaker 4: make sense. So there are backlashes. Now, will that translate
Speaker 4: to electorate wis? That's my goal, right, I need to
Speaker 4: make sure this energy is sustained, that people ren to
Speaker 4: themselves to vote, that young people are engaged in the process,
Speaker 4: and that we see a shift in the electorate when
Speaker 4: it comes to voting. Because if we can't translate the
Speaker 4: energy in that direction, then we are going to be
Speaker 4: stuck with the SaaS quo, which at this point is
Speaker 4: a super majority Republican legislature that has no spine and
Speaker 4: advocates their responsibilities to the governor, who then uses the
Speaker 4: state for his bully pulpit to appeal to an extreme
Speaker 4: base of conservative voters in other states.
Speaker 5: And that is why Florida is where it is today.
Speaker 4: I'm committed to shifting that direction and getting us to
Speaker 4: a place of collective prosperity.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about abortion. Your state had a pretty it
Speaker 1: was restrictive, but not insanely restrictive. Desantus went in and
Speaker 1: change that. Can you talk to us about that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you got it.
Speaker 4: I mean Florida was an outlier in the South because
Speaker 4: we have a strong right privacy in our state constitution
Speaker 4: that's been there around nineteen eighty that voters approved in
Speaker 4: a bipartisan way, and then nineteen eighty nine a Spring
Speaker 4: Court case in Florida deed that right to privacy apply
Speaker 4: to abortion rights. So with that president, we were able
Speaker 4: to fight back against a nonslaught of anti abortion policies
Speaker 4: over the years. But of course, with the Kotas decision
Speaker 4: overruling Row and the ripple effect across the country has
Speaker 4: come to Florida. So our legislature has since banned abortion
Speaker 4: six weeks. That abortion ban is not effect yet because
Speaker 4: it's privy on ligation impacting the previous fifteen week abortion ban.
Speaker 4: And of course we are very concerned that due to
Speaker 4: the Spring Core United States overruling president, that our say
Speaker 4: Supreme Court will do the same, especially since they're now
Speaker 4: majority appointed by Descantus. With that said, we are on
Speaker 4: the path of codifying abortion rights and our state constitution.
Speaker 4: We can't wait for the courts to save us. We
Speaker 4: sorely can't wait for legislature to change. So we are
Speaker 4: taking this battle or astly to the voters this coming
Speaker 4: November in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: What does that look like? Taking the vote to the
Speaker 1: voters in twenty four.
Speaker 5: It's a huge grassrooms operation.
Speaker 4: We need to collect upwards of one point three million
Speaker 4: signatures and of course go through approval of the Florida.
Speaker 5: State Supreme Court.
Speaker 4: They have to look at your language and approve it
Speaker 4: to go to print, which is always an uncertain process.
Speaker 4: But we have already collected enough petitions to start that process.
Speaker 4: We've actually collected this point close to two hundred and
Speaker 4: fifty thousand petitions.
Speaker 5: And keep in mind this campaign.
Speaker 4: Only went live on May eighth, so we're doing incredibly
Speaker 4: well with huge momentum. But it's also going to cost
Speaker 4: us money, millions of dollars, not only in collecting the petitions,
Speaker 4: but then in leading a persuasive campaign to get voters
Speaker 4: to vote yes, because we have to actually reach sixty
Speaker 4: percent threshold for this to happen. Fifty percent will not
Speaker 4: be enough, and of course the legislators try to change
Speaker 4: that the sixty six percent.
Speaker 1: Of course, Republicans not so big democracy, Yes, yeah.
Speaker 5: I guess not.
Speaker 4: You know, from insurrection to you a voter suppression to
Speaker 4: make changing the goalpost.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that is a cut of theme for us in
Speaker 5: Florida too.
Speaker 4: With that said, though, we're excited for something proactive only
Speaker 4: because you know, as you've seen, especially the context of
Speaker 4: Florida the South in general, so many of our fights
Speaker 4: are defensive, right, we're fighting back against something or responding
Speaker 4: to something. This is the first time in a lot
Speaker 4: of time. Well, we're giving our community something to fight for,
Speaker 4: not again. So we're really excited about that and our
Speaker 4: full speed ahead and trying to make this a reality exactly.
Speaker 1: Think about this twenty twenty election where Ron DeSantis, he
Speaker 1: has advertised that he swept the electorate, he killed it,
Speaker 1: so to speak. But a lot of people think, including myself,
Speaker 1: that what really happened was the Democratic Party the wheels
Speaker 1: kind of came off in Florida. So can you explain
Speaker 1: to us what that looked like and why this Desanta's
Speaker 1: victory is is really not actually what he's pretending it.
Speaker 4: Is, absolutely Well, the first thing you have to realize
Speaker 4: is just the huge disparity among infrastructure and among resources.
Speaker 4: But as you noted, there really is no Democratic Party.
Speaker 4: I mean, we are the process of rebuilding, but as
Speaker 4: of the twenty twenty two cycle, no Democratic Party whatsoever.
Speaker 4: I mean, I look at you know, my district, of
Speaker 4: my neighborhoods, I mean, the only Democrats out there were
Speaker 4: part of my team, right, and of course actual process
Speaker 4: team during the primary. But really was I kind of
Speaker 4: a fend for your self environment, which is why you know,
Speaker 4: as a state house candidate, like I raised the funds,
Speaker 4: I run the campaign, we do the field, we do
Speaker 4: everything ourselves. And we saw an eleven percent greater turnout
Speaker 4: in my district compared to the rest of Orange Kint
Speaker 4: Florida because of the work and what do we put
Speaker 4: into it. But that was the case across the state
Speaker 4: of Florida. Across the state of Florida, you saw all
Speaker 4: of these hot Democratic voters, voters who typically vote during
Speaker 4: election seasons not come out.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 4: You also heard folks say, well, the only as I
Speaker 4: see are DeSantis ads, Like where all the Democrats?
Speaker 5: And the answer is there's no money, right, and candidly the.
Speaker 4: Funding deficit, I should say, the spending deficit.
Speaker 5: Right, it's not even funding.
Speaker 4: How much money was spent between the Republican Party and
Speaker 4: their political arms compared to the same infrastructure of Democrats
Speaker 4: was upwards of two hundred fifty million dollars. So in
Speaker 4: a state the size of Florida, if you have a
Speaker 4: spending deficit between you and your opponent two hundred fifty
Speaker 4: million dollars.
Speaker 5: There's just no competition, right.
Speaker 4: I also want to make sure folks know that if
Speaker 4: you were in Florida seeing the ads, DeSantis was never
Speaker 4: campaigning on banning abortion. He never campaigned on his most
Speaker 4: extreme policies. I mean, his ads were about his military background.
Speaker 4: He was taking credit for the diaper tax break, which
Speaker 4: is a Democratic bill, by the way, that's my bill.
Speaker 5: But he never.
Speaker 4: Campaigned on those extreme positions because he knows that's not
Speaker 4: popular if that's what you lead on. Right, So of
Speaker 4: course we should take responsibility for police losses, right. I mean,
Speaker 4: it is the lack of democratic infrastructure, which is ten
Speaker 4: twenty years in the making of why we're in this
Speaker 4: current situation. But I'm very hoping for the future and
Speaker 4: especially just seeing the activation where everyday people we need
Speaker 4: good leaders to plug the energy into constructive steps, and
Speaker 4: that's what I do every single day. But we definitely
Speaker 4: are trying to scale that up so other people can
Speaker 4: do the same.
Speaker 1: So you have a new head of the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: in Florida, Niki Freed. I think of like twenty twenty
Speaker 1: as a time when Florida Democrats, they made some bad choices, right.
Speaker 1: The winner of the primary was a guy who had
Speaker 1: run as a Republican, Charlie Chris, who lost, and Nicki
Speaker 1: Freed was right there, you know. But it seems in
Speaker 1: my mind like putting Nicki Freed in charge of the
Speaker 1: party in Florida was a good move.
Speaker 4: I mean, I will say it was pretty contentious is
Speaker 4: that election in general, because we had some really strong options,
Speaker 4: which is a good problem to have, right. But I'm
Speaker 4: hopeful not just with Cherylwin Freed, but also then our
Speaker 4: new executive director. He actually comes from the Trial christ campaign,
Speaker 4: because there are a lot of political spaces and he's
Speaker 4: a really smart young man, and so I'm hopeful too
Speaker 4: with that kind of combination. We can't move on from
Speaker 4: like past tensions right in the state of Florida among
Speaker 4: Democratic spaces. But I will say, like our biggest challenge,
Speaker 4: candidly art consultants. We have been a state that is
Speaker 4: so reliant on the consultant culture. Somebody's consultants they work
Speaker 4: for the other side, right, I mean, you just you
Speaker 4: have to be really thoughtful and who your vendors are
Speaker 4: and do a competitive process, not just pick your friends.
Speaker 4: And we've had a huge problem in Florida of the
Speaker 4: same consultants getting the same contracts and not winning. But
Speaker 4: they win because they get paid, right, and we just
Speaker 4: we contract out. And of course, you know when you're
Speaker 4: talking to vendors, their specialties usually communications, not field. There's
Speaker 4: also been this emphasis on ads or media and nothing
Speaker 4: on field. And if we're just not on the ground
Speaker 4: talking to voters, building relationships, regi people to vote, helping
Speaker 4: them come out to town halls and direct actions and
Speaker 4: you know, and helping them with their lives, like helping
Speaker 4: address their economic challenges. Right, if we're not doing that
Speaker 4: all the time, then we're not going to win. Because
Speaker 4: the Republican Party is doing that. They have so many
Speaker 4: all the time, like they're hosting a kid you not
Speaker 4: citizenship trainings and small business workshops like I mean, it's
Speaker 4: so insidious, right because they're popping up in places without
Speaker 4: wearing the GOP label, if you will.
Speaker 5: But that's their angle, right.
Speaker 4: And at the same time, we have had this farsation
Speaker 4: with so many my local Democratic Party folks and you know,
Speaker 4: other elect officials. It's like those are a reason why
Speaker 4: we can't do that same type of community outreach right,
Speaker 4: my office does every single day. But I get frustrated
Speaker 4: because you know, we see what they're doing. It's not
Speaker 4: not a secret. And yet the ability to you know,
Speaker 4: glap back and out works.
Speaker 5: It's it hasn't been there.
Speaker 4: So I am hopeful moving forward that you know, we
Speaker 4: can establish that type of presence and infrastructure.
Speaker 5: That's why it takes to win.
Speaker 1: Right, And I think that's a really good point. So
Speaker 1: just talk to me a little bit about what you're
Speaker 1: seeing on the ground.
Speaker 4: On the ground, folks are struggling. That's so important to remember.
Speaker 4: I mean, you have families that can afford run so
Speaker 4: you have folks that are becoming homeless, house and secure.
Speaker 4: You have students that are LGBTQ that are scared to
Speaker 4: be themselves.
Speaker 5: You have trans people can access healthcare.
Speaker 4: So you know, a lot of what I end up
Speaker 4: doing every single day, honestly, is just responding to this right,
Speaker 4: Like I we have so much propaganda be spewed everywhere,
Speaker 4: from union busting to Nazis you know, throwing their garbage
Speaker 4: on people's lawns like it's it's it's pretty bad on
Speaker 4: the ground, just day to day, right, and responding to
Speaker 4: community crises. But I will say that when it comes
Speaker 4: to organizing and the political realm, there's a.
Speaker 5: Lot of good momentum.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I mentioned already the abortion bou initiative for the for
Speaker 4: the one year mark of the fall Row. Instead of
Speaker 4: hosting a typical protest like a lot of people do,
Speaker 4: we actually hosted the largest canvass ever. We had one
Speaker 4: hundred people come out to go collect petitions, and that
Speaker 4: is so exciting because we can't just have people hold
Speaker 4: a sign, so gis you got to put that signed
Speaker 4: down and pick up a clipboard and get to work courts.
Speaker 4: I've been so excited to team up with Congress and
Speaker 4: Maxwell Hendra Frost, who's my congressman. I endorse him and
Speaker 4: his race, and we work really closely together because we
Speaker 4: both believe the same philosophy of not did twenty four
Speaker 4: seven organizing, but of the inside outside strategy, where you
Speaker 4: fight like hell inside your chamber. You do what you
Speaker 4: can to defend your community, but then you also invite
Speaker 4: people to join you and you find opportunities to engage
Speaker 4: with your constituents in a more meaningful way, to show
Speaker 4: up at a neighborhood level, to get folks side to
Speaker 4: build efficacy. So you know, we're finding those partnerships everywhere,
Speaker 4: whether it's with the faith based community, you know, the
Speaker 4: business community.
Speaker 5: So many small businesses have put a.
Speaker 4: Clipboard, you know, in their register at the front desk
Speaker 4: from folks who buy coffee to also get abortion on
Speaker 4: the ballot.
Speaker 5: So we're just seeing so much.
Speaker 4: Really exciting momentum on the ground of folks who want
Speaker 4: to fight back and they just need guideos on how
Speaker 4: to fight back. But honestly, I think our biggest challenge
Speaker 4: is when folks are struggling economically, they don't have the capacity.
Speaker 5: To do anything else.
Speaker 4: And I think that's part of the republic employee right,
Speaker 4: because if they keep people low wealth, that they keep
Speaker 4: people strapped to a middle wage job and they don't
Speaker 4: have the ability to get engaged or to change their
Speaker 4: economic stars right to achieve mobility. So we are also
Speaker 4: up against a really broken system that has failed people.
Speaker 4: That makes it even more challenging to build political efficacy.
Speaker 4: But with those obstacles in mind, we're not slowing down.
Speaker 4: We're focused long term and very very hopeful for the future.
Speaker 1: I hope you will come back talk to us about
Speaker 1: what you guys need in Florida and the way you're
Speaker 1: rebuilding the Democratic Party there.
Speaker 5: Absolutely thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
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