WEBVTT - Study Hall: STACY ABRAMS ON HER ECONOMIC PLAN, POLITICS, & BUSINESS 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:04.280 You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:09.520 How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy? Just use Indeed. 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:12.680 Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.439 job sites. With Indeed sponsored jobs, your post jumps to 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.040 the top of the page for your relevant candidates, so 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.119 you can reach the people you want faster. According to 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:26.120 Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed have forty 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:30.040 five percent more applications than non sponsored jobs. 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So if you are not familiar with her, 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:11.160 I'm assuming that you don't own the television, or perhaps 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.479 you don't have a cell phone, or you don't listen 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:15.360 to radio. 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.560 Yes, or you might not have taken part in last election. 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:25.120 Yes, yes, many people credit her with Joe Biden's victory 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:30.920 because she was very intricate and delivering Georgia, which is 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:32.920 that the first time ever that does happened, or the 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:33.919 first time in a lot. 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:41.760 Of years, first. 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:43.160 Time in forty years that Georgia went Democrat. But now 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:46.080 she has aspirations of her own. She ran last time 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.520 and lost by a very thing margin. So it's a 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:53.040 neck and neck battle right now to become the governor 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:57.440 of Georgia, which is the most powerful position in the state, 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.000 and that will be the first time in a very 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.000 long time. Also, and I believe the first time ever 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.200 that a black woman would be the governor of George. 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.280 I'm pretty sure that's never happened before. So this is 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:13.880 a historical moment that we're in right now. From a 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.880 political side, this is a financial platform, So we have 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:21.400 questions about the finance and about you know, the business 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.200 side of things, because it's important and I think that 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:29.000 we have a journalistic responsibility to talk to people that 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.640 are in position of power or that could potentially be 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.840 in very high positions of power, and especially a state 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.720 like Georgia where Atlanta we just did invest fst over 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.720 thirteen thousand people. You actually gave a message that we 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.320 played on the big screen. Thank you for that. But 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:48.359 you know, Atlanta and Georgia is our second home and 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:53.440 one of our biggest markets, so it's vitally important that 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:57.000 you know we have this conversation. So first and foremost, 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.440 thank you for joining us. Appreciate it, thank you for 0:02:59.440 --> 0:02:59.880 having me. 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.400 Yes, yes, it's very rare that we have royalty here 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.239 with us, and so yes, again, we appreciate you. And 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.600 the My parents were talking to me about it after. 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:11.520 They were like, oh my god, she's backstage. Can we 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:15.040 see I'm like, mom, video, She's like, oh my god, please, 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:16.360 I'm like it's a video. 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:18.839 Thank you again, so my aunt. 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:22.840 So we'll get into this conversation. I guess we can 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:24.920 just do how we usually do. We all just ask questions. 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.239 So the first question that I have is, you know, 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.960 a lot of times from the business side of things, right, 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:35.080 So a lot of times people say that politicians don't 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:39.800 understand business because they were career politicians and they stifle 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.840 business and they hurt business. But you're actually an entrepreneur 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.360 and you have a variety of different businesses. So what 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:50.160 are some things that you've learned from entrepreneurship that you 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:53.560 think you know has helped you or can potentially help 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:58.160 you in running a very important state like Georgia in politics. 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.600 Well, the first business that I started wasn't technically considered 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:04.360 a business. I wrote a novel when I was in 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.920 law school and had to sell it during my first 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.720 year as an attorney, and that taught me about marketing, 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.280 but also taught me about market research. This was at 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.320 the beginning of Amazon, and I had to figure out 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.760 a way to break through with a black authored romance novel, 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.320 which was really rare at the time to get black 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.799 women basically for black women to be published as romance 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.240 novelists by big platforms. And so I needed to be 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:33.240 the number one selling book that day. So I got 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.680 all the people i'd ever met to buy from Amazon 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.280 on the exact same day, and that catapult to me 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:41.120 and people started asking about my book. 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:42.640 Now, it didn't last. 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:44.440 Very long because some other book came out the next day, 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.800 but that moment was thinking about how do you harness 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:50.880 if you don't have the platforms people are used to, 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:52.960 how do you use the networks that you do have 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:57.400 to develop your marketing approach. The second business I started 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.560 was a consulting firm, and that was really about how 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:01.479 do you chase business? 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:02.760 How do you get people. 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:05.599 To hire you when what you're selling is your mind 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.520 and different from a commodities company where you're able to 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:11.440 sell while you sleep, You've got to be awake for 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.279 consulting to work. And so that's really about how do 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:18.600 you offer a differentiated product that people understand. And then 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.240 my latest company was a company called is a company 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.560 called now Account. I'm no longer day to day with it, 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.160 but that's a financial services company because I know that. 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.840 One of the impediments I faced. And another business was 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:31.520 access to capital, and that's something that small businesses face 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.880 all the time, and in particularly in Georgia because we 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.680 lost more banks than any other state during the Great Recession, 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.960 and black owned businesses have the least amount of access 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.279 because we lost so many banks. Access to capital is 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.000 the difference between success and failure, because it's not just 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:50.839 about operating capital. It's being able to even know where 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.960 to go and having someone trust that it's worth risking 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:56.919 when you bring that to the governor's office. It's about 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.880 making sure we're creating programs that actually address these challenges. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:01.839 How do we market our small businesses. We do a 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:05.479 great job of championing big companies, but how do we 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:06.640 market our small businesses? 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:07.359 Two? 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.760 How do we solve the challenges of those small businesses 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:14.560 that are completely and totally driven by their owner, by 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.000 their entrepreneur. How do you bolster them and make sure 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.080 they can do what they need? And then three, how 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:21.920 do we make certain that we're underwriting the financial risk 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:24.360 so that those small businesses get the capital they need 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:24.840 to succeed. 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.039 I love that you keep talking about small businesses because 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.000 that's one of the reasons we love Georgia and we 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:32.640 love Atlanta. When we go there, we see businesses, and 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:34.640 we see people that look like us owning businesses, and 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.080 we see men, and we see tons of women in 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:38.800 entrepreneurs creating their own businesses. 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:40.359 And so you also brought up programs. 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:42.479 Can you talk to us about the Georgia Commercial Investment 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:44.840 Program because this is one of those things like how 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.159 do we get capital, where are we getting it from, 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:47.799 how do we deploy? 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:48.800 Can you talk to us about that? 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:49.720 Sure? 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:51.919 So there are two pieces to what I want to do. 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.240 One is I want to expand the purchasing power of 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.920 the state. There was a report just yesterday on the 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:02.039 Locals and Station about the fact that in Georgia, just 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:06.520 this past year, more than seven billion dollars in contracts 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.920 were let less than seven percent went to minority owned 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:11.840 and women owned firms. And you always have to be 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.800 suspicious of that number because it's different. It's different to 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:17.160 be a person of color than it is to be 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.600 a woman, and having been both my entire life, I 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.800 understand the different treatment that exists. But even if you 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:26.400 combine both of those, it's less than it's only seven 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.000 point seven percent of the contracting that we know of. 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:33.280 People of color are forty eight percent of the state. 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:38.440 To only have seven percent of the contracts is absurd, 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.800 and so one thing the governor can do without legislation 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.880 is use George's purchasing power to support small businesses by 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:50.200 directing the Department of Administrative Services to establish and monitor 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.720 targets to make certain that all the state agencies are 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:57.240 actually purchasing intentionally from minority owned small businesses, and also 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.720 providing the technical assistance of those small businesses cantually secure 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.760 and fulfill those state contracts. But the other part of 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.600 that is what I call my Commercial Investment small Business 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:10.440 Capital Investment Fund, which is ten million dollars. That would 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.600 then allow those same small businesses to do if they 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:15.440 have to go and buy initial equipment to take the 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:19.120 contract on, let's give you the money and underwrite your 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.720 loan to get that contract. Because if you get that contract, 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.840 fifty thousand dollars should not stop you from making five million. 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:28.720 But for a lot of small businesses, that's it's the 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:33.199 point of entry that's so expensive. In contrast, my current 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:37.280 the current governor is going to establish a study to 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:39.480 look at whether or not this is a problem. You 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.720 don't have to study Georgia to understand that it is 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:46.680 a problem when forty eight percent of your population only 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:50.679 gets seven percent of your business. And that's the conversation 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:55.120 that's happened every year for the last twenty years. Governor 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.240 after governor says well, we'll we'll talk about it, we'll 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:59.920 study it. They won't move legislation to solve it. Well, 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.000 as governor, you solve the problem because I don't need legislation. 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:06.480 I can do it directly. And there was something you 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.720 said at the opening, I not only will be the 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:11.040 first black governor of Georgia. I'll be the first black 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:12.560 women governor in American history. 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:13.439 Wow. 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:17.199 And so I'm bringing to this conversation not only the skills, 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.680 but a very strong sense of urgency around solving this 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.640 problem because if we don't tackle it, it will be 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:29.000 one hundred years, not ten, not twenty one hundred years 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.400 before we close the gap between minority owned businesses and 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:34.440 non minority firms in the State of Georgia. 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.040 Tying and to that point, after your victory, let's speak 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.680 that into existence. What initiatives will be put in place 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.840 to help close that racial wealth gap? And because Atlanta 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.600 is such a mecca for African American and African American 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.520 entrepreneurs in the State of Georgia is amazing. What plans 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.319 can entrepreneurs look for to that you'll put in place 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:55.880 and will help us close that gap. 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:56.679 Absolutely. 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.120 So the commercial Investment program is a big one because 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.320 the state spends billions of dollars on a range of things. 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:07.560 So it's not just construction contracts for dot it's who's 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.600 providing food at events that the state is doing. It's 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:14.280 who's doing janitorial services, who is providing the paper. 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:15.839 All of those. 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.680 Purchases are purchases that the state can direct, and so 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:21.200 the Georgia Commercial Investment Program is part of it. But 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.520 the other part is the supplier Diversity Initiative, and that 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.280 is I'm going to make certain that state agencies, all 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.319 of them, when they procure goods and services, that they 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.160 have to actively seek out and support new suppliers that 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.280 are owned by groups that are underrepresented, and that includes 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:40.280 people of color, veterans, the disabled, women, but all of 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.240 those groups have to be given primacy. And because in 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:47.360 Georgia those groups often overlap, by targeting these communities, we 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.839 actually hit the broadest swath of possibilities. I also want 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.680 to make certain that major state contractors have to implement 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:57.080 their own programs for supplier diversity. Why should the state 0:10:57.440 --> 0:10:59.960 contract with someone who is not looking at the wh 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.079 whole state as viable. And then the last big thing 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:05.880 for me is what I call cluster contracts. So you 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.040 have these big companies that bid on these major contracts, 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.240 billion dollar contracts. If you're a small company, if you can, 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.560 you can't bite off a billion dollars, but you could 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.160 do about two hundred million right now, you're not permitted 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.400 to participate. Instead, they give it to the big company, 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.280 and they tell the big company, oh, give them ten percent. 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.560 That ten percent rarely materialize it or it always goes 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.440 to the same small company they've always given it to. 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.960 I want to create what I call cluster contracts, letting 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:35.240 two or three or four businesses come together to bid 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.559 on that contract. So you have four companies that instead 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:41.760 of all trying to compete for this one billion dollar contract, 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.360 they instead get one hundred and fifty million, two fifty 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.320 three fifty of that contract. But they can all grow 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.760 at the same time, and they're hiring new people. And 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.440 when you combine that with the small Business Investment Fund 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:57.600 that can underwrite the capital risk, and you're directing technical 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:00.000 assistance to make sure they can actually participate in the profit, 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:01.880 says because if you've ever tried to bid on a 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:04.960 state contract or even a city contract, procurement's hard. I 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.000 was the lawyer for one of the lawyers for procurement 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.319 at the City of Atlanta, and so for me, it's 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.560 not just about what I know as an entrepreneur, it's 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.280 also what I know as someone who's been on the 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.080 delivery side of government, not just running for office, but 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:19.200 actually having to do the work of making it happen. 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.840 And so those are three big opportunities. I'm talking billions 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.400 of dollars that can suddenly be in the hands and 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.000 in the pockets of people of color, of black people 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.880 in particular, because we're thirty three percent of the population, 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:35.160 we're two point one percent of the business revenue in Georgia. 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:37.640 So let me ask you this for education. 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.080 I saw you was talking to a little baby the 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.440 other day and you was kind of educating him on 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.600 why a governor is so important. Can you just explain? So, 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:52.480 there's no black governors currently, right, correct? All right, So 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:57.280 there's no black governors currently in America, And from my understanding, 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:59.439 correct me if I'm wrong. The reason why that's such 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.599 a big issue and the reason why the governor is 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.360 so important is that the governor really the most powerful 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.560 person in the state because they control budgets, they control 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:11.840 a lot of the state issues, even more so than 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:17.199 state representatives or senators, and the president doesn't really have 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.880 power on a state level. This is why, like COVID 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.680 is so many different rules depending on which states you're in. 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:27.720 So can you give us an education on why the 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.480 governor is so important and why people need to pay 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.280 more attention to who their governor is. 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:37.800 Absolutely, So let's think about it this way. When we 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.560 think about the structure of government, we have been trained 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:44.920 to focus on the president because that's the most powerful 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.280 job in the nation, and for black and brown people, 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:52.120 it's also been incredibly important because states have often refused 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:56.280 to acknowledge our citizenship, in our humanity. So let's I'll 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.920 use three examples. Standard ground, the law that killed Trayvon Mark. 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:03.880 That wasn't federal law, that was signed by the governor 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:07.400 of Florida. That's how standard ground became. But once it 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.440 happens in a state, it spreads like a contagion. So 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:12.680 now you've got standard ground in Georgia and everywhere else. 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:16.880 Number Two, mass incarceration did not start with the ninety 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:19.640 four crime bill. Three Strikes Are Out was actually done 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.480 by the governor of California in nineteen ninety four. The 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.400 federal government decided to follow, but it started with the 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:31.920 governor and Jim Crow. The stripping black people of humanity 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.040 for one hundred and fifty years never had a single 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:39.200 federal law. It was all state laws signed by governors. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.480 And so when we think about how our lives are lived, 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.200 we think about the presidency because it's national, or the 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.160 mayor because it's hyper local. But all the money that 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.040 comes from the federal government comes through the state. The 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.120 governor decides. All of the things your mayor wants to 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.880 do in the South, especially in Georgia, has to be 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.960 approved by If it's a big program, it has to 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.480 be approved by the governor. One example is that in 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:07.520 two thousand and three, I worked for Shirley Franklin. I 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.560 wrote the first living wage law in the history of 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.480 the state of Georgia. It would have guaranteed that any 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:16.960 company doing business in Georgia had to pay a living wage. 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.760 It could have transformed the economies of thousands of Georgians. 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.120 We got that legislation through the city council, the mayor 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:28.040 signed it, and the following January, the governor signed a 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.880 law making it illegal for any city to pass a 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:35.080 law guaranteeing a wage. That's what the state does. If 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:39.040 you're worried about housing, the governor has to sign legislation 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.400 that says that it's that local government has the authority 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:46.000 to actually enforce housing rules and make sure that you 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:47.760 can afford to live in the home that you live in. 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:53.080 But for business owners. Where the governor is so incredibly 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.040 important is that most of the decisions we think have 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.480 to be made by committee and Georgia gets made by 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.120 the governor. Right now, the governer of Georgia is spending 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.440 billions of dollars. Every time you hear him announce money 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.640 that's being that COVID money that's being spent. He doesn't 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.960 have to ask a single person for permission. He decides 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.480 by himself, with whoever he decides to bring in the room, 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.200 how he wants to spend that money. So the question 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.360 is whose name do you want to have on the checkbook. 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.960 Someone who does not believe in investing in communities of color, 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.000 someone who has never demonstrated any interest until it was 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:29.800 election year, or someone who has come up the hard 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.280 way through our business community and through our city and state, 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:37.200 who has the knowledge and experience, but also now the 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:41.800 authority to get good done. The shorthand is imagine Maynard 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:45.160 Jackson and what he did for Atlanta. Imagine if he 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.440 had been governor of Georgia. That's the kind of governor 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:47.840 I could be. 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:49.240 Oh yeah. 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:51.560 So in order to have the right governor, you have 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.120 to mobilize people to vote and one of the things 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.320 that you did in general election, and rightfully so, we 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.960 were credited with helping win Georgia and ultimately win in general. 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.400 Lesson for Biden was getting people out. 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.400 But when you get people out in numbers, certain things 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:08.480 start to change, and you start to see more voter 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.439 suppression and you see more voter discrimination. 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:13.439 So my question to you is like, what do we 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:13.960 do now? 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:15.639 Right it feels like we have to press the reset 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:19.000 to make sure that people understand the influence and impact 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:19.960 that this is going to have. 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:21.919 And so is there education around it? 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:26.040 How are we telling the people the population of Georgia, like, hey, 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:28.320 there are some changes, here's what you need to know 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:29.679 before you go out. 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:34.720 Well, most of my entrepreneurship has focused on business oriented 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:36.840 things because I grew up poor. I didn't like it 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.480 and don't ever want to do it again. I like 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:42.080 being able to take care of myself and take care 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.800 of my family. But I've also been very aggressive about 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.399 nonprofit work and civic work. So I created the New 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.159 Georgia Project. I'm no longer affiliated with it, but I 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.600 launched the New Georgia Project in twenty thirteen. That's the 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:57.800 organization that did a lot of the work on getting 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.520 people registered. I created Fair Fight, which is the work 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:03.000 that we've been doing to make sure that we have 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:05.320 fair voting laws, or if their laws are not fair, 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:07.680 that we know why they're not fair and we fight back. 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.000 I created the organization's Fair Count Your account made certain 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.320 that we had an accurate census for the first time 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.520 in thirty years, actually counting black and brown folks, and 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:18.280 it was the first year in almost thirty years we 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.439 did not have a statistical undercount. And that matters to 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:23.680 businesses because the money that comes to the state through 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.320 the SBA and through all of these different grants and loans, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:29.879 it's all based on the accurate count of the people 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:31.919 in your state. So when black people get under counted, 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.840 we also get under resourced. So those are the groups 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:37.720 I've started and part of what all of those groups 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.560 are doing independent of me, independent of my campaign, but 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.280 they are embedded in community making sure people understand what 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.879 the voting laws are, what changed, what stayed the same, 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:53.000 and why it matters. Separately, our campaign is doing that 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.160 same work through our voter protection efforts. That's why we're 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.440 urging people to vote early. We get three weeks of 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.600 voting in joy to starting October seventeenth, because of how 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.880 difficult these new laws are, because of the hurdles that 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:08.960 Brian Kemp and Brad Rasenberger have put in place. Do 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:11.640 not get distracted by the fact that they didn't commit treason. 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:14.800 The same time they were not committing treason, they were 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.320 also putting in more voter suppression laws. And because of 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.280 those new voter suppression laws, we need folks to vote 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:23.800 early to get it out of the way. In Georgia, 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:28.320 we have the number one likelihood of having long lines 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:31.920 in black communities up to eight hours, and so if 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:33.560 we want people to be able to vote, we need 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.000 to get our votes banked. We need to get it 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.800 done and get on with our lives. And that means 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:41.200 voting as much as possible, as early as possible. And 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:42.640 when I say as much as possible, I mean getting 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:43.639 as many people as possible. 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:45.480 Nobody should vote more than once. I don't want to 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:46.720 want to take me out of context. 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:53.520 So what words of encouragement do you have for the 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:56.720 citizens of Georgia who may feel as if no matter 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.720 what they do, if they vote early or they bring 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:02.680 friends with them, it won't have an impact on the outcome. 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:08.359 I have proven that it matters. In twenty eighteen, I 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.720 didn't become governor by fifty four thousand, seven hundred and 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:12.600 twenty three votes. 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:17.200 That's two concerts exactly. 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:20.840 That's two concerts. And there were enough people. 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:22.480 Now, there were a lot of people who tried to 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:25.480 vote who weren't allowed to participate in our elections, but 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:27.359