Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing from iHeart Radio. My guest today is a state
Speaker 1: senator representing Michigan's eighth district and is a candidate for
Speaker 1: the United States Senate in twenty twenty six. Mallory mcmurrow
Speaker 1: currently serves as the Michigan Senate majority whip and as
Speaker 1: the first woman in history to hold that position. Perhaps
Speaker 1: best known for her viral twenty twenty two Senate speech,
Speaker 1: mcmurrow has accomplished a great deal in her short tenure
Speaker 1: in office.
Speaker 2: People who are different are not the reason that our
Speaker 2: roads are in bad shape after decades of disinvestment, or
Speaker 2: that healthcare costs are too high, or that teachers are
Speaker 2: leaving the profession. I want every child in this state
Speaker 2: to feel seen, heard, and supported, not marginalized and targeted
Speaker 2: because they are not straight, white and Christian.
Speaker 1: Most notably, she has worked to strengthen Michigan unions and
Speaker 1: raise wages. She eliminated the retirement tax on seniors, we
Speaker 1: peeled the state's abortion ban, expanded free community college, and
Speaker 1: secured investments for public transit and public schools. With all
Speaker 1: of this under her belt, as a state senator. I
Speaker 1: was curious what McMurrough thinks Michigan voters expect of her
Speaker 1: when they return to the polls in twenty twenty six
Speaker 1: to cast their ballots for United States Senator.
Speaker 2: Voters are voting for sanity, and they are voting for
Speaker 2: somebody who cares and who lives what they live. I'm
Speaker 2: a mom of a four year old. I am concerned
Speaker 2: about her future and making sure that she has everything
Speaker 2: she needs, that her water is clean, that her schools
Speaker 2: are well funded, and pretty basic basic stuff. Just sanity
Speaker 2: and decency.
Speaker 1: Right, There's so many things that are common sense that
Speaker 1: we're missing right now that are just to protect water.
Speaker 1: People think of the environmentalism that is a hallmark of
Speaker 1: this country since the seventies. We might not have the
Speaker 1: enforcement we want, but we have the laws on the books.
Speaker 1: They think that that's radical. You know, do you do
Speaker 1: you agree? I mean, I know you're from Michigan.
Speaker 2: No, it's not radical to want clean air and clean water.
Speaker 2: I mean watching this administration is going to roll back
Speaker 2: regulations on asbestos. These are, to your point, common sense,
Speaker 2: basic things so that we can live longer, so we
Speaker 2: can enjoy our families longer. It shouldn't be controversial at all.
Speaker 1: You're from Michigan and I've worked with a couple of
Speaker 1: groups about Flint related water issues and worked on documentaries
Speaker 1: about Flint and what happened there, which was just so
Speaker 1: mind blowing because there were people guilty on both sides
Speaker 1: of the aisle. Democrats and Republicans are responsible for that.
Speaker 1: Is that still an important issue in that community there?
Speaker 1: Do you know? Do they still struggle with water issues there?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I was in Flint yesterday. We just kicked off
Speaker 2: a statewide brewery tour, so we're meeting people and breweries
Speaker 2: all across the state. And as you can imagine, clean
Speaker 2: water is important for making good beer too, But it's
Speaker 2: going to be an entire generation that really struggles. I'm
Speaker 2: very good friends with doctor Mona Hanna, who was the
Speaker 2: Flint whistleblower. She was the pediatrician who started seeing how
Speaker 2: unhealthy kids were in Flint and started raising red flags.
Speaker 2: And even if the water is clean now, because we
Speaker 2: have accelerated making sure that all of the lines are replaced,
Speaker 2: that when you turn on the tap there's clean water
Speaker 2: coming out, you can't reverse the damage that has been
Speaker 2: done to kids' health, but also community trust is broken
Speaker 2: and that is going to take many, many years to
Speaker 2: get back.
Speaker 1: You were born in New Jersey, it was, and how
Speaker 1: did the Michigan get into your life? How did that happen?
Speaker 2: So? I was born and raised in rural New Jersey,
Speaker 2: Central Jersey. I don't know what exit, which is a
Speaker 2: terrible joke that I hate anytime anybody asks. I was
Speaker 2: there until I went to college, and then I went
Speaker 2: to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, which is
Speaker 2: about ten minutes from the Michigan border. But I've lived
Speaker 2: all over the country. So I lived in New Jersey, Indiana,
Speaker 2: Southern California, New York, southern California, and then Michigan's.
Speaker 1: Your dad military or something?
Speaker 2: No, I just I'm a millennial. I couldn't get a
Speaker 2: job after graduating into the recession. My husband is a
Speaker 2: born and raised Michigander. But what brought us back to
Speaker 2: Michigan was friends of mine started a road rally around Michigan.
Speaker 2: It was a guy who worked for Google and another
Speaker 2: guy who started a website called Texts from Last Night
Speaker 2: that was a big thing in the early oughts, and
Speaker 2: they just had this idea of what if we invited
Speaker 2: thirty creative professionals from all across the country to Michigan,
Speaker 2: picked up a bunch of cars in Detroit, drove a
Speaker 2: thousand miles around the state a different route every year,
Speaker 2: brought an up and coming chef with us, and just
Speaker 2: showed it off. And that was my vacation every year
Speaker 2: for five years. And I fell in love with Michigan
Speaker 2: more than any other place I've ever lived, and I
Speaker 2: chose to move us back. My husband actually didn't want
Speaker 2: to come. He didn't want to be closer. No, I
Speaker 2: didn't want to come home, my.
Speaker 1: Mad your husband want to live. Let's just get that
Speaker 1: on the record. Where did he want to go?
Speaker 2: I mean we were building a life between New York
Speaker 2: and southern California. He was the editor in chief of
Speaker 2: Jelopnik for seven years and then basically the publisher at
Speaker 2: Gawker Media. I was the creative director for Gawker Media
Speaker 2: at one point in my life.
Speaker 1: You were with them for how long?
Speaker 2: Just one year? And I swear it took ten years
Speaker 2: off of my life, right, But you.
Speaker 1: Would know you've had a very varied You graduated from
Speaker 1: Notre Dame with a degree in what kind of engineering?
Speaker 2: Industrial design? So I was the mix of art and engineering.
Speaker 1: You worked on the hot Wheels cars?
Speaker 2: I sure did, Yes, I did.
Speaker 1: Can you believe that? I can't believe that?
Speaker 2: I was a senior designer over global branding and licensing
Speaker 2: for hot Wheels. So there is a hot Wheels car
Speaker 2: that has my name on it, and that is my
Speaker 2: crowning achievement.
Speaker 1: You have to get a big model that in your
Speaker 1: office in Washington. Oh yeah, Now back to politics here.
Speaker 1: You know, when I was younger, everybody wanted to go
Speaker 1: to Washington. Rather they thought about that. I went to
Speaker 1: gw everybody was political. And then as I got older,
Speaker 1: I thought, I mean, you know, the Congress is so dysfunctional,
Speaker 1: it's so painful, it's so not even unproductive, it's counterproductive.
Speaker 1: You go down there and you're in the Senate, presumably
Speaker 1: you win. What's the three things you really want to
Speaker 1: try to get done?
Speaker 2: Initially, I mean so many things. So if I get elected.
Speaker 2: When I get elected, I would be one of the
Speaker 2: only moms of a young child in the Senate. So
Speaker 2: thinking about how many missed opportunities there have been for
Speaker 2: working parents. We need universal paid leave in this country.
Speaker 2: We need access to universal childcare and clean water. That's
Speaker 2: my third thing for Michigan.
Speaker 1: We have to and you're going to go down There
Speaker 1: was a mom and what's the legislative agenda you see
Speaker 1: is important for you in terms.
Speaker 2: Of motherhood basic things. I just want to pose this.
Speaker 2: I know you have seven kids, but for most working parents,
Speaker 2: the average work day ends at five, but the school
Speaker 2: day and it too. And there are so many people
Speaker 2: who can't participate in the economy just because we haven't
Speaker 2: built an economy for parents. And then you've got people
Speaker 2: like Elon Musk out there trying to I guess buy
Speaker 2: as many pregnancies as you possibly can, but you wonder
Speaker 2: about why is there a declining birth rate and why
Speaker 2: aren't millennials starting families. And when I talk to people
Speaker 2: in my generation, what I hear is overwhelmingly I've done
Speaker 2: everything right and I'm still getting screwed. I went to college,
Speaker 2: I tried to get a job. I can't afford to
Speaker 2: buy a house, I can't afford to start a family.
Speaker 2: None of it adds up. So thinking about even small
Speaker 2: things about productivity gains have increased significantly over the last
Speaker 2: few decades. Why are we still holding on to very traditional,
Speaker 2: outdated ways of working. And then how do we make
Speaker 2: sure we have universal paid leave, How do we make
Speaker 2: sure we have universal childcare in a way that every
Speaker 2: other developed nation in the world has except the United States.
Speaker 1: Let's say you want, you're all going to head down
Speaker 1: there and live down there together.
Speaker 2: Well, it's only an our flight between Michigan and DC,
Speaker 2: which is nice. I know that. You know, of the
Speaker 2: few parents in the Senate, Chris Murphy has kids, Andy
Speaker 2: Kim has kids, they do it different ways. My daughter
Speaker 2: so far, she she loves being on a plane a
Speaker 2: couple of times.
Speaker 1: But my husband on Delta, they've got great cookies.
Speaker 2: Oh of course Detroita's Delta hubs, so she's got to
Speaker 2: get the cookies. But no, my husband was working out
Speaker 2: of state for about a year and a half, so
Speaker 2: in a way she got used to already having a
Speaker 2: routine where one of us is home, one of us
Speaker 2: is not. We trade off and on, and then you know,
Speaker 2: weekends and days off. That's time that she really loves
Speaker 2: with us. So we are I think, uniquely prepared for this,
Speaker 2: and we'll do whatever's best for her. I mean, that's
Speaker 2: the most important thing. Where is she going to have
Speaker 2: the best opportunity, where is she going to be happiest.
Speaker 2: And she's building a great life here at home. So
Speaker 2: it's a quick flight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you do a lot of flying.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Carl Levin, the great Carl Levin was office for six terms,
Speaker 1: I believe thirty six years. I was a huge admirer
Speaker 1: of his. Describe to me the ramp up to this election.
Speaker 1: Now for you, you were doing what before you ran
Speaker 1: for office.
Speaker 2: So I am a state senator. This is my second term.
Speaker 2: We have term limits in Michigan. I would be eligible
Speaker 2: for one.
Speaker 1: More, so you will have served eight years when you were.
Speaker 2: Done eight years. Yeah, I'm in my seventh year. Carl Levin,
Speaker 2: I think, is a great example. He's somebody who went
Speaker 2: from Detroit City Council to the United States Senate. Wow,
Speaker 2: there's something really incredible about bringing that local knowledge to
Speaker 2: Washington in a way where you're not compromised by all
Speaker 2: of the kind of pushes and pulls of DC. You're
Speaker 2: not trapped in DC for a long time. You are
Speaker 2: deeply connected to the roots back home. I am currently
Speaker 2: a state Senator. I ran for office for the first
Speaker 2: time in twenty eighteen. I googled how to run for
Speaker 2: office after the twenty sixteen election, and I came into
Speaker 2: the minority. The Senate here in Michigan and had been
Speaker 2: controlled by Republicans since nineteen eighty four, and I languished
Speaker 2: in the minority. We weren't allowed to pass any legislation.
Speaker 2: I started a state pack, I raised millions of dollars.
Speaker 2: I helped support a dozen state Senate candidates around the state,
Speaker 2: and we helped flip control of the state Senate for
Speaker 2: the first time since nineteen eighty four. So I am
Speaker 2: now the Senate majority whip. I am the first woman
Speaker 2: to ever hold that position in the first Democrat in
Speaker 2: forty years, and I believe that makes me uniquely qualified
Speaker 2: to take on this campaign because I think Washington needs
Speaker 2: to be a hell of a lot more like Michigan
Speaker 2: and not the other way around.
Speaker 1: Who's your predecessor. Who's leaving office?
Speaker 2: Gary Peters is retiring. We now have two cycles in
Speaker 2: Michigan in a row. There have been two open Senate
Speaker 2: seats in just the last couple of years. Debbie Stabenow
Speaker 2: retired last cycle, and then alyssa' Slockin ran for office
Speaker 2: in one and this cycle, Gary Peters announced he is
Speaker 2: going to retire, and I think that is an incredible
Speaker 2: model that our state is leading, where you can work
Speaker 2: tirelessly and recognize that as a state we have built
Speaker 2: up a really good bench of Democratic candidates and that
Speaker 2: you should have a well earned retirement. Gary just has
Speaker 2: his first grandchild.
Speaker 1: How many terms did he serve too?
Speaker 2: He was in Congress before that and then the state
Speaker 2: legislature and he was the lottery commissioner for a while,
Speaker 2: so he's been in and around politics for a good
Speaker 2: long time.
Speaker 1: They did twelve years in the Senate.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But what you're saying that the bench is deep there
Speaker 1: with competent Democratic candidates, very deep. Yeah.
Speaker 2: We have done a lot of work here in Michigan
Speaker 2: to grow our ranks and it's time now.
Speaker 1: When you go down there a lot of mature people,
Speaker 1: shall we say a lot of older people, You're going
Speaker 1: to be like their daughter. They've got daughters your age,
Speaker 1: many of them. Do you think you're going to get
Speaker 1: some kind of special treatment because you're so young and
Speaker 1: your lack of experience in terms of federal politics.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm used to people underestimating me. I ran
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen against my republic An incumbent state senator
Speaker 2: who had won previously by sixteen points, and even local
Speaker 2: Democrats said, that's cute. You're going to get destroyed. And
Speaker 2: there was something really freeing about not necessarily having the
Speaker 2: backing of the party and being able to come in
Speaker 2: and just say, let's just go for it and try
Speaker 2: to run a campaign to really connect with people in
Speaker 2: a way that feels different. We had more than five
Speaker 2: hundred volunteers and I beat them by four points. That's
Speaker 2: a twenty point swing in one cycle. And now I'm
Speaker 2: in leadership. You know, I'm responsible for an eighty billion
Speaker 2: dollars state budget. I'm on seven committees. I'm the chair
Speaker 2: of the Economic and Community Development Committee. I'm the vice
Speaker 2: chair of the Oversight Committee. I've proven that I'm a
Speaker 2: workhourse and I do really well when people underestimate me.
Speaker 1: I still drive American cars.
Speaker 2: What's your favorite?
Speaker 1: I got seven kids, so Cadillac Escalate very roomy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I need a lot of room.
Speaker 2: My husband proposed to me with a twenty fourteen Cadillac
Speaker 2: CTSV wagon with eight hundred horsepower in a manual transmission.
Speaker 1: You're kidding me?
Speaker 2: You were in that or he gave it to you
Speaker 2: as an engaged That was that was that was the
Speaker 2: engagement that was engaged to marry me.
Speaker 1: You were in it.
Speaker 2: Well, he showed me this car. It was parked on
Speaker 2: the street in front of our favorite restaurant, and he
Speaker 2: gets down on one knee and he's just looking at
Speaker 2: the car. I was so confused as to what happened.
Speaker 2: And that was the box for the ring. So it
Speaker 2: was the car in the ring. Thank god.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. You love cars. You're a car nut.
Speaker 1: What do you drive currently?
Speaker 2: I drive a Chevy bolt UV, the slightly larger one.
Speaker 2: I commute back and forth to Lansing, so it's one
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy miles round trip every three days a week.
Speaker 1: The election is until next year, that's right. You have
Speaker 1: a whole year and a half to go. The primary
Speaker 1: is in August. You have you to describe your opponent
Speaker 1: in the primary.
Speaker 2: This is right now, a four way primary. So it
Speaker 2: is myself, Congresswoman Haley Stevens abdul lsa ed who ran
Speaker 2: for governor in twenty eighteen against Gretchen Whitmer and Joe Tait,
Speaker 2: who was the speaker of the state.
Speaker 1: House and who's your threat?
Speaker 2: So we knew coming in that I would likely have
Speaker 2: lower name recognition because I am a state legislator. We
Speaker 2: got our first internal pulling back that shows that it's
Speaker 2: already close to neck and neck. The leading candidate is
Speaker 2: Hailey Stevens, member of Congress. She has been on TV
Speaker 2: all over Metro Detroit with millions of dollars of ads
Speaker 2: the last few cycles. Then Abdul lsa Ed is a
Speaker 2: little more well known than I am because he's already
Speaker 2: run statewide. But we dug in deeper and of voters
Speaker 2: who know both myself and the congresswoman. I'm beating her
Speaker 2: by twenty three points, so we feel really good. We
Speaker 2: just have to get out and meet everybody, which is
Speaker 2: why I announced so early. People are looking for change
Speaker 2: and something that feels fresh and outside of Washington and
Speaker 2: somebody who's going to fight and is as angry about
Speaker 2: this moment as they are.
Speaker 1: Michigan State Senator Mallory mcmurrow. If you enjoy conversations about
Speaker 1: politics and women running for office in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: check out my episode with California Representative Katie Porter.
Speaker 3: You know, I think there is an attitude that you know,
Speaker 3: sort of people are entitled to have Republican representation.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 3: What they're entitled to is good representation, right, people who
Speaker 3: listen to them, people who fight for them, people who
Speaker 3: are not corrupt, and that can come in your Democratic
Speaker 3: or Republican forms.
Speaker 1: To hear my conversation with Katie Porter, go to Here's
Speaker 1: the Thing dot org. After the break, Mallory mcmurroe talks
Speaker 1: about the safety risk of being a politician and the
Speaker 1: public eye and not letting fear win. I'm Alec Baldwin
Speaker 1: and you're listening to Here's the Thing. Mallory mcmurrow is
Speaker 1: not only a Michigan State senator, she is currently a
Speaker 1: candidate in the twenty twenty six mid term election for
Speaker 1: the United States Senate. I was curious about how mcmurrow
Speaker 1: felt about the prospect of serving in Washington, DC at
Speaker 1: such a critical time and what concerns her the most.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm really concerned about just the moment that
Speaker 2: we're in. You know, we're talking now only a few
Speaker 2: days after the Minnesota Speaker of the House, Melissa Hortman,
Speaker 2: was murdered by you know, a man who had made
Speaker 2: a list and made a police car and just just
Speaker 2: terrifying this moment, that that was very premeditative, very premeditated,
Speaker 2: and deep concerns about mental health and so much of
Speaker 2: went into that. And my fear is that people see
Speaker 2: all of that happening and just check out that they say,
Speaker 2: none of this matters. I'm not going to participate. And
Speaker 2: my hope is I want to run a very very
Speaker 2: different campaign that is aggressive on messaging. I'm very active
Speaker 2: on social media. We are doing this brewery tour. We're
Speaker 2: looking at you know, can I show up at dirt
Speaker 2: track races and just get to know people who don't
Speaker 2: talk to politicians? And how do we keep that going
Speaker 2: once we went and getting to Washington, And what's.
Speaker 1: That specific thing like in Michigan, for example, Because in
Speaker 1: New York, in New York politics and that retail politics
Speaker 1: is very specific and very you know, it changes a
Speaker 1: little bit, not much. You got to go out to
Speaker 1: the outer borroughs and eat the hot dogs and hug
Speaker 1: the babies, and it's very very retail and very hands on.
Speaker 1: What's it like in Michigan is like when you said
Speaker 1: they don't want to meet the politicians of the dirt
Speaker 1: track race or they do.
Speaker 2: It has become very routine. Michigan is a battleground state.
Speaker 2: So what happens every election cycle is it's not even
Speaker 2: just the candidates who are running, but it's every national
Speaker 2: organization and reporter parachutes into Michigan and it's NonStop at
Speaker 2: everybody's doorstep and doing all these town halls and showing
Speaker 2: up in churches. And then everybody leaves, which I think
Speaker 2: magnifies the experience that you described, because it's not only
Speaker 2: just the candidates leave, it's that entire apparatus that descended
Speaker 2: on Michigan goes away. So for us, I recognize that
Speaker 2: right now, fourteen months before the primary election, this is
Speaker 2: not the time where people are going to want to
Speaker 2: come out to town halls and be lectured about policy.
Speaker 2: So we just had our first four stops of our
Speaker 2: brewery tour. Over the last two days. We were in
Speaker 2: four counties, were driving around and we just invited people, Hey,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to lecture you, just come grab a beer,
Speaker 2: get to know me, tell me what keeps you up
Speaker 2: at night, and we'll ask questions. And we did open
Speaker 2: questions and I saw so many people who come out
Speaker 2: who would not come to democratic clubs, not come to
Speaker 2: town halls. We had families and grandparents. What I loved
Speaker 2: about this was because it wasn't rows of chairs that
Speaker 2: we usually see at events. People were getting to know
Speaker 2: each other and asking why they had come, and people
Speaker 2: were having a really good time. And if we can
Speaker 2: start to build relationships like that where we do events
Speaker 2: that feel very different, but we maintain that relationship not
Speaker 2: only throughout the campaign. But that's a promise that I'm
Speaker 2: making now, is you elect me, and we are going
Speaker 2: to continue to do things like this to maintain a
Speaker 2: relationship with you, because Michiganders feel like politics is transactional.
Speaker 2: To your point, you show up right around election time,
Speaker 2: everybody descends, and then you go away and we never
Speaker 2: hear from you.
Speaker 1: And that constant invocation by people who say, well, remember
Speaker 1: one thing, it'll be a lot worse if my opponent wins.
Speaker 2: Right, It can't all just be about fear. People are
Speaker 2: walking on eggshells. Hey, people don't want to talk.
Speaker 1: To each other. Well, they were in so much pain.
Speaker 1: You're a woman, and you mentioned about that relationship as
Speaker 1: a parent is something that's vital. I think to myself
Speaker 1: when you send money to a state from the federal government,
Speaker 1: which they are all pulling the plug on. Now, when
Speaker 1: you send money to a state for parents to help
Speaker 1: raise their children, that's a twofer. You're helping two people.
Speaker 1: You're helping two constituents. With every doublo, it's meant there
Speaker 1: that woman who is the mother, because the mother is
Speaker 1: the primary thing. In my book, obviously we have to
Speaker 1: focus on families. And I'm a Democrat, I'm a liberal Democrat,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying to myself, we got to pump as
Speaker 1: much money as possible and to making sure that you
Speaker 1: can go to work if you want to, and those
Speaker 1: kids are taken care of and you can work, you know, undistracted.
Speaker 2: And that if you want to stay home with your kids,
Speaker 2: you can do whatever you want to do. Yeah, you
Speaker 2: can't afford it. Well, I also just on that point,
Speaker 2: I am probably part of the last generation that has
Speaker 2: experienced a time before the Internet. Like I vividly remember
Speaker 2: when we got my first home computer. It was a
Speaker 2: Gateway two thousand. It took up a whole room. It
Speaker 2: was a box cow. It did the boxes cow, and
Speaker 2: the internet was a physical place we went and you'd
Speaker 2: fight I'm one of four, so I had to fight
Speaker 2: my siblings for it, and you got twenty minutes and
Speaker 2: then you were trying to download a song and then
Speaker 2: your mom picks up a phone and then you're mad
Speaker 2: at her. But we have such a responsibility, and this
Speaker 2: is again something that as a senator we have to
Speaker 2: fix is social media companies and tech companies. The products
Speaker 2: are designed to be addictive and you can't disconnect, and
Speaker 2: that is not a way to live. And it's not
Speaker 2: to say that people shouldn't pay attention to what's going on,
Speaker 2: but we have to learn how to reconnect with each
Speaker 2: other in real life and step away for a little
Speaker 2: bit so we stop hating each other.
Speaker 1: We were talking before about the state senator that was
Speaker 1: killed and the horror of the Do you ever fear
Speaker 1: for your safety?
Speaker 2: I do, I really do. We had a protest here
Speaker 2: in Michigan on April thirtieth of twenty twenty, well before
Speaker 2: January sixth, and there's a photo that went viral. There
Speaker 2: are four men in the gallery with full tactical gear
Speaker 2: invests in AR fifteen's and what you don't see in
Speaker 2: that photo is right below them was me. And this
Speaker 2: is the state where there was the plot to kidnap
Speaker 2: and kill Gretchen Witmer, and you know there were also
Speaker 2: plans to carry out public executions on the capitol steps.
Speaker 2: It is devastating to have to think about, you know.
Speaker 2: I also, yes, I'm in this because I want a
Speaker 2: better life for my daughter, and I also have to
Speaker 2: think through I have to make sure that I'm not
Speaker 2: putting her life at risk. But I also know it
Speaker 2: is much harder to put your name on a ballot
Speaker 2: and be vulnerable and allow people to judge you and
Speaker 2: say every horrible thing about you that there is to
Speaker 2: say on the internet and lay out a vision for
Speaker 2: a future and ask people to trust you with their
Speaker 2: vote than it is to threaten violence. I just go
Speaker 2: back to we can't let people like this win win,
Speaker 2: Let the fear win, you know, let people be pushed out.
Speaker 2: And we've seen a exodus of clerks and election workers
Speaker 2: and you know, just good people who are trying to
Speaker 2: do a good job who didn't sign up for this.
Speaker 2: Nobody signed up for this, And we have to get
Speaker 2: back to what we said at the top, just sanity
Speaker 2: and common sense, where we can disagree with each other
Speaker 2: without worrying that somebody's going to take that as a
Speaker 2: sign to attack you in a really dangerous way.
Speaker 1: How does the gun issue play in that state. I
Speaker 1: would imagine in a state that's very urban and then
Speaker 1: very rural and everything in between. Is it a big
Speaker 1: pro gun voters there?
Speaker 2: I mean, yes, we are. This is a state where
Speaker 2: we have hunting break in the legislature. We shut down
Speaker 2: for two weeks at the start of hunting season. And
Speaker 2: I grew up in you know, a rural small town.
Speaker 2: We had guns in my house. This is this was normal.
Speaker 2: But this is also a state that has been devastated
Speaker 2: by gun violence. We had the Oxford High School shooting
Speaker 2: here in Michigan, and there were kids who I met
Speaker 2: who had survived that who decided to go to Michigan
Speaker 2: State to stay closer to home because they were still traumatized,
Speaker 2: only to survive another school shooting a few months later.
Speaker 2: I'm somebody. I lost a friend of mine who was
Speaker 2: killed in the Virginia Tech shooting. So we have passed
Speaker 2: in Michigan, universal background checks, safe storage, We closed the
Speaker 2: domestic violence loophole. My first bill ever signed into law
Speaker 2: created Michigan's Red Flag law. And I have to tell you.
Speaker 2: I mean, we polled for some of the bills that
Speaker 2: we passed, and on universal background checks and safe storage,
Speaker 2: it was over ninety percent of Republican gun owners supported
Speaker 2: this legislation. So there's a real if we can bring
Speaker 2: people together to say, to protect the Second Amendment and
Speaker 2: your right to own guns and go out hunting and
Speaker 2: everything you want to do, we have to pass legislation
Speaker 2: that keeps everybody safe. It just in the last two
Speaker 2: days alone, we've had a shooting at a church and
Speaker 2: then a shooting in royal Oktown, which is part of
Speaker 2: my district, right just overnight in a park.
Speaker 1: It's strange to think that in the modern world that's
Speaker 1: a factor for people that you're going to get shot
Speaker 1: somewhere in public. It is, Yeah, what do you think
Speaker 1: you need to say to Republicans to embrace you, because
Speaker 1: it would be helpful if you could get a few
Speaker 1: of their votes too. Well.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be in office if Republicans didn't vote for me.
Speaker 2: I mean, I flipped a Republican district. There are universal
Speaker 2: values that we all share, and at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, you want to know that government works for you.
Speaker 2: It has to be functional. It has to be saying
Speaker 2: we have to acknowledge that some programs don't work, and
Speaker 2: we do require oversight. We have to be fiscally responsible,
Speaker 2: and we just got to get out of chaos. One
Speaker 2: of my closest friends and colleagues is a guy named
Speaker 2: Senator John Demouse. He's a conservative Republican from northern Michigan.
Speaker 2: He and I are working on legislation to effectively modernize
Speaker 2: our state's economy so that we support more agriculture and
Speaker 2: small businesses and tourism and startups are not so uniquely
Speaker 2: tied to the auto industry. He's also somebody who he
Speaker 2: used to work for a commercial production company, so he's
Speaker 2: talked about Michigan having film tax credits in a way
Speaker 2: that we don't before. So how do we expand our economy?
Speaker 1: And what do you think about as a person who's
Speaker 1: in the entertainment business, tell me what you think about
Speaker 1: tax credits for the film industry.
Speaker 2: I think like Michigan does way too often. We didn't
Speaker 2: allow it enough time to succeed. I have become pretty
Speaker 2: good friends with Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson, who they
Speaker 2: created Detroiters, and now there's I think you should leave
Speaker 2: and Sam was on VEEP and they did a virtual
Speaker 2: fundraiser for me a couple of years ago. It was
Speaker 2: a Detroiter's reunion, which people here really loved, and they said,
Speaker 2: very candidly, you know, we sold this show to Comedy
Speaker 2: Central when the film credits still existed, and we couldn't
Speaker 2: make it today just because no more film credits. We
Speaker 2: change of administration. It was something under Governor Granholm, who
Speaker 2: was a Democrat. She passed it and then Rick Snyder, Republican,
Speaker 2: came in and eliminated them, and we saw, you know,
Speaker 2: an industry was starting to grow and it just collapsed.
Speaker 2: And there are a lot of young people, especially who
Speaker 2: may not love cars the way that I love cars
Speaker 2: and don't necessarily want to work in the auto industry,
Speaker 2: but they want to make movies. And we have to
Speaker 2: diversify our economy and forst stale like cars. I mean,
Speaker 2: we have everything. We have every location. We have Detroit,
Speaker 2: we have outdoors, we have ranches, we have farms, We've
Speaker 2: got you know, urban suburban environments. We have every location
Speaker 2: you could possibly want to shoot anything in. We just
Speaker 2: need to allow it industry to grow. They got rid
Speaker 2: of it here because the Republicans framed it as as
Speaker 2: handouts to Hollywood elites and completely missed you know, the
Speaker 2: local crew, the local talent, the people, high paying jobs
Speaker 2: for the local crew, high paying jobs. You know, we
Speaker 2: have had a really strong advertising industry related to the
Speaker 2: automotive industry because it's all right here, so we have
Speaker 2: advertising agencies, but that business has declined, and we do
Speaker 2: have a lot of young people who want to get
Speaker 2: into production and media and content and telling stories and
Speaker 2: have nowhere to go and ultimately leave the state.
Speaker 1: Are you hopeful, if not counting on the Senate flipping
Speaker 1: next year in time for your arrival.
Speaker 2: It would be so nice if it did. That would
Speaker 2: make things a lot easier. I am under no fallse
Speaker 2: ilution that that is a likely outcome. I feel much
Speaker 2: more confident that the House flips and that the Senate,
Speaker 2: just given the map, stays under Republican control, although narrow,
Speaker 2: which is why a part of my pitch is that
Speaker 2: I've already done this on the state level. I got elected,
Speaker 2: I came into the minority, I built up a political
Speaker 2: operation to support other candidates to help us take back power,
Speaker 2: and I can do the same thing in the United States.
Speaker 2: Senate Gary Peters, our retiring senator, was the chair of
Speaker 2: the d SC last cycle. So that's shoes that I
Speaker 2: am hoping to fill.
Speaker 1: Michigan State Senate whip Mallory mcmurrow. If you're enjoying this conversation,
Speaker 1: tell a friend and be sure to follow Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. When we come back, mcmurroe talks about her
Speaker 1: concerns for Michigan's auto industry in the wake of Trump's
Speaker 1: tariff policies. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's
Speaker 1: the Thing. As Malorie mcmurroe continues her campaign for the
Speaker 1: United States Senate, I wanted to hear more about what
Speaker 1: she hopes to accomplish for her Michigan constituents if elected
Speaker 1: to serve in Washington.
Speaker 2: So Michigan is the canary in the coal mine when
Speaker 2: we hit the recession, because we are so tied to
Speaker 2: the auto industry. We went down first, we went down hardest,
Speaker 2: and it took us longer than any other state to recover.
Speaker 2: Thinking about the tariff policy right now, what a lot
Speaker 2: of people don't realize is that a car may cross
Speaker 2: the border between Michigan and Canada two dozen times as
Speaker 2: it is being assembled and manufactured. And if you've got
Speaker 2: a tariff being hit on that vehicle, your Cadillac two
Speaker 2: dozen times before it finally gets assembled, that car is
Speaker 2: now ten thousand dollars more expensive. So getting to a
Speaker 2: place where we are reforming our economic policy so it's strategic,
Speaker 2: gets thoughtful. This is also a state who was really
Speaker 2: badly hurt by NATO and globalization. But the answer from
Speaker 2: this administration to put reciprocal tariffs on absolutely everything. We're
Speaker 2: not about to grow bananas in Michigan. But getting back
Speaker 2: to a place, you know, again, for us, for our economy,
Speaker 2: it's about sanity. It's about bringing experts to the table,
Speaker 2: having a voice at the table, and putting forward policy
Speaker 2: that is not ready fire aim where you just throw
Speaker 2: everything at the wall and see what sticks and see
Speaker 2: what the backlash is. And we need that. You know,
Speaker 2: Michigan is currently one of the oldest states in the country.
Speaker 2: We have more people getting ready to retire than we
Speaker 2: have young people coming into the workforce. So that's going
Speaker 2: to be a big focus of mine, is how do
Speaker 2: we need to position our state, which is an affordable
Speaker 2: place to live, which is home of eighty five percent
Speaker 2: of the nation's fresh water in the Great Lakes.
Speaker 1: Wow, a lot of stewardship involved in states like that
Speaker 1: with that water body, isn't it true?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, we are starting to see people move to Michigan
Speaker 2: as effectively climate refugees. People who can't get a homeowner's
Speaker 2: policy in California or Florida are now coming to Michigan.
Speaker 2: So that is devastating just as a reality for the country,
Speaker 2: but it's an opportunity for Michigan, and from my stance,
Speaker 2: the next US Senator for Michigan has to help our
Speaker 2: state be prepared to accept people when they come here.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of is it Minnesota or Michigan.
Speaker 1: What is the one that has the huge population of
Speaker 1: Vietnamese refugees or is it Cambodian refugeuse I can't remember.
Speaker 2: The Minnesota has hired. We have a very diverse state.
Speaker 2: We have a lot of Indian American immigrants.
Speaker 1: Patty to India like neighbor of Pakistan India Oka. Yes, correctly,
Speaker 1: I apologize as I'm listening now, I'm so high, I'm
Speaker 1: so hyper vigilant now every time I'm talking to something.
Speaker 2: That's the walking on eggshells thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly exactly. I called somebody an actress the other
Speaker 1: day and they were glad to me, like, don't you
Speaker 1: call her an actress? She's the actor like you, there's
Speaker 1: an actor now, no actress. I'm like, oh god, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please don't cancel me.
Speaker 2: We gotta stop.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Can I just say, like, as a party, we need
Speaker 2: to stop canceling everybody. We need we need to build
Speaker 2: a tent welcome people in. If you accidentally say the
Speaker 2: wrong thing.
Speaker 1: I mean you yourself have been the victim of that, correct.
Speaker 2: I was, yeah, And because life is like an episode
Speaker 2: of TV, I was sexually harassed by a colleague during
Speaker 2: sexual harassment training.
Speaker 1: No, seriously, he did he did it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a guy. I detail it, go into
Speaker 2: detail in my book about it, and I wasn't going
Speaker 2: to say anything. But then months later he did the
Speaker 2: same thing to a young reporter and I knew I
Speaker 2: could speak up, but we were taking a break from
Speaker 2: sexual harassment training and I walked over and I introduced
Speaker 2: myself and he said, who did you beat? And I
Speaker 2: told him who My opponent was and at this point
Speaker 2: he was holding my hand. He put his other hand
Speaker 2: around my body, basically on my ass, and looked me
Speaker 2: up and down and said, I can see why.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, so I'm going to send you a suit
Speaker 1: of armor. You can wear it to Washington, could go
Speaker 1: to serve the Senate every day. Is that your daughter,
Speaker 1: by the way in the background.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she just got home from school, a babysitter Hauser.
Speaker 2: So there was a little voice, she's upstairs sown.
Speaker 1: Now. You just had a curiosity because I am a
Speaker 1: I lapsed and I come back, and I lapsed and
Speaker 1: I come back sometimes I'm back strong. I'm a Catholic
Speaker 1: and you were raised a Catholic? Sure was Is that
Speaker 1: why you went to Notre Dame? Did you want to
Speaker 1: go to a Catholic college.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to go to a Catholic college. Truly.
Speaker 2: We had a falling out with our church, if you will.
Speaker 2: So my parents got divorced when I was seven.
Speaker 1: And I read them about what they said about your mom.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and my mom taught CCD, so you know, she
Speaker 2: was doing everything. She volunteered at the church. I was
Speaker 2: in the choir and it got to a place where
Speaker 2: there were a number of other things that went wrong,
Speaker 2: and the community that my mom was looking for was
Speaker 2: very clearly not there in my church. So we left
Speaker 2: and I ended up at Notre Dame because there was
Speaker 2: a service aspect of Catholicism and the ethos of the
Speaker 2: school that I really liked. I liked that all of
Speaker 2: our projects and our work were grounded in giving back
Speaker 2: to the community. And it was much more chill to
Speaker 2: go to Mass in your pajamas in the dorm. It
Speaker 2: felt a little more welcoming than the church usually.
Speaker 1: Is so interesting how those people are emissaries for the
Speaker 1: faith itself and they just don't understand that role. They
Speaker 1: really don't. I mean, I had priests, you know. I remember
Speaker 1: one time I said to this priest that other philosophies
Speaker 1: have anything they hold, any truths for you or any
Speaker 1: meaning to you. And he goes and he had that
Speaker 1: classic long Island accent. He's from the Island. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: of course, he said, yes, of course, he said. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I think I think the Buddhists have something to say,
Speaker 1: the Hindus, the Jews, everything, I think everyone has cut
Speaker 1: some contribution. He goes, Sometimes I just think that the
Speaker 1: Catholics have the best real estate to hang out in.
Speaker 2: Oh well, that the accent. By the way, my dad
Speaker 2: is from Long Island, so my grandma is from Hicksville.
Speaker 1: No Billy Joelsh, Billy Joel's from here.
Speaker 2: So exactly. So my grandma still lives in Long Island,
Speaker 2: and she would watch every single Michigan Senate session. She
Speaker 2: would stream it, and then she would call me on
Speaker 2: Fridays to debrief, and in the same accent, she would go, Mallory,
Speaker 2: those people talk way too much. That other senator. He
Speaker 2: never has anything good to say, and you never get
Speaker 2: to ask any questions. And he needs to let you
Speaker 2: talk a little more, you know. Can you tell him that.
Speaker 2: I'm like, Okay, you.
Speaker 1: Have a great New York accents. It's great. You should
Speaker 1: come here and run. You'll pass. You would pass. Best
Speaker 1: of luck with the primary. We need tough women. We
Speaker 1: need more tough women. If you talk about the issues
Speaker 1: and you keep jabbing with that, you got a good
Speaker 1: shot at winning. You're very, very talented.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: My thanks to Michigan State Senator Mallory mcmurrow. You can
Speaker 1: learn more about her campaign at mcmurrow from Michigan dot Com.
Speaker 1: This episode was recorded at CDM Studios in New York City.
Speaker 1: Were produced by Kathleen Brusso, Zach MacNeice, and Victoria De Martin.
Speaker 1: Our engineer is Frank Imperial. Our social media manager is
Speaker 1: Danielle Gingrich. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's the Thing is brought
Speaker 1: to you by iHeart Radio one