WEBVTT - Models For Victory 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.840 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WOKF Daily with Me 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.959 your Girl. Danielle Moody pre recording from the home Bunker 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:23.280 as I am taking a much needed respite this week, 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:27.120 but as always leaving you all with fresh content and 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:31.680 interviews with people that we all need to know. Coming 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:36.840 up on today's show is the co founder of Forward Majority, 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:42.400 a political pack that is invested in building democratic power 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:47.000 in the state legislatures. Vicky Houseman is the co founder 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:50.159 of Forward Majority, and her and I get into a 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:54.720 really thoughtful conversation and dare I say hopeful one about 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:59.880 how we need not fear that all is lost, that 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.800 there have been significant moves that have been made at 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:08.319 the state legislatures. We're looking at Pennsylvania, we're looking at Michigan, 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:13.600 and how her organization is looking forward to twenty thirty. 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:15.840 Now I joke and say, I'm not quite sure we 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:19.520 fucking get there, but hey, you know, give me the 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:24.279 plan because critzy to think about it. But twenty thirty, 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:28.040 which sounds sci fi ish because it sounds so far away, 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.399 is only seven years off. So Vicki and I get 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:36.440 into a conversation about what is going right in state legislatures, 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.480 what states they are going to be focused on for 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:44.039 their twenty thirty agenda, and where they think that Democrats 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.279 need to be paying attention to as we enter into 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:52.560 the twenty twenty four election cycle. And also I know 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:56.000 that so many of you DM me, message me, comment 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:58.880 under shows and ask what can I do? How can 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:02.160 I get involved? I don't want to feel hopeless. And 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.720 Foreign Majority is one of those organizations that you can 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.880 consider volunteering for, that you can consider donating to because 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:12.359 they are doing the work on the ground. I think 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:16.320 that for too long Democrats have only been focused on 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:20.600 the presidential races and on some high level congressional races. 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.840 But we have ceded the localities to the Republican Party 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.120 and look at what they have done right. States's rights 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:32.320 is now all about denying women and people with uteruses, abortions, 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:37.480 about denying trans people health care, about erasing black culture 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:42.200 and bipock experiences. All of that is happening at the states, 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.560 and the federal government is just sitting around with their 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:46.880 hands in the air, like, oh, I don't know what 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.600 to do. And so I think that today's conversation with 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.960 Vicky is a really important one and it's one that 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:58.160 helps us feel hopeful, like work is being done and 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:04.799 that all is not lost, folks. I am very happy 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:08.760 to welcome to OKF Daily for the first time Vicky Houseman, 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.440 who is the co founder of Forward Majority, a PAC 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:16.000 focused on protecting free and fair elections and securing a 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:20.400 representative democracy by investing in a long term strategy to 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:25.280 reclaim power in state legislatures. We're all about free and 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.959 fair elections on this show. We're all about free and 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.560 fair elections. I'd like to think in this country, but 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.960 that is not really the case. So Vicky, tell me 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.280 more about what it is that Ford Majority does and 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.240 why you co founded it. 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:43.000 Yeah. 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.360 Well, first of all, Danielle, thank you so much for 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:48.280 having me on your show today. Really excited to be 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:50.400 with you and speak of you about this critical work. 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:55.120 So in terms of Ford Majority, our work is grounded 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:59.200 in the simple fact that state legislatures are ground zero 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:02.640 in the fight for demodocracy. They are foundational to free 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:07.680 and fair elections and to representative government. And as you 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.280 and I and many of your listeners may know, the 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:15.000 challenge is that for the past fifty years until very recently, 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:20.800 building power in state legislatures has at best been an afterthought, 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:28.120 we're distant priority for democrats, while Republicans have patiently strategically 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:32.039 invested to take over state houses across the country. And 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.359 we've all seen and we've all lived with the results. 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:39.359 What were once described as laboratories of democracies in the 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:45.359 states have become incubators of autocracy, quite literally, innovating on 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:52.080 tactics of gerrymandering, voter suppression, election subversion, partisan power grabs, 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:53.880 instituting minority rule. 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.160 So we saw this back. 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:01.160 In twenty sixteen when Donald Trump was elected, when all 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.720 of us were you know, so many of us were 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:05.359 having kind of a wake up call about how we 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:10.440 approach politics, how we engage in democracy, and we saw 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:15.320 that state legislatures create this unique opportunity to build power 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:19.560 and this urgent need to build power. So we aggressively 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:22.240 help democrats compete for power where they can have the 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:26.799 biggest impact, where they can dislodge Republicans and state legislatures 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:32.400 that affect national power and affect democracy nationally. So we've 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:34.520 been making great progress. I'm really excited to get in 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.240 some of the details with you, and much more work 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.080 lies ahead as we all work to make a more 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:40.839 perfect union. 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:46.160 You know, it's it's really unfortunate. I think that Democrats 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:51.000 have done such a poor job. You know. It's in 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:54.400 the same way that they have neglected to really talk 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.880 about the Supreme Court and engage people on the issues 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.400 of the Supreme Court and on federal judges. It is 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:04.320 the same thing that we find ourselves that Republicans, to 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:08.040 your point, over the last fifty years, have spent time 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.480 seeding ground, right, like literally planting seeds, planting seeds in 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:16.480 the state legislature, building a pipeline, planting seeds in the 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:21.680 federal court system, build building a pipeline. And we are 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:23.720 now at a place and Vicky, you tell me if 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:28.880 I'm wrong. We're playing catch up, and I wonder, you know, honestly, 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:33.360 if we're so far behind, you know that we might 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.680 not catch up. So what do you think about that? Like, 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:40.119 are we just is it too far gone? 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:43.039 H It is a great question. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.920 And when we got started in twenty sixteen, Democrats had 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:50.159 the least amount of power in state legislatures across the 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.480 country than any other point in time in modern history. 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.240 So we have been digging out of a hole. There 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:58.920 are no two ways about it. I want to share 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:02.720 two things with you. One is, we're making great progress. 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:07.919 So there are so many reasons to be incredibly concerned, upset, 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.320 outraged about the state of democracy today, but there also 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:13.880 were reasons for great hope and optimism. And I think 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:17.120 a path we see back to back to power and 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:19.440 a start for the democracy that we all want for 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:23.000 the future. I point to the wins of twenty twenty two. 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:30.040 Obviously Democrats outperformed all expectations. Obviously election deniers were defeated 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.760 up and down the ballot and key places. But what 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:37.160 we saw was, you know, we were able to win 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:41.560 state legislative power in the Pennsylvania State House, in the 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:45.120 Michigan State House and Senate, in the Minnesota State House 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.600 and Senate, and in these states, I mean Michigan has 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:51.720 a Democratic trifecta for the first time in forty years, 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.360 and we have seen what that has meant for policy. 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.080 I mean, we live in a tale of two countries 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.600 right now. Depending on whether your legislator is Republican or Democratic. 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:05.920 You live in Texas with a Republican legislature, you're literally 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.120 living in the Handmaid's tale. You get pregnant as a 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:12.360 result of rape or incest and you're forced to carry 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:16.400 you know, the childhood terms. It's just insanity. And meanwhile, 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.800 you live in Michigan and abortion rights have been protected 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:24.200 in the constitution, voting rights are being expanded, gun violence 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:25.760 and gun control measures. 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:26.200 Are being passed. 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.720 It's just a total dichotomy. So I think there's a 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:32.520 reason for optimism. I can talk to you about how 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.160 we think about the long term, but we'll leads hear 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.680 what you think about your view on progress as well. 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.360 You know, But I appreciate it because sometimes I get 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:44.200 so stuck in the what hasn't been working that I 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.800 rely on folks like yourself to remind me, way, way, wait, right, 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:50.839 all is not lost, Like we have been making in roads. 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:52.960 And I think that Michigan is a really good example 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:56.080 because you know, the kinds of policies that they have 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:00.160 been passing, whether it be you know, gun reform, policy is, 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:04.160 whether it is around abortion, whether it is you know, 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:08.360 codifying you know, equity and dignity for LGBTQ plus people. 0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:13.960 They are doing right, the very opposite of what a 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.760 DeSantis and an Abbot are doing with their Republican controlled legislatures. 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:20.280 And so I do think that it's important to say no, 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:25.120 these things are happening. And I think too because of 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:29.640 this idea, the lie around states rights and why states 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.520 should have rights and be able to not be dictated 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.760 to by the federal government that has always been the 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:40.040 Republican push, I think that more people are angry and 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:43.320 recognize that they could run right. Like when you see 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:45.600 some of the people that are up in this legislature, 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:50.400 you're like, I become smarter. I think I could do 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:54.559 this job right. Like, we've kind of removed they've removed themselves, 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.680 but we've also removed them from a pedestal. But you know, 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:02.280 talk to me about the ways that your organization is 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:06.600 working to strengthen to use the places that you have named, 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:12.320 like Michigan, like Pennsylvania as a blueprint for how we 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.240 need to go state by state in order to win 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:16.840 back power. 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:18.880 Yeah, yeah, great question. 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:22.200 So you know, I think one of the biggest things 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.040 we need to do is start aggressively competing and actually 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:28.240 an addition in addition in Michigan, one of the states 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.200 that I love to point to is Virginia, which has elections, 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:36.000 big elections this November, but we're literally just competing and 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:38.800 holding Republicans' feed to the fire in twenty seventeen, not 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:42.640 even flipping the legislature led to the expansion of Medicaid 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.200 to almost half a million low income families, like literally 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:50.120 poor children getting health coverage. And so a big piece 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.600 of our ethos is aggressively competing. Let us not just 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:55.760 hold on to what we have. Let us not just 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.840 go after the most incremental wins. Let's go after transformational power. 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:03.400 And so we started off at the beginning of this decade, 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:05.719 having been at the work for about four years and 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.319 the run up to twenty twenty, saying, you know what, 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.920 rather than just rinse and repeat and the definition of 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:14.719 in sandy be doing the same thing over and over 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:18.120 again expecting a different outcome, let us dream a different 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:21.440 dream and think of a different strategy. And so we 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.240 said we are going to build a ten year strategy 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:26.320 focused on the year twenty thirty. 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:28.800 Okay, yeah, Danielle, I see. 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.520 You looking at me, maybe thinking why that's futuristic sci 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:32.160 fi year. 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.680 I'm alosto the same, Mickey. I don't know if we're 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:39.280 making it there, but I like your optimism so well. Detail. 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:41.520 Look, we need to be able to walk and chew 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:43.280 them at the same time. And what I mean by 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.320 that is we work at Ford majority one hundred percent 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:51.319 on finding the sixty three votes that flipped the Pennsylvania 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.440 House in twenty twenty two. We fight the fights are 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:55.880 in front of us. We do it through a frame 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.000 and an orientation that's focused on twenty thirty for this 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.520 very reason. In twenty thirty, we have a once a 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:06.800 decade opportunity to shift how power is distributed in America. 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.600 That is through the redistricting process, when all of the 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.160 congressional and all the state legislative districts are redrawn. It's 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.400 literally seven years away. And so we've said we are 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.160 going to fight the fights in front of us, but 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.320 we are also going to invest in the districts that 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.280 we expect to be the tipping points for power in 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:28.800 twenty thirty. The lynchpins of Democratic majorities in six key states. 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:34.640 The states will not surprise you, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas, Georgia, 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.760 North Carolina, Virginia. We are laser focused on these one 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:41.800 hundred districts, and we've built a strategy and started to 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.000 build programs, one piece of which is a groundbreaking voter 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:49.319 registration effort registering voters literally where there have been zero 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:53.840 voter registration efforts on the ground, and starting to build 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.080 for the fights ahead, including those that are going to 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.200 be transformational for the future. 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.160 And if we don't do that, what are we left with? 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:06.840 We are left with every single election feeling like an 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.920 existential crisis, quite literally being an existential crisis where we 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.320 can hold on to what we've got at best by 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:15.880 the skin of our teeth, but we never have enough 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.079 power to make change. And I'm tired of it, to. 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:24.880 Be honest, Look, I feel you because there is a 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.840 level of exhaustion. And this is what happens is that 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:33.160 people become so exhausted that they tune out right, that 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.360 they go back to being what I refer to on 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.520 this show political ostriches, burying their heads in the sand 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:41.080 and just waiting for somebody else to fix it. And 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:43.600 I think that, you know, I want to get into 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.560 the states that you've chosen, and you know, just for 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.840 the audience, why those are the states, why they are 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:52.840 these one hundred districts, because I do have you know, 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:56.679 one of my thoughts has been around you know, what 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:00.559 we have seen take place in a space like Georgia, 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:05.120 where Democrats had long abandoned Georgia until Stacy Abrams and 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:12.839 a bunch of localized you know, electoral organizations built infrastructure 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:16.360 from the ground up that guess what, the D Triple 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.760 C and the DNC and the D s c s 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.400 weren't providing them right, but they did for themselves. And 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:26.960 because of that, Georgia turned blew not once but twice, right. 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:30.320 And so I wonder, you know, one, walk us through 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.960 your selection of these states and why, and then do 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:37.240 you think just as a larger party, we have been 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:43.000 seeding too much ground in southern areas assuming that they're 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:44.600 just going to be Republican forever. 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:50.720 Yeah, great questions. Stacy Abrams also got her start in 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:51.640 the state legislature. 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:53.760 By the way, this is the bench for the future. 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.840 And in terms of the states that we selected, so 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.600 one of the things that we've really prioritized as an 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.800 organization is bringing top talent people who never thought about 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:08.560 our work on state legislative races before, where we've tried 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:10.680 to create a model for them to engage in this work. 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.800 And so one of those folks is my colleague Ethan Roder, 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:19.720 who's run our data operation, who built Obama's date operations campaigns, 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:22.600 and when we started the decade, we said, we want to, 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.640 in the words of Wayne Gretzky, not skate where the 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.000 puck was, but skate where the puck is going. We 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:32.720 worked where the future is and we asked him to 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:35.840 identify the key states that are going to be most 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:39.600 competitive in twenty thirty. We're state legislative power. We're literally 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.120 having the ability to control the redistricting process, having the 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:48.560 ability to control elections will make the biggest difference in democracy, 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.560 not for the twenty twenties, but for the twenty thirties, right, 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:56.480 And so we identified these states as being the most 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:58.440 competitive where there's going to. 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.080 Be a path to flipping the state legislature. 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:04.240 Some of those legislatures we've already flipped, and we need 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:08.240 to hold on to Pennsylvania, Michigan, others were on the 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:13.080 cusp of Arizona has been the State House in Arizona 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:14.800 has been in Republican hands. 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:20.240 Get this since nineteen sixty six LBJ. 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:23.000 Was in the White House. I mean, it's just like 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:27.680 a different era entirely. And in the past election cycles, 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:32.240 Democrats have come within three thousand votes of flipping that chamber. 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:36.280 Why do you think that is a yeah in Arizona, 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:38.360 and in particular, why do you think that is Is 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.040 it immigrate like Republicans say, Oh, it's immigration in the 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.400 blabblah blah bah blah, But what is it? Is it 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:44.640 the demographic shift. 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:47.640 There's so much dynamism in Arizona. 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.480 It has one of the fastest growing populations in terms 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.480 of in migration, in terms of job growth, despite the 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.600 one hundred and fifteen degree days they seem to have 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.360 every day of the summer. So there's a lot of 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:03.480 just dynamism change. And by our expectation, it is of 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:05.959 the fifty states in the nation, the one that is 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:10.879 moving fastest to becoming a more blue state, closely followed 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.280 by Texas. And so to your question on southern states, 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:18.160 I think the rust belt, right the Midwest, the heartland 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.040 has been kind of a core piece of the blue 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:22.720 wall for a long time, and I think it has been, 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.040 you know, part of our success as we think about 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:28.560 the election of President Biden, as we think about winds 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:29.879 in twenty twenty two. 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.080 But the future is in the sun Belt. It is 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:34.560 where the population has growing. 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:40.359 Fastest, is where electoral power will continue to migrate. Congressional 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:46.359 seats and electoral college votes are distributed based on population. 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.800 That is why Texas looms so large. It has forty 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:56.399 congressional seats forty electoral college votes. So flipping Texas making 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.040 Texas competitive. It's not going to be blue anytime soon, 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.920 but purple would be a thunderclap for the entire nation. 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:08.280 And that power building, durable power begins in the state house, 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.120 begins where the rules of the game are set. In 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.920 every decade, we see that the Texas State House becomes competitive. 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:18.919 On the back end of the decade, the gerrymander simply 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:23.360 cannot hold. There's too much population growth and change, particularly 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.680 in the suburbs where we need to win. That gerrymander decays, 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:30.880 and Democrats have not been prepared to capture that opportunity. 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:32.360 So we want to change that. 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:37.040 You know, it's I like the visual of gerrymandering decaying. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:41.359 It can't disintegrate fast enough. But I also think about 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:48.480 the fact that while jerrymandering is the Republican's political tool, 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.920 like it is what they use in order to suppress 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:55.240 the vote. And so when we think about the state legislature, 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.399 you're also thinking about the candidates, right, because you have 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.760 to think about the people that are going to provide 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.560 a sense of hopefulness, a sense of passion, a sense 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.880 of intrigue to want to get people to jump all 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.080 of the hurdles that they have to jump. And so 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:18.160 in thinking about what in your as you're creating these 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:22.520 models for victory, what is the secret sauce? What a 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:25.000 what a what are we? What are we going after 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:29.240 to try and then make the blueprints and make the 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.639 status quo for gaining political power. 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:37.960 Yeah, So the hard truth that I would share with 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:42.680 you is I think that the candidates, the inspirational leaders, 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:48.080 are a huge, huge component of success. But given jerrymannerd 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:51.399 maps and or just the way in which Democrats have 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:56.080 geographically sorted themselves in states, it's often not enough to 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:58.600 have a great set of candidates to get to a majority. 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:03.160 So one thing that we've identified is a huge voter 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:07.160 registration gap in the heart of the state legislative battleground. 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:11.320 It's really interesting because you know, voter registration has been 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:14.840 is one of the most important tools in a democracy, right, 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:19.439 expanding the electorate and ensuring folks can have access to 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:23.679 the franchise. But it also has been an incredibly important 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.280 tool to help Democrats win. Just as you said in Georgia, 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:30.760 what we've seen and you know, if you'd asked me 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.520 two years ago, if you take a state like Arizona again, 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:39.280 you know, are Democrats doing everything they can to register 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:43.280 voters in Arizona? I would have said absolutely, I bet 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.400 they are. You know why why wouldn't they be? And 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.240 the reality is Democrats are doing everything they can to 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:55.320 register voters in big cities and on college campuses where 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.840 the work is efficient. This is incredibly important work. It's 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.399 incredibly important to winning any election we want to in 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:05.520 a state like Arizona. But it doesn't touch the suburbs. 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:07.520 It doesn't touch the suburbs because. 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:10.960 They're fifty percent Republican. They're less dense, they're harder to navigate. 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:14.920 The work doesn't translate. You might actually register Republicans and 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:18.840 you know, boost their advantage. But the challenge is, if 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:20.960 you want to flip the Arizona House, if you want 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.480 to undo what has been their advantage in the state 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:27.960 legislature since nineteen sixty six, we need to be registering 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:31.080 voters in these suburban districts. There's no two ways about it. 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:36.360 So what we did last year was we identified one 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:40.280 point five million unregistered Democrats and the most important districts 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:41.280 and brought that. 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:45.560 Is so many, that is so many people, It's so many. 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:50.679 And we designed a program that uses data analytics to 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:55.000 actually go to specific doors, go to specific strip malls, 0:21:55.040 --> 0:22:00.600 coffee shops and register Democrats without registering Republicans. And with 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:04.919 this we are able to help raise the floor on 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:08.200 democratic performance. We're able to help these great candidates who 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.639 are inspirational leaders and should have the gabbles, should have 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:15.200 governing power, We're able to help them perform in these 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:19.359 races that are tough but winnable. So that's a big 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:21.440 piece of you know, one of the programs that we've 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:24.000 designed and are rolling out now and see as a 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:26.720 potential path to helping to build and hold on to 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.720 these legislatures now through twenty thirty. 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:32.680 But it's also democratic votes to vote for Joe Biden, 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:33.800 who vote for. 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:38.360 US Senate candidates, congressional candidates. So there's a layer cake 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:39.240 of value here. 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:42.000 I mean, I think that that's extraordinary. I mean, that 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:45.240 is a tool and just the fact that my god, 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:50.679 one point five million people not registered to vote that 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:53.600 are unregistered democrats. I mean we're talking, you know, to 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:57.080 your point earlier about elections that were decided in the 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:01.480 hundreds in some places, in the one hundreds of votes, right, 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:03.919 and to think that they are just people that have 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:08.439 still not been included, are or welcomed, right pulled into 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:15.280 the electoral processes crazy. My last question for you, Vicky 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:18.680 is that you know, the WOKF audience is an activated, 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:24.760 passionate audience who is always looking for ways to get involved, 0:23:24.800 --> 0:23:28.880 to get involved in their state, to be able to contribute. 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:33.120 And so please tell us how folks can connect, get involved, 0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:36.399 volunteer and get to work. 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:37.320 Yeah. 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:41.520 Absolutely, well, we would love your listeners to get involved. 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:44.240 I think one of the reasons that state legislators have 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:48.720 become these incubators of autocracy is because they fly in darkness. 0:23:48.840 --> 0:23:51.439 It's a huge amount of power and nobody pays attention. 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:55.000 No one knows who their state legislator is, so literally 0:23:55.280 --> 0:23:59.240 where you live, starting to pay attention, starting to actually 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:01.919 reach out and be in touch with who represents you 0:24:01.960 --> 0:24:05.080 and your legislature and understand the issues at stake is 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:07.879 like a core piece of the fabric of our democracy 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:10.879 and how this works in terms of our work. So 0:24:11.760 --> 0:24:13.560 you know, one of the biggest things you can do 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:16.360