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Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: You have to go back to nineteen sixty one to

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Speaker 1: find a Democrat in the seat today's guest wants to

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Speaker 1: sit in. That Democrat was Lyndon Johnson, who hedged his

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Speaker 1: bets and ran for re election even as he also

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Speaker 1: ran for the vice presidency. When Kennedy won, Johnson abandoned

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Speaker 1: his Senate seat a Republican wanted, and it's been upholstered

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Speaker 1: solid red ever since. It's the story of the South.

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Speaker 1: But that story is too simplistic for Texas. These days.

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Speaker 1: The state is changing fast, urbanizing, getting more educated and

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Speaker 1: more diverse. In two thousand eighteen, Democrat Beto O'Rourke almost

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Speaker 1: one Texas's other Senate seat. Perhaps no single person better

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Speaker 1: embodies the state's new reality than Christina. Since her mother

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Speaker 1: is a Mexican immigrant, her father is Anglo Texan, as

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Speaker 1: was his father before him. Zin Zoon grew up working

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Speaker 1: class and put herself through the University of Texas. She

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Speaker 1: crossed the border constantly, growing up literally and figuratively. She

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Speaker 1: believes that being bicultural and her solid resume of liberal

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Speaker 1: activism will carry her to Washington. Let me state upfront

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Speaker 1: that I am supporting her in that effort. I first

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Speaker 1: read about since Soon six years ago in the New

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Speaker 1: York Times in a piece about the work she was

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Speaker 1: doing at the Workers Defense Project to help immigrants abused

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Speaker 1: and robbed by unscrupulous employers. Can I tell that story

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Speaker 1: right ahead? So the reporter had told me, Alec Baldwin

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Speaker 1: sometimes calls people that I write about in the New

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Speaker 1: York Times. I thought, Oh, that's cool, and then I

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Speaker 1: had this great voicemail from you, who the hell picks

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Speaker 1: up the phone and says, I want to learn more

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Speaker 1: about what you do and knew how to pronounce my

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Speaker 1: name right, which is pretty com plicated. My mom told

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Speaker 1: me when that happens, she's very religious that, oh, Senior Alex,

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Speaker 1: he came into your life because he's going to be

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Speaker 1: a very important person in your life. That's what my

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Speaker 1: mom told me. Were trying our best. I started giving

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Speaker 1: the Workers Defense Project contributions that year and encouraging her

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Speaker 1: to run for office. I kept encouraging her even as

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Speaker 1: she had a son, moved and started Jolt, a nonprofit

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Speaker 1: organizing young Latinos for political action. Then last year some

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Speaker 1: of the best political minds in Texas won her over.

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Speaker 1: She has much of Betto's top staff working on her

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Speaker 1: primary campaign. But even with a great story and the

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Speaker 1: best staff, running for office is still awful. So a

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Speaker 1: very good friend of mine is Jim high Tower, that

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Speaker 1: was one of the last Democrats to hold and win

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Speaker 1: office statewide. And I said, people are trying to ask

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Speaker 1: me to run for Senate. You know, what do you think?

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Speaker 1: And he said, we're gonna have to fundraise all the time.

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Speaker 1: There's going to be political in fighting and you're gonna

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Speaker 1: be traveling everywhere. And I said, well, that sounds like

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Speaker 1: my current job. So a lot of the skill set

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Speaker 1: that I had at JOLD, I had to get comfortable

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Speaker 1: asking for money. Have you become comfortable and I've become

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Speaker 1: more comfortable. I think it's something always that's still uncomfortable

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Speaker 1: if you don't really come for money. I think when

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Speaker 1: I believe in something, I'm good at it, and what's

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Speaker 1: the skill? Meaning you just look the person in the eyes,

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Speaker 1: shake their head and say, Bob, I need from you.

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Speaker 1: But like you know how, I think, to me, it's

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Speaker 1: always an argument about whatever you were fighting for asking

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Speaker 1: people to invest in, about why it's a sound investment.

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Speaker 1: Usually I'm used to asking it for an organization, but

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Speaker 1: I realized also over time people were entrusting their resources

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Speaker 1: in me. I think the best compliment I ever got

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Speaker 1: from a thunder was I could squeeze water from a rock.

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Speaker 1: So if you gave me five dollars, you knew that

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Speaker 1: that five dollars was going to be well spent and

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Speaker 1: I would make much more out of it um. But

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Speaker 1: I also, even though I was uncomfortable asking for money

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Speaker 1: in the beginning, I would always think about why I

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Speaker 1: was there, who I was there for, And I think

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Speaker 1: about that when I was doing that originally for undocumented

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Speaker 1: workers that were incredibly poor. If I didn't ask for

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Speaker 1: them and take up that space, then who would. So

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Speaker 1: when I think about our political process now, and that sadly,

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Speaker 1: I am not judged first on my work, ethic or ideas,

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Speaker 1: but I am judged first by how much I raise.

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Speaker 1: That is the game I'm in, But I want very

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Speaker 1: seriously the ideas I stand up for that they represent

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Speaker 1: a whole class of people that feel disaffected and unheard.

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Speaker 1: The best that could happen is we change the course

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Speaker 1: of history and my state and I make millions of

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Speaker 1: people feel heard and seen and actually have a representative

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Speaker 1: that truly represents them. When did the moment come and

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Speaker 1: you said, wonder what it would be like to be

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Speaker 1: in the Senate? I'm going to do it. What was

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Speaker 1: that like? So I think there were I was on

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Speaker 1: a walk and when I was asked to run, I thought, no,

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Speaker 1: this is a terrible time for me personally. As I

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Speaker 1: went on a long walk, and I thought, well, it

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Speaker 1: was the wrong time for me personally when I became

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Speaker 1: executive director of Workers Defense Project and I was never

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Speaker 1: and you kept telling me it's never a good time.

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Speaker 1: And then I thought, well, it wasn't the right time

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Speaker 1: for me when I was six months pregnant and launched Choalt.

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Speaker 1: So this is not the right time for me because

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Speaker 1: I have a two year old little boy I raised

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Speaker 1: by myself, my son Santhy, And I thought, well, sometimes

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Speaker 1: the personal moment is not right, but the political moment is,

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Speaker 1: and that there are moments that are greater than ourselves.

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Speaker 1: And when I imagine what it could mean for my

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Speaker 1: son to change the state, the politics of my state

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Speaker 1: and country from this scene, he would be very proud

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Speaker 1: of me and it would make his life and the

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Speaker 1: lives of millions of other people. Better. Let's say you win.

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Speaker 1: You mean when I went that question, let me take

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Speaker 1: to so after you win, what's your issue? What do

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Speaker 1: you want to get started on? You want to dig

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Speaker 1: into what? Well, in the state of twenty nine million people,

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Speaker 1: I don't think that there's one single issue that I'm

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Speaker 1: going to dig in on. I'm going to go for

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Speaker 1: rottle to lead on climate change, on healthcare, income inequality,

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Speaker 1: and immigration. Those are the top issues that are not

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Speaker 1: just my state faces, but the country faces. And I

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Speaker 1: think that Texans and our country deserve of a Senate

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Speaker 1: leader that comes from my state that's actually going to

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Speaker 1: be a champion of those issues. Um, for those people

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Speaker 1: who voted for Corning in the last election, what do

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Speaker 1: you say to them to get them to vote for you? Well,

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Speaker 1: I have some donors that voted for cornin Um, people

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Speaker 1: that have contributed to my campaign. The look a state

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Speaker 1: as big as ours can dream big because we are

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Speaker 1: big and we deserve someone that actually is going to

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Speaker 1: fight for our families. That if I were John Cornyn,

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Speaker 1: I would be embarrassed to be our senior senator. We

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Speaker 1: are the state with the highest uninsured rate. We are

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Speaker 1: the state that works more hours than most people in

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Speaker 1: other states with it were one of the poorest. We

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Speaker 1: are a state that's incredibly diverse, and yet he's been

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Speaker 1: demonizing and villainizing our communities and those are Texans, So

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Speaker 1: he has no business being our senator anymore. That he

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Speaker 1: may represent the Texas of the past, but not the

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Speaker 1: Texas of today. UM, describe your opponent for the primary.

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Speaker 1: Tell me about her, m J. Hangard, who ran for

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Speaker 1: Congress and lost and is a more moderate Democrat than me,

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Speaker 1: and me and MJ are considered to be the folks

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Speaker 1: that are leading in the pack. What do you have

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Speaker 1: that she doesn't have? Well, I think I know how

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Speaker 1: to speak to the diversity of the state. I've spent

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Speaker 1: a decade and a half traveling the state and working

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Speaker 1: on real issues that Texans face that most politicians don't

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Speaker 1: even know exist. And I've also learned how to bring

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Speaker 1: people together to solve their problems, to make government work

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Speaker 1: for them. In a state where government has not wanted

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Speaker 1: to work for them. UM has not wanted to work

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Speaker 1: for anybody but just a privileged few. I'm a person

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Speaker 1: that knows how to not just bring people together but

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Speaker 1: truly solve their real life problems and has done it

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Speaker 1: time and time again when people have told us that

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Speaker 1: we have no place in the halls of government and

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Speaker 1: made government work for ordinary people. And there's very few

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Speaker 1: people in our state that have done that. I want

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Speaker 1: to talk about Texas as you understand Texas and how

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Speaker 1: you want to teach me. I mean, I view Texas

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Speaker 1: as a place where Republicans run rough shot over everything,

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Speaker 1: and they jerrymandered that they control both houses in the

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Speaker 1: in the state House. Correct, that's correct. Yet, however, Rourke

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Speaker 1: want in the Houston suburbs, which is tough to do.

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Speaker 1: How do you think he got even purple people, let

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Speaker 1: alone red state types to vote for him. Um. So,

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Speaker 1: I think that there's an image of Texas that people

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Speaker 1: have that is not the true Texas story. The true

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Speaker 1: Texas story is one of a state that's very diverse,

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Speaker 1: very urban, rapidly changing. But when people think about Texas,

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Speaker 1: they usually think about us in a singular way of

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Speaker 1: people like my white grandfather, which was a cowboy. Um.

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Speaker 1: And the truth is that the state is you know,

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Speaker 1: you have a city like Houston, it's one of the

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Speaker 1: most diversities in the entire country. You have um one

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Speaker 1: in three Texans that are immigrants, whore children of immigrants.

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Speaker 1: Of the state's population is Latino, It's majority people of

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Speaker 1: color at this point. The Texas I want to show

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Speaker 1: is that if anyone ever saw the Houston Anthony Bourdaine episode,

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Speaker 1: he went into in Houston, he went to a keen

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Speaker 1: san yetta, He went to African refugee communities that were cooking.

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Speaker 1: He went and saw Indian communities, he went to barbecue,

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Speaker 1: He went to all different kinds of community that all

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Speaker 1: just live in one city. Um, that's the Texas story

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Speaker 1: that I want to tell the Texas that I see

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Speaker 1: every day across the state. This very rich, culturally diverse

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Speaker 1: state that I think isn't just the Texas of today,

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Speaker 1: but as the future of America. So what Bethlo tapped

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Speaker 1: into when he ran was understanding embracing that diversity. For

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Speaker 1: the previous two decades, Democrats had run in Texas as

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Speaker 1: Republican light, believing that they had to get out unicorn

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Speaker 1: swing Republican voters. And what Betheo showed was that you

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Speaker 1: he ran as a progressive in the state. He was

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Speaker 1: for medicare for all, he was talking about respecting immigrants,

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Speaker 1: UM and communities of color standing up against police brutality.

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Speaker 1: That was a very different race that any Democrat has

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Speaker 1: run in recent memory in our state. So I was

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Speaker 1: recruited to run for Senate by some of the folks

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Speaker 1: that ran Betho Senate campaign. We're tapping into some of

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Speaker 1: those really proven strategies about in a state of twenty

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Speaker 1: nine million people UM that is geographically and demographically expansive

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Speaker 1: as our state, do you have to get to scale

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Speaker 1: with a massive volunteer operation. So they had thousands and

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Speaker 1: thousands of people knocking on doors as volunteers and they

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Speaker 1: raised eighty million dollars for the Senate race in Texas

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Speaker 1: and UM, We're going to be doing that broad scale

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Speaker 1: effort as well. And there were significant increases in populations

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Speaker 1: that are very critical to flipping Texas. So a five

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Speaker 1: increase in the youth vote. Texas has one of the

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Speaker 1: youngest demographics in the country. By our next governor's race,

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Speaker 1: one in three eligible voters is under the age of

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Speaker 1: thirty in Texas UM and another significant portion is the

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Speaker 1: Latino vote, the community that I come from that I've

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Speaker 1: worked on getting out both the youth and Latino vo

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Speaker 1: in Texas, and there was a two increase in the

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Speaker 1: Latino vote. That was just the tip of the iceberg.

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Speaker 1: We've already had five congressional incumbent Republicans say they're not

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Speaker 1: going to run. I don't think it's because they want

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Speaker 1: to play more golf. It's because they see the political

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Speaker 1: and demographic shifts happening in the state are happening so

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Speaker 1: rapidly that they don't believe they have a shot again. Um,

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Speaker 1: you mentioned a two d and fifty increase in the

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Speaker 1: Latino vote in the state, and to some extent, you

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Speaker 1: were responsible for that with the work that you did

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Speaker 1: with Jolt. Correct. Yeah, So I let an organization called

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Speaker 1: Jolt that was focused on increasing the Latino vote in

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Speaker 1: our state, knocking on tens of thousands of voters doors,

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Speaker 1: registering them to vote, and also really talking about our power.

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Speaker 1: What I found talking to younger Latino voters as they

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Speaker 1: would turn on the TV and they would see Trump

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Speaker 1: villainizing our community, saying we were outsiders in our own

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Speaker 1: home and state, and so it made them feel like

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Speaker 1: a minority. We always assume that Latinos no, especially in

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Speaker 1: states like Texas, that they're the sleeping giant. But I

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Speaker 1: found that they were shocked that we made up of

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Speaker 1: the state's population. They had no idea that half of

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Speaker 1: all those turning eighteen in Texas were Latino. So when

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Speaker 1: you exposed to them their power, their assets, instead of

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Speaker 1: their deficits, people begin to own that pour. And so

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Speaker 1: I think that that's what we're really going to try

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Speaker 1: and tap into in my race, is exposing to people

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Speaker 1: why we're under attack and assault, whether we're in the

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Speaker 1: LGBTQ community, the Muslim or immigrant community, of the Latino community, collectively,

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Speaker 1: we have tremendous power to shift the course not just

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Speaker 1: of our state's history, but our entire country's history. What

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Speaker 1: kind of response do you think you're getting as a

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Speaker 1: woman running statewide in Texas, which has had a couple

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Speaker 1: of women who have shown but I had a famous

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Speaker 1: and Richards governor. Yes, um, women actually have a distinct

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Speaker 1: advantage in democratic primaries as candidates. A lot of people

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Speaker 1: don't know that because our our democratic primary basis so female.

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Speaker 1: But I think that there are ways that as a woman,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to be underestimated that male candidates wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: to deal with. I get questions about being a single mom.

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Speaker 1: If if I'm a good mom that no one would

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Speaker 1: ever ask a male candidate, they would thank him for

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Speaker 1: his sacrifice, whereas me, they would want to villainize me

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Speaker 1: for my sacrifice, even though I make time for my

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Speaker 1: son every single day. One of the cool things I've

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Speaker 1: had to do that I feel like I'm learning and

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Speaker 1: documenting my campaign is how to run a modern mom campaign.

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Speaker 1: So pretty much everywhere I go in Texas, I have

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Speaker 1: my two year old little son with me. He goes

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Speaker 1: to events. Luckily, he's a total extrovert and loves crowds. Um.

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Speaker 1: So he's a he is a good dancer, um. He

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Speaker 1: comes to events with me. I'm teaching him how to

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Speaker 1: say vota mama um for the Spanish language. Yeah. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So it's fun to figure out how to be a

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Speaker 1: mom and be a politician, And I think it makes

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Speaker 1: me a better candidate because I'm always thinking about my

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Speaker 1: son and what it is for him to be with me,

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Speaker 1: and also what other parents are going through. Um. And

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Speaker 1: it also shows other women that they can do this

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Speaker 1: to that this doesn't have to be a career that

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Speaker 1: only an elite, privileged few get to do. Because when

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Speaker 1: we allow that to happen. I don't think we get

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Speaker 1: the diverse democracy that we need or deserve. You've explained

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Speaker 1: how Texas political picture is not as uh just a

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Speaker 1: wash of red as people might expect. However, he was

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Speaker 1: reelected in two thousand fourteen, correct CORNU, and he defeated

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Speaker 1: Alamele pretty soundly. He beat him. I think what they

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Speaker 1: told me it was like sixty two thirty four or

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Speaker 1: something like that. It was a It was a winning

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Speaker 1: and I'm wondering, did you study that race? Did you

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Speaker 1: learn about what Alameile did? And when when you're working

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Speaker 1: on these kinds of things that you guys take a

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Speaker 1: glance backward and see what Alamile did that he might

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Speaker 1: let have done as well. We did a deep autopsy

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Speaker 1: over the last several years. So in that race, the

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Speaker 1: Texas of today is very very different. Um. You have

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Speaker 1: a state now where Republicans used to be able to

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Speaker 1: hold on to power with the hope that no one

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Speaker 1: would come out and vote. Right. He won by a landslide,

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Speaker 1: but one by a landslide was a minority of voters participated. UM.

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Speaker 1: Now Republicans know they can no longer count on holding

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Speaker 1: onto power that they might actually vote. Yeah, if they

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Speaker 1: have to win by a mandate, they're not sure they

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Speaker 1: can do that. UM. And so you've seen huge surge

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Speaker 1: over the last two cycles, especially from younger and Latino voters,

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Speaker 1: and UM suburban women as well coming out and voting

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Speaker 1: for Democrats. Very fed up with especially in the state

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Speaker 1: as diverse as ours. If you go to the suburbs

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Speaker 1: in Texas, you're going to find communities that aren't just white.

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Speaker 1: They're like all different shades, all different types of people,

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Speaker 1: especially if you go into Houston. Those are their neighbors

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Speaker 1: that they don't understand why the Trump administration or John

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Speaker 1: Cornyn or Ted Cruz are aligning themselves with demonizing their

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Speaker 1: neighbors when we make up such a people of color

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Speaker 1: make up such an important part of the state's population.

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Speaker 1: So we know that if we're gonna win, we have

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Speaker 1: to get more young people and more Latinos how to

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Speaker 1: vote in Texas. There is no way any Democrat wins

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Speaker 1: without doing that in our state. How does the Latino

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Speaker 1: community handle the gender issue? Yeah, so it was fascinating

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Speaker 1: when I was at Workers Defense Project, I was organizing

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Speaker 1: construction workers, which is a nineties six percent male dominating

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Speaker 1: to industry. So UM, nearly all of our members, all

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Speaker 1: of our constituents, were men, and I actually found that

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Speaker 1: they not only accepted my leadership, but they rejoiced in

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Speaker 1: my leadership UM and that they very much were supportive

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Speaker 1: of me as a leader in their community. UM. And

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Speaker 1: so I know that the Latino vote is going to

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Speaker 1: be with me in this state because I see our power,

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Speaker 1: our potential, and I also see what we go through

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Speaker 1: every single day. I was just in UM Dallas last

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Speaker 1: night and a young woman at an event came up

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Speaker 1: to me. She's never vote, never been politically involved, neither

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Speaker 1: has her mother, but they heard me speak and they

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Speaker 1: wanted their picture taken with me. They didn't even know

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Speaker 1: who John Corny was. They had to look up as picture,

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Speaker 1: but they were ready and mobilized to vote UM. And

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Speaker 1: I went to another event in the valley, which is

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Speaker 1: our border area. I was given award for a Latina

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Speaker 1: Trailblaze Award via statewide network of Latino women, and they

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Speaker 1: were like Grandma's crying about the fact that there was

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Speaker 1: going to be a young Latina that understood their reality

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Speaker 1: because we don't really count Ted Cruz. That's Christina zin

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Speaker 1: Soon candidate for the Democratic nomination in next year's Texas

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Speaker 1: Senate race. Since Soon has spoken out in praise of

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Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders, she wrote an article this year dissecting how

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Speaker 1: he's made Medicare for all a mainstream issue for Democrats.

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Speaker 1: It's something Bernie sounded proud of himself when we sat

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Speaker 1: down for Here's the thing. Healthcare is a right in

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Speaker 1: this country. We spend little fortune on healthcare per person.

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Speaker 1: We pay by far the highest prices of the world

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Speaker 1: for prescription drugs. Question, why aren't we doing what every

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Speaker 1: other major country on Earth is like? Why do you

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Speaker 1: think we're not well? Obviously it has to do with

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Speaker 1: the power of the insurance companies and the drug companies

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Speaker 1: and the whole medical industrial complex. My full conversation with

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Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders is in our archives. I'm Alec Baldwin and

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Speaker 1: you're listening to Here's the Thing. I'm Alec Baldwin back

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Speaker 1: now with organizer and Senate candidate Christinas and Soon. I

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Speaker 1: was born in a very small town called Moxa, Hello Ohio.

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Speaker 1: My parents were too poor to have me in a hospital,

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Speaker 1: and so I was born at home um with my

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Speaker 1: mother and father and a doctor that was very nice

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Speaker 1: that came and delivered me. And what did your dad

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Speaker 1: do for the first few years of my life? He

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Speaker 1: sold jewelry from Mexico, UM at festivals and door to

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Speaker 1: door sometimes, and my mother took care of me and

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Speaker 1: my siblings. You grew up in your home, it was tough,

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Speaker 1: and things with your dad were tough, but you learned

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Speaker 1: some things from him as well. Correct. Yeah, I love

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Speaker 1: my father. You know, he's the best ad that I

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Speaker 1: could ever ask for, because I think you only get one.

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Speaker 1: So what did you learn from him? So? My dad

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Speaker 1: taught me how to be tough. My parents are divorced.

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Speaker 1: I was joking because someone was trying to get my

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Speaker 1: parents to do a political ad together and they haven't

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Speaker 1: spoken in twenty years. I said, this might be the

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Speaker 1: one time politics brings a family back together. Be you know,

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Speaker 1: my dad and mom they had a rough marriage and

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Speaker 1: it was hard on me and my siblings. Um, how

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Speaker 1: many siblings do you have? So? Uh, my brother and

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Speaker 1: sister that I grew up with, and I have a

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Speaker 1: half sister and a stepsister, so five total. Um, I'm

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Speaker 1: the family member that speaks to everyone. Um, and the

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Speaker 1: yeah I can if you can be in my family,

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Speaker 1: be the one family member that speaks to everyone and

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Speaker 1: sends messages back and forth. I think we can handle

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Speaker 1: the Senate. You know. My dad taught me about resiliency

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Speaker 1: and I think also forgiveness, which is really important. I

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Speaker 1: am my only sibling that speaks to my dad, UM,

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Speaker 1: and I think it makes me a much better person

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Speaker 1: to have his love, his light um in my life. UM.

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Speaker 1: It has yeah. Yeah. And where is he? He lives

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Speaker 1: in Columbus, Ohio. He's in Senny, Ohio, Sonny, Ohio. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but he You know, my dad is like incredibly brilliant.

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Speaker 1: My first books that my dad ever gave me about

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Speaker 1: politics or civil rights came from my father. He gave

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Speaker 1: me Um Malcolm X's biography to read when I was

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Speaker 1: in high school. My dad gave me My dad did

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Speaker 1: not give me Eldridge Clever Um, but he gave me

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Speaker 1: that book. He also gave me Anti Woman by Bell Hooks.

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Speaker 1: And he always encouraged me to be proud of who

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Speaker 1: I am and where I came from. And my dad

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Speaker 1: also taught me that human beings are complicated. I don't

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Speaker 1: seek perfection and anything I do, I seek progress. And

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Speaker 1: my father taught me that too, and I think that

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Speaker 1: that's made me be able to be imperfect in my work.

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Speaker 1: But know that trying and failing is better than not

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Speaker 1: trying at all. You're the one that reconciled with your dad.

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Speaker 1: How did that happen? How are you able to do that? Um?

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Speaker 1: How was I able to do that? UM? I think

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Speaker 1: forgiveness is one of my gifts. I think that I

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Speaker 1: recognize that human beings are complicated, that we are all contradictions,

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Speaker 1: that no one is purely good or bad. And he

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Speaker 1: never abandoned me, um, And so he's imperfect, but so

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Speaker 1: am I and I love him for the best dad

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Speaker 1: that he knew how to be. Who made the first move? UM?

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Speaker 1: I think probably it was me. I think it was

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Speaker 1: probably it would have been me. UM. I feel like

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Speaker 1: when you reconcile, it doesn't just like free the other person,

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Speaker 1: It frees you from carrying a weight that you don't

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Speaker 1: need to carry. And so I think it's made me

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Speaker 1: a better, stronger person. And I can call my dad

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Speaker 1: at any hour at any time. You know, I've gone

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Speaker 1: through some challenging times and he's been there all along

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Speaker 1: the way with me. There is no one that will

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Speaker 1: love you as much as your parents, I think, in

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Speaker 1: this life. And so to take one of your parents

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Speaker 1: out of your life, um for their imperfections if you can.

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Speaker 1: You know, everyone's situation is different. But I think that

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Speaker 1: my dad taught me also that forgiveness is powerful and

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Speaker 1: forgiveness freeze yourself. Um, and for him, I'm eternally grateful

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Speaker 1: for that gift in lesson because I learned it a

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Speaker 1: lot earlier than most people learned it in their lives.

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Speaker 1: When did you relocate to Texas? So when I was

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Speaker 1: about one and a half, we moved to Dallas. We

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Speaker 1: moved to oak Cliffe, which was a working class neighborhood,

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Speaker 1: and I lived there until I was close to five

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Speaker 1: and we moved back to Columbus, Ohio. My dad went

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Speaker 1: to high school in Texas. He had two parents that

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Speaker 1: were divorced, one lived in Ohio, one lived in Texas.

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Speaker 1: And my mom is the oldest of nine kids from

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Speaker 1: a very very poor, farm working family in southern Mexico.

432
00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:42,480
Speaker 1: And my dad was traveling through Mexico in the seventies

433
00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:45,639
Speaker 1: with a bunch of other students from ut Austin, hitchhiking

434
00:22:45,720 --> 00:22:49,240
Speaker 1: backpacking around and he met my mother, UM and so

435
00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:52,159
Speaker 1: I got this great upbringing. My white grandpa used to

436
00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:55,639
Speaker 1: say we were pure bred Irish Mexican Americans. The new

437
00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:57,800
Speaker 1: term I've learned on the campaign trails. People told me

438
00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 1: you can use the term Mike Mexican, so Mexican. It

439
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:04,159
Speaker 1: gave me this great view into the world that I

440
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:05,600
Speaker 1: think a lot of people don't have. So I grew

441
00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:07,520
Speaker 1: up in between one world that was very white, upper

442
00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:11,119
Speaker 1: middle class, one that was very brown and poor, and

443
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,200
Speaker 1: I got different lessons. I got to see that people,

444
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:15,560
Speaker 1: at the end of the day just all want the

445
00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:18,359
Speaker 1: same things for their children. And I also got to

446
00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:21,000
Speaker 1: see growing up, when I would go into doctors offices

447
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,200
Speaker 1: or meet with teachers, holding the hand of my mother,

448
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:25,639
Speaker 1: who spoke English with an accent and was dark skinned,

449
00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:27,960
Speaker 1: we would be received differently than when we would go

450
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:30,880
Speaker 1: in with our father, who was white. And that taught

451
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,040
Speaker 1: me that there were different rules for different sets of people,

452
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:35,200
Speaker 1: and that they weren't based necessarily on how hard you

453
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:38,920
Speaker 1: worked or um based on any other characteristics besides where

454
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:40,840
Speaker 1: you came from and what you looked like. Where did

455
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:43,800
Speaker 1: you live during your high school years? I lived in Columbus, Ohio.

456
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:46,320
Speaker 1: I went to one of the best high schools, public schools,

457
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:48,840
Speaker 1: and Columbus called Upper Arlington. I hated it. I would

458
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:51,480
Speaker 1: skip school regularly to go to the library and read books.

459
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 1: It was a nerd. And when you were done with school,

460
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:56,240
Speaker 1: where did you go to college? I went to Austin

461
00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 1: Community College, UM, and then I went to UT Austin

462
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:00,960
Speaker 1: and studied Latin Americas. You were all if you were

463
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 1: all four years in Columbus. You spent your entire high

464
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,720
Speaker 1: school career in Columbus. What's the draw that took you

465
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 1: back to Texas? And you keep coming back to Texas?

466
00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:13,520
Speaker 1: So I hated cold weather, and I also didn't like

467
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:17,400
Speaker 1: Ohio very much UM at the time, and my parents

468
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:19,480
Speaker 1: used to tell me that I would love the city

469
00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:22,159
Speaker 1: of Austin, Texas. You know, I couldn't remember going from

470
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 1: when I was two or three years old, but I

471
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:26,200
Speaker 1: would look up articles about it in high school and

472
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:28,080
Speaker 1: every day I would look up the weather in Austin,

473
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:30,920
Speaker 1: and my parents told me it had some of the

474
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:34,000
Speaker 1: things I love most, which is year around sunshine, UH,

475
00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:37,440
Speaker 1: lots of Mexicans and great food. And so I moved

476
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:40,800
Speaker 1: to Austin when I was twenty one. Actually I didn't

477
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:43,639
Speaker 1: know a single soul. I packed up a suitcase UM,

478
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:46,200
Speaker 1: took a plane and went and lived at the youth

479
00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:48,200
Speaker 1: hostel and cleaned until I could find a place to

480
00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:50,600
Speaker 1: live and work. And that's how I ended up in Austin.

481
00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:52,560
Speaker 1: I didn't know anyone when I moved there. What's the

482
00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,639
Speaker 1: first thing you engaged with? Workers? Defense on fund is

483
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 1: not your first project, where it is, it's one of

484
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:00,280
Speaker 1: the first. So the first things I did, beside finding

485
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 1: housing as I immediately started volunteering UM. I became an

486
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:07,680
Speaker 1: intern at several different organizations working with immigrants, and I

487
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:10,159
Speaker 1: found this organization that was just a volunteer project, like

488
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:14,720
Speaker 1: a legal clinic, helping workers mostly working in construction that

489
00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 1: wouldn't be paid for their work UM or we're being

490
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:21,720
Speaker 1: paid to three dollars a dollar an hour systematically. Yeah.

491
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 1: I remember walking in when I was twenty one. I

492
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 1: went to be a translator, and I thought that there'd

493
00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:28,280
Speaker 1: be a few people, and it was a packed room,

494
00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: and every week there would be a new room of

495
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,480
Speaker 1: people coming in every story, just like you would leaving.

496
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:35,760
Speaker 1: You would cry after the first few times of being there,

497
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:38,160
Speaker 1: because I just couldn't believe that human beings would treat

498
00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 1: other human beings so badly. I remember the first case

499
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:44,600
Speaker 1: I worked on was for these workers that worked at

500
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,560
Speaker 1: a restaurant. They were making about like a dollar fifty

501
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:50,200
Speaker 1: an hour. Um, if you totaled up how many hours

502
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:52,359
Speaker 1: they worked. They worked every single day. They only had

503
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:54,840
Speaker 1: like evenings off on Sundays. And when we called the

504
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:57,040
Speaker 1: employers that you have to at least pay the minimum wage,

505
00:25:57,080 --> 00:25:58,760
Speaker 1: which at the time was five fifteen an hour, it

506
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:02,960
Speaker 1: wasn't a great wage either. UM. Their response was they

507
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:05,359
Speaker 1: should feel lucky that they have a job, and if

508
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:07,640
Speaker 1: they don't like how they're being treated, they should crawl

509
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 1: back to Mexico where they came from. And so it

510
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 1: shocked me as a young person to know that this

511
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,480
Speaker 1: was the economic system we had created, where we were

512
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:19,840
Speaker 1: willing to accept undocumented workers labor, but not their humanity. Um.

513
00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:23,200
Speaker 1: There's a beautiful quote from Frederick Douglas, slavery also hurt

514
00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 1: those that enslaved people, that it took away their humanity.

515
00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:29,600
Speaker 1: And I feel like this system we created around undocumented

516
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:32,919
Speaker 1: workers in Texas also hurt our state's humanity and literally

517
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,159
Speaker 1: our economy was being built on the backs of undocumented workers.

518
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:38,800
Speaker 1: We had workers dying of heat exhaustion in Texas because

519
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:41,920
Speaker 1: it gets very hot and working twelve thirteen, fourteen hour days.

520
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 1: And um, we passed in Dallas and in Austin the

521
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:48,560
Speaker 1: right to paid rest breaks because there was no law

522
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,320
Speaker 1: at the state or local level, And so that covers

523
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: roughly two and fifty quarter million workers now benefit from that.

524
00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:57,200
Speaker 1: Laws about something that got by you that you wished

525
00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:03,159
Speaker 1: you had accomplished. We did help raise safety standards, but

526
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:07,280
Speaker 1: the death rate and the construction industry still stayed very high.

527
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:09,440
Speaker 1: So in Texas every two and a half days a

528
00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,840
Speaker 1: construction worker is killed on the job. You have to

529
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:15,399
Speaker 1: understand in California they have nearly double the workforce that

530
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 1: we do, and they have a third of the number

531
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,760
Speaker 1: of deaths. No state got anywhere as close as we did,

532
00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 1: UM with the number of people being just killed on

533
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:26,240
Speaker 1: the job, many times not even money to pay to

534
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:31,760
Speaker 1: send the bodies home. Anything understood that lobbyists or associations,

535
00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, organizations related to the

536
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: building industry, they get things done the way they want

537
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:39,399
Speaker 1: them done. Yeah, And in Texas, one of the largest

538
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:42,960
Speaker 1: contributors to the Republican Party has consistently been the construction industry.

539
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 1: Bob Perry was one of the wealthiest people in our state,

540
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:48,720
Speaker 1: was the largest individual homebuilder until he passed away. He

541
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,920
Speaker 1: was the largest single contributor to the Republican Party and

542
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:55,680
Speaker 1: candidates in our state. So the irony was not lost

543
00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:58,399
Speaker 1: on me as a young person that here we had

544
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:02,879
Speaker 1: politicians that were link to scapegot undocumented immigrants, um. Not

545
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:06,000
Speaker 1: willing to protect their labor, um, not willing to protect

546
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 1: their humanity, but we're willing to accept the economic resources

547
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 1: that they helped create for their campaigns. Now, I always

548
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 1: approach these things in terms of two phases. Phase one

549
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:23,760
Speaker 1: is you think about, boy, what would it be like

550
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:25,440
Speaker 1: And these are my words, by the way, boy, what

551
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 1: would it be like to be in the Senate or governor,

552
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 1: you know, statehouse, president, whatever you're I would love for

553
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 1: you to run for president. Well, I would love to

554
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,120
Speaker 1: run for president, but I wouldn't win. That's the problem.

555
00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:38,080
Speaker 1: I think you would win. I don't think. I think.

556
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:40,720
Speaker 1: I think, actually, in all seriousness, I think I'm the

557
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 1: only person that could beat Trump. I think I'm the

558
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:45,440
Speaker 1: only person that could beat Trump, because I think you

559
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:49,960
Speaker 1: really need to be able to in a modified way

560
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:52,960
Speaker 1: fight him the way he fights, you have to really

561
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:55,640
Speaker 1: be I mean everybody that's running. Now, I look at

562
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 1: all of them, I say, well, there's another job you

563
00:28:57,040 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 1: should be. You should be attorney general, you should be

564
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 1: on the Summe Court, you should be the secretary of State. Uh.

565
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 1: One or two of them might have a chance of

566
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:07,960
Speaker 1: beating Trump, but it's not something that's a slam duck.

567
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:11,240
Speaker 1: And I'm really really tired by the way of And

568
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 1: I'll get this off my chest because it's interesting to

569
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 1: talk to you about this, which is, I'm really really

570
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 1: tired of a lot of people who are running for president.

571
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:19,480
Speaker 1: They've got a lot of big ideas, and I haven't

572
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:24,239
Speaker 1: heard one convincing thing from Sanders, from Warren, none of them.

573
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: How they're going to pay for it. Do you think

574
00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 1: that's a problem. So when I think about the reason

575
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:33,400
Speaker 1: part of the reason that Democrats lost in there are

576
00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:36,360
Speaker 1: numerous reasons, of course, but one of the big reasons,

577
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,000
Speaker 1: coming from a state like Ohio and also working with

578
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 1: peign working class people, is that Democrats were not, for

579
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 1: a long time willing to talk about the deep economic

580
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:49,840
Speaker 1: pain that the majority of Americans feel. Um Americans don't

581
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:52,720
Speaker 1: have more than a thousand dollars in savings a thousand dollars.

582
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:56,120
Speaker 1: There are certain basic things that Americans want that I

583
00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 1: don't think is asking too much. I don't think that

584
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:00,120
Speaker 1: in the richest nation in the world, that it too

585
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:01,520
Speaker 1: much to ask that everyone be able to go to

586
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: the doctor when they are sick and have the highest

587
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:06,640
Speaker 1: quality healthcare. We have a system right now where we

588
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 1: have some of the worst health outcomes of any industrialized nation,

589
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,400
Speaker 1: and yet we pay the most. I mean, by any measure,

590
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:15,520
Speaker 1: that is a complete failure. So I think that the

591
00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:19,280
Speaker 1: debate that Democrats are having about what are the basic

592
00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 1: rights and fundamental goods that every American should have is

593
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:24,560
Speaker 1: the right one. How you pay for it is also

594
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 1: a good question to ask. Right now, people are already

595
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: paying a lot for their healthcare when they pay co

596
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,720
Speaker 1: pays and deductibles and premiums, or when you look at

597
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 1: the fact that how much we spend in our national

598
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:41,200
Speaker 1: budget on military and the shrinking portion we spend on education.

599
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 1: I see the American people as an asset to our economy,

600
00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 1: and right now we don't measure them as an asset.

601
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:51,440
Speaker 1: I feel like as Democrats, people are unwilling sometimes to

602
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 1: call out the real crisis that our nation faces and

603
00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:56,920
Speaker 1: actually what the real emergencies are. And it's been Democrats

604
00:30:56,960 --> 00:30:59,120
Speaker 1: sometimes that have said, we want to spend money on

605
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 1: more borders security. They had a package several years ago

606
00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:05,120
Speaker 1: to spend forty plus billion dollars on border security. Well,

607
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:08,920
Speaker 1: I live on the state with miles alongside Mexico. There

608
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 1: are American communities that live alongside the border that don't

609
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 1: have running water and electricity. That's the crisis on the border. Um,

610
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 1: this has the highest uninsured rate in the country, some

611
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 1: of the worst health outcomes, the worst infrastructure. That's the

612
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: crisis that border communities face, not from families that are

613
00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:29,000
Speaker 1: hungry and tired and that want a better life. I

614
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 1: think that, um, we have a democracy and we have capitalism,

615
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:35,640
Speaker 1: and there's a constant friction between the two. But where

616
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:39,480
Speaker 1: that that friction creates choices where you choose one or

617
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 1: the other, and they're always choosing capitalism of a democracy,

618
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:47,080
Speaker 1: You often wonder how much longer can it last? I mean,

619
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:50,320
Speaker 1: I think we're at a breaking proct We are at

620
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:53,960
Speaker 1: a break we Trump's election is already a signal that

621
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:57,880
Speaker 1: the first snap Yeah, and it's a question of when

622
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:02,400
Speaker 1: runaway inequality happens, you also have the demise of democracy. UM.

623
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:05,000
Speaker 1: That's why I think people fear the concentration of wealth

624
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 1: because you also, when people have that much money, they

625
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 1: have incredible not just wealth, they have incredible political power,

626
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:18,000
Speaker 1: and that dilutes everyone else's power and voice and a democracy. UM.

627
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 1: I think that we've made some major failures, especially as progressives.

628
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:26,840
Speaker 1: We let for a long time Republicans control the debate

629
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:31,320
Speaker 1: about who deserved what in this country. UM. We allowed

630
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 1: people to racialize welfare, including democrats. We allowed people to

631
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:41,320
Speaker 1: scapegold immigrants in our community and our economy when immigrants

632
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:43,440
Speaker 1: and people of color were not why the middle class

633
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:47,120
Speaker 1: was shrinking. The middle class was shrinking because corporations were

634
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 1: heaping more and more of the wealth at the top

635
00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:51,640
Speaker 1: and not sharing that wealth with all the workers that

636
00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:54,560
Speaker 1: helped produce that wealth for them. In my mind, one

637
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:56,840
Speaker 1: of the biggest fundamental changes we need to make as

638
00:32:56,880 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 1: a democracy in a country is to not only judge

639
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 1: our economy how well big corporations are doing, but judge

640
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:05,479
Speaker 1: our economy by how well ordinary people are doing. How

641
00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:07,520
Speaker 1: much do they have in savings, um, how much do

642
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 1: they have in retirement of their debt ratio. By twenty

643
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:14,600
Speaker 1: the figure show that fort of student debt borrowers are

644
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:18,400
Speaker 1: going to be in default. That is our next big

645
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:22,520
Speaker 1: economic crisis. The question has been proposed me, do you

646
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:25,920
Speaker 1: think it's immoral to be a billionaire? I don't necessary.

647
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:29,720
Speaker 1: What I think is a society that does not look

648
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Speaker 1: at how, by not judging our economy by how what

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Speaker 1: ordinary people are doing. We have concentration of wealth that

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Speaker 1: is a demise to our democracy. Um. Facebook employs what employees. Um,

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Speaker 1: Yet they're one of the richest corporations in the whole world.

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Speaker 1: Because they have so few employees, were not having enough

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Speaker 1: of their wealth redistributed through our economy to have a

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Speaker 1: strong economy. So I think it's also a question of

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Speaker 1: like when does something become a monopoly. It's not to

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Speaker 1: me about the individuals. To me, it's about the structure

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Speaker 1: of us as a society, and are we building a

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Speaker 1: strong structure for a strong society, for a strong democracy,

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Speaker 1: for a strong economy. Right now, the concentration that we

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Speaker 1: have is not building. They'll go full throttle until everything

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Speaker 1: is destroyed. And the only lever to change that, I

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Speaker 1: think is government. It's a bold and controversial vision of

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Speaker 1: what government can be from Christina itsin soon. She thinks

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Speaker 1: Texas is ready for it. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're

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Speaker 1: listening to Here's the Thing