Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing.
Speaker 1: You have to go back to nineteen sixty one to
Speaker 1: find a Democrat in the seat today's guest wants to
Speaker 1: sit in. That Democrat was Lyndon Johnson, who hedged his
Speaker 1: bets and ran for re election even as he also
Speaker 1: ran for the vice presidency. When Kennedy won, Johnson abandoned
Speaker 1: his Senate seat a Republican wanted, and it's been upholstered
Speaker 1: solid red ever since. It's the story of the South.
Speaker 1: But that story is too simplistic for Texas. These days.
Speaker 1: The state is changing fast, urbanizing, getting more educated and
Speaker 1: more diverse. In two thousand eighteen, Democrat Beto O'Rourke almost
Speaker 1: one Texas's other Senate seat. Perhaps no single person better
Speaker 1: embodies the state's new reality than Christina. Since her mother
Speaker 1: is a Mexican immigrant, her father is Anglo Texan, as
Speaker 1: was his father before him. Zin Zoon grew up working
Speaker 1: class and put herself through the University of Texas. She
Speaker 1: crossed the border constantly, growing up literally and figuratively. She
Speaker 1: believes that being bicultural and her solid resume of liberal
Speaker 1: activism will carry her to Washington. Let me state upfront
Speaker 1: that I am supporting her in that effort. I first
Speaker 1: read about since Soon six years ago in the New
Speaker 1: York Times in a piece about the work she was
Speaker 1: doing at the Workers Defense Project to help immigrants abused
Speaker 1: and robbed by unscrupulous employers. Can I tell that story
Speaker 1: right ahead? So the reporter had told me, Alec Baldwin
Speaker 1: sometimes calls people that I write about in the New
Speaker 1: York Times. I thought, Oh, that's cool, and then I
Speaker 1: had this great voicemail from you, who the hell picks
Speaker 1: up the phone and says, I want to learn more
Speaker 1: about what you do and knew how to pronounce my
Speaker 1: name right, which is pretty com plicated. My mom told
Speaker 1: me when that happens, she's very religious that, oh, Senior Alex,
Speaker 1: he came into your life because he's going to be
Speaker 1: a very important person in your life. That's what my
Speaker 1: mom told me. Were trying our best. I started giving
Speaker 1: the Workers Defense Project contributions that year and encouraging her
Speaker 1: to run for office. I kept encouraging her even as
Speaker 1: she had a son, moved and started Jolt, a nonprofit
Speaker 1: organizing young Latinos for political action. Then last year some
Speaker 1: of the best political minds in Texas won her over.
Speaker 1: She has much of Betto's top staff working on her
Speaker 1: primary campaign. But even with a great story and the
Speaker 1: best staff, running for office is still awful. So a
Speaker 1: very good friend of mine is Jim high Tower, that
Speaker 1: was one of the last Democrats to hold and win
Speaker 1: office statewide. And I said, people are trying to ask
Speaker 1: me to run for Senate. You know, what do you think?
Speaker 1: And he said, we're gonna have to fundraise all the time.
Speaker 1: There's going to be political in fighting and you're gonna
Speaker 1: be traveling everywhere. And I said, well, that sounds like
Speaker 1: my current job. So a lot of the skill set
Speaker 1: that I had at JOLD, I had to get comfortable
Speaker 1: asking for money. Have you become comfortable and I've become
Speaker 1: more comfortable. I think it's something always that's still uncomfortable
Speaker 1: if you don't really come for money. I think when
Speaker 1: I believe in something, I'm good at it, and what's
Speaker 1: the skill? Meaning you just look the person in the eyes,
Speaker 1: shake their head and say, Bob, I need from you.
Speaker 1: But like you know how, I think, to me, it's
Speaker 1: always an argument about whatever you were fighting for asking
Speaker 1: people to invest in, about why it's a sound investment.
Speaker 1: Usually I'm used to asking it for an organization, but
Speaker 1: I realized also over time people were entrusting their resources
Speaker 1: in me. I think the best compliment I ever got
Speaker 1: from a thunder was I could squeeze water from a rock.
Speaker 1: So if you gave me five dollars, you knew that
Speaker 1: that five dollars was going to be well spent and
Speaker 1: I would make much more out of it um. But
Speaker 1: I also, even though I was uncomfortable asking for money
Speaker 1: in the beginning, I would always think about why I
Speaker 1: was there, who I was there for, And I think
Speaker 1: about that when I was doing that originally for undocumented
Speaker 1: workers that were incredibly poor. If I didn't ask for
Speaker 1: them and take up that space, then who would. So
Speaker 1: when I think about our political process now, and that sadly,
Speaker 1: I am not judged first on my work, ethic or ideas,
Speaker 1: but I am judged first by how much I raise.
Speaker 1: That is the game I'm in, But I want very
Speaker 1: seriously the ideas I stand up for that they represent
Speaker 1: a whole class of people that feel disaffected and unheard.
Speaker 1: The best that could happen is we change the course
Speaker 1: of history and my state and I make millions of
Speaker 1: people feel heard and seen and actually have a representative
Speaker 1: that truly represents them. When did the moment come and
Speaker 1: you said, wonder what it would be like to be
Speaker 1: in the Senate? I'm going to do it. What was
Speaker 1: that like? So I think there were I was on
Speaker 1: a walk and when I was asked to run, I thought, no,
Speaker 1: this is a terrible time for me personally. As I
Speaker 1: went on a long walk, and I thought, well, it
Speaker 1: was the wrong time for me personally when I became
Speaker 1: executive director of Workers Defense Project and I was never
Speaker 1: and you kept telling me it's never a good time.
Speaker 1: And then I thought, well, it wasn't the right time
Speaker 1: for me when I was six months pregnant and launched Choalt.
Speaker 1: So this is not the right time for me because
Speaker 1: I have a two year old little boy I raised
Speaker 1: by myself, my son Santhy, And I thought, well, sometimes
Speaker 1: the personal moment is not right, but the political moment is,
Speaker 1: and that there are moments that are greater than ourselves.
Speaker 1: And when I imagine what it could mean for my
Speaker 1: son to change the state, the politics of my state
Speaker 1: and country from this scene, he would be very proud
Speaker 1: of me and it would make his life and the
Speaker 1: lives of millions of other people. Better. Let's say you win.
Speaker 1: You mean when I went that question, let me take
Speaker 1: to so after you win, what's your issue? What do
Speaker 1: you want to get started on? You want to dig
Speaker 1: into what? Well, in the state of twenty nine million people,
Speaker 1: I don't think that there's one single issue that I'm
Speaker 1: going to dig in on. I'm going to go for
Speaker 1: rottle to lead on climate change, on healthcare, income inequality,
Speaker 1: and immigration. Those are the top issues that are not
Speaker 1: just my state faces, but the country faces. And I
Speaker 1: think that Texans and our country deserve of a Senate
Speaker 1: leader that comes from my state that's actually going to
Speaker 1: be a champion of those issues. Um, for those people
Speaker 1: who voted for Corning in the last election, what do
Speaker 1: you say to them to get them to vote for you? Well,
Speaker 1: I have some donors that voted for cornin Um, people
Speaker 1: that have contributed to my campaign. The look a state
Speaker 1: as big as ours can dream big because we are
Speaker 1: big and we deserve someone that actually is going to
Speaker 1: fight for our families. That if I were John Cornyn,
Speaker 1: I would be embarrassed to be our senior senator. We
Speaker 1: are the state with the highest uninsured rate. We are
Speaker 1: the state that works more hours than most people in
Speaker 1: other states with it were one of the poorest. We
Speaker 1: are a state that's incredibly diverse, and yet he's been
Speaker 1: demonizing and villainizing our communities and those are Texans, So
Speaker 1: he has no business being our senator anymore. That he
Speaker 1: may represent the Texas of the past, but not the
Speaker 1: Texas of today. UM, describe your opponent for the primary.
Speaker 1: Tell me about her, m J. Hangard, who ran for
Speaker 1: Congress and lost and is a more moderate Democrat than me,
Speaker 1: and me and MJ are considered to be the folks
Speaker 1: that are leading in the pack. What do you have
Speaker 1: that she doesn't have? Well, I think I know how
Speaker 1: to speak to the diversity of the state. I've spent
Speaker 1: a decade and a half traveling the state and working
Speaker 1: on real issues that Texans face that most politicians don't
Speaker 1: even know exist. And I've also learned how to bring
Speaker 1: people together to solve their problems, to make government work
Speaker 1: for them. In a state where government has not wanted
Speaker 1: to work for them. UM has not wanted to work
Speaker 1: for anybody but just a privileged few. I'm a person
Speaker 1: that knows how to not just bring people together but
Speaker 1: truly solve their real life problems and has done it
Speaker 1: time and time again when people have told us that
Speaker 1: we have no place in the halls of government and
Speaker 1: made government work for ordinary people. And there's very few
Speaker 1: people in our state that have done that. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about Texas as you understand Texas and how
Speaker 1: you want to teach me. I mean, I view Texas
Speaker 1: as a place where Republicans run rough shot over everything,
Speaker 1: and they jerrymandered that they control both houses in the
Speaker 1: in the state House. Correct, that's correct. Yet, however, Rourke
Speaker 1: want in the Houston suburbs, which is tough to do.
Speaker 1: How do you think he got even purple people, let
Speaker 1: alone red state types to vote for him. Um. So,
Speaker 1: I think that there's an image of Texas that people
Speaker 1: have that is not the true Texas story. The true
Speaker 1: Texas story is one of a state that's very diverse,
Speaker 1: very urban, rapidly changing. But when people think about Texas,
Speaker 1: they usually think about us in a singular way of
Speaker 1: people like my white grandfather, which was a cowboy. Um.
Speaker 1: And the truth is that the state is you know,
Speaker 1: you have a city like Houston, it's one of the
Speaker 1: most diversities in the entire country. You have um one
Speaker 1: in three Texans that are immigrants, whore children of immigrants.
Speaker 1: Of the state's population is Latino, It's majority people of
Speaker 1: color at this point. The Texas I want to show
Speaker 1: is that if anyone ever saw the Houston Anthony Bourdaine episode,
Speaker 1: he went into in Houston, he went to a keen
Speaker 1: san yetta, He went to African refugee communities that were cooking.
Speaker 1: He went and saw Indian communities, he went to barbecue,
Speaker 1: He went to all different kinds of community that all
Speaker 1: just live in one city. Um, that's the Texas story
Speaker 1: that I want to tell the Texas that I see
Speaker 1: every day across the state. This very rich, culturally diverse
Speaker 1: state that I think isn't just the Texas of today,
Speaker 1: but as the future of America. So what Bethlo tapped
Speaker 1: into when he ran was understanding embracing that diversity. For
Speaker 1: the previous two decades, Democrats had run in Texas as
Speaker 1: Republican light, believing that they had to get out unicorn
Speaker 1: swing Republican voters. And what Betheo showed was that you
Speaker 1: he ran as a progressive in the state. He was
Speaker 1: for medicare for all, he was talking about respecting immigrants,
Speaker 1: UM and communities of color standing up against police brutality.
Speaker 1: That was a very different race that any Democrat has
Speaker 1: run in recent memory in our state. So I was
Speaker 1: recruited to run for Senate by some of the folks
Speaker 1: that ran Betho Senate campaign. We're tapping into some of
Speaker 1: those really proven strategies about in a state of twenty
Speaker 1: nine million people UM that is geographically and demographically expansive
Speaker 1: as our state, do you have to get to scale
Speaker 1: with a massive volunteer operation. So they had thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands of people knocking on doors as volunteers and they
Speaker 1: raised eighty million dollars for the Senate race in Texas
Speaker 1: and UM, We're going to be doing that broad scale
Speaker 1: effort as well. And there were significant increases in populations
Speaker 1: that are very critical to flipping Texas. So a five
Speaker 1: increase in the youth vote. Texas has one of the
Speaker 1: youngest demographics in the country. By our next governor's race,
Speaker 1: one in three eligible voters is under the age of
Speaker 1: thirty in Texas UM and another significant portion is the
Speaker 1: Latino vote, the community that I come from that I've
Speaker 1: worked on getting out both the youth and Latino vo
Speaker 1: in Texas, and there was a two increase in the
Speaker 1: Latino vote. That was just the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 1: We've already had five congressional incumbent Republicans say they're not
Speaker 1: going to run. I don't think it's because they want
Speaker 1: to play more golf. It's because they see the political
Speaker 1: and demographic shifts happening in the state are happening so
Speaker 1: rapidly that they don't believe they have a shot again. Um,
Speaker 1: you mentioned a two d and fifty increase in the
Speaker 1: Latino vote in the state, and to some extent, you
Speaker 1: were responsible for that with the work that you did
Speaker 1: with Jolt. Correct. Yeah, So I let an organization called
Speaker 1: Jolt that was focused on increasing the Latino vote in
Speaker 1: our state, knocking on tens of thousands of voters doors,
Speaker 1: registering them to vote, and also really talking about our power.
Speaker 1: What I found talking to younger Latino voters as they
Speaker 1: would turn on the TV and they would see Trump
Speaker 1: villainizing our community, saying we were outsiders in our own
Speaker 1: home and state, and so it made them feel like
Speaker 1: a minority. We always assume that Latinos no, especially in
Speaker 1: states like Texas, that they're the sleeping giant. But I
Speaker 1: found that they were shocked that we made up of
Speaker 1: the state's population. They had no idea that half of
Speaker 1: all those turning eighteen in Texas were Latino. So when
Speaker 1: you exposed to them their power, their assets, instead of
Speaker 1: their deficits, people begin to own that pour. And so
Speaker 1: I think that that's what we're really going to try
Speaker 1: and tap into in my race, is exposing to people
Speaker 1: why we're under attack and assault, whether we're in the
Speaker 1: LGBTQ community, the Muslim or immigrant community, of the Latino community, collectively,
Speaker 1: we have tremendous power to shift the course not just
Speaker 1: of our state's history, but our entire country's history. What
Speaker 1: kind of response do you think you're getting as a
Speaker 1: woman running statewide in Texas, which has had a couple
Speaker 1: of women who have shown but I had a famous
Speaker 1: and Richards governor. Yes, um, women actually have a distinct
Speaker 1: advantage in democratic primaries as candidates. A lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know that because our our democratic primary basis so female.
Speaker 1: But I think that there are ways that as a woman,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be underestimated that male candidates wouldn't have
Speaker 1: to deal with. I get questions about being a single mom.
Speaker 1: If if I'm a good mom that no one would
Speaker 1: ever ask a male candidate, they would thank him for
Speaker 1: his sacrifice, whereas me, they would want to villainize me
Speaker 1: for my sacrifice, even though I make time for my
Speaker 1: son every single day. One of the cool things I've
Speaker 1: had to do that I feel like I'm learning and
Speaker 1: documenting my campaign is how to run a modern mom campaign.
Speaker 1: So pretty much everywhere I go in Texas, I have
Speaker 1: my two year old little son with me. He goes
Speaker 1: to events. Luckily, he's a total extrovert and loves crowds. Um.
Speaker 1: So he's a he is a good dancer, um. He
Speaker 1: comes to events with me. I'm teaching him how to
Speaker 1: say vota mama um for the Spanish language. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's fun to figure out how to be a
Speaker 1: mom and be a politician, And I think it makes
Speaker 1: me a better candidate because I'm always thinking about my
Speaker 1: son and what it is for him to be with me,
Speaker 1: and also what other parents are going through. Um. And
Speaker 1: it also shows other women that they can do this
Speaker 1: to that this doesn't have to be a career that
Speaker 1: only an elite, privileged few get to do. Because when
Speaker 1: we allow that to happen. I don't think we get
Speaker 1: the diverse democracy that we need or deserve. You've explained
Speaker 1: how Texas political picture is not as uh just a
Speaker 1: wash of red as people might expect. However, he was
Speaker 1: reelected in two thousand fourteen, correct CORNU, and he defeated
Speaker 1: Alamele pretty soundly. He beat him. I think what they
Speaker 1: told me it was like sixty two thirty four or
Speaker 1: something like that. It was a It was a winning
Speaker 1: and I'm wondering, did you study that race? Did you
Speaker 1: learn about what Alameile did? And when when you're working
Speaker 1: on these kinds of things that you guys take a
Speaker 1: glance backward and see what Alamile did that he might
Speaker 1: let have done as well. We did a deep autopsy
Speaker 1: over the last several years. So in that race, the
Speaker 1: Texas of today is very very different. Um. You have
Speaker 1: a state now where Republicans used to be able to
Speaker 1: hold on to power with the hope that no one
Speaker 1: would come out and vote. Right. He won by a landslide,
Speaker 1: but one by a landslide was a minority of voters participated. UM.
Speaker 1: Now Republicans know they can no longer count on holding
Speaker 1: onto power that they might actually vote. Yeah, if they
Speaker 1: have to win by a mandate, they're not sure they
Speaker 1: can do that. UM. And so you've seen huge surge
Speaker 1: over the last two cycles, especially from younger and Latino voters,
Speaker 1: and UM suburban women as well coming out and voting
Speaker 1: for Democrats. Very fed up with especially in the state
Speaker 1: as diverse as ours. If you go to the suburbs
Speaker 1: in Texas, you're going to find communities that aren't just white.
Speaker 1: They're like all different shades, all different types of people,
Speaker 1: especially if you go into Houston. Those are their neighbors
Speaker 1: that they don't understand why the Trump administration or John
Speaker 1: Cornyn or Ted Cruz are aligning themselves with demonizing their
Speaker 1: neighbors when we make up such a people of color
Speaker 1: make up such an important part of the state's population.
Speaker 1: So we know that if we're gonna win, we have
Speaker 1: to get more young people and more Latinos how to
Speaker 1: vote in Texas. There is no way any Democrat wins
Speaker 1: without doing that in our state. How does the Latino
Speaker 1: community handle the gender issue? Yeah, so it was fascinating
Speaker 1: when I was at Workers Defense Project, I was organizing
Speaker 1: construction workers, which is a nineties six percent male dominating
Speaker 1: to industry. So UM, nearly all of our members, all
Speaker 1: of our constituents, were men, and I actually found that
Speaker 1: they not only accepted my leadership, but they rejoiced in
Speaker 1: my leadership UM and that they very much were supportive
Speaker 1: of me as a leader in their community. UM. And
Speaker 1: so I know that the Latino vote is going to
Speaker 1: be with me in this state because I see our power,
Speaker 1: our potential, and I also see what we go through
Speaker 1: every single day. I was just in UM Dallas last
Speaker 1: night and a young woman at an event came up
Speaker 1: to me. She's never vote, never been politically involved, neither
Speaker 1: has her mother, but they heard me speak and they
Speaker 1: wanted their picture taken with me. They didn't even know
Speaker 1: who John Corny was. They had to look up as picture,
Speaker 1: but they were ready and mobilized to vote UM. And
Speaker 1: I went to another event in the valley, which is
Speaker 1: our border area. I was given award for a Latina
Speaker 1: Trailblaze Award via statewide network of Latino women, and they
Speaker 1: were like Grandma's crying about the fact that there was
Speaker 1: going to be a young Latina that understood their reality
Speaker 1: because we don't really count Ted Cruz. That's Christina zin
Speaker 1: Soon candidate for the Democratic nomination in next year's Texas
Speaker 1: Senate race. Since Soon has spoken out in praise of
Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders, she wrote an article this year dissecting how
Speaker 1: he's made Medicare for all a mainstream issue for Democrats.
Speaker 1: It's something Bernie sounded proud of himself when we sat
Speaker 1: down for Here's the thing. Healthcare is a right in
Speaker 1: this country. We spend little fortune on healthcare per person.
Speaker 1: We pay by far the highest prices of the world
Speaker 1: for prescription drugs. Question, why aren't we doing what every
Speaker 1: other major country on Earth is like? Why do you
Speaker 1: think we're not well? Obviously it has to do with
Speaker 1: the power of the insurance companies and the drug companies
Speaker 1: and the whole medical industrial complex. My full conversation with
Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders is in our archives. I'm Alec Baldwin and
Speaker 1: you're listening to Here's the Thing. I'm Alec Baldwin back
Speaker 1: now with organizer and Senate candidate Christinas and Soon. I
Speaker 1: was born in a very small town called Moxa, Hello Ohio.
Speaker 1: My parents were too poor to have me in a hospital,
Speaker 1: and so I was born at home um with my
Speaker 1: mother and father and a doctor that was very nice
Speaker 1: that came and delivered me. And what did your dad
Speaker 1: do for the first few years of my life? He
Speaker 1: sold jewelry from Mexico, UM at festivals and door to
Speaker 1: door sometimes, and my mother took care of me and
Speaker 1: my siblings. You grew up in your home, it was tough,
Speaker 1: and things with your dad were tough, but you learned
Speaker 1: some things from him as well. Correct. Yeah, I love
Speaker 1: my father. You know, he's the best ad that I
Speaker 1: could ever ask for, because I think you only get one.
Speaker 1: So what did you learn from him? So? My dad
Speaker 1: taught me how to be tough. My parents are divorced.
Speaker 1: I was joking because someone was trying to get my
Speaker 1: parents to do a political ad together and they haven't
Speaker 1: spoken in twenty years. I said, this might be the
Speaker 1: one time politics brings a family back together. Be you know,
Speaker 1: my dad and mom they had a rough marriage and
Speaker 1: it was hard on me and my siblings. Um, how
Speaker 1: many siblings do you have? So? Uh, my brother and
Speaker 1: sister that I grew up with, and I have a
Speaker 1: half sister and a stepsister, so five total. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: the family member that speaks to everyone. Um, and the
Speaker 1: yeah I can if you can be in my family,
Speaker 1: be the one family member that speaks to everyone and
Speaker 1: sends messages back and forth. I think we can handle
Speaker 1: the Senate. You know. My dad taught me about resiliency
Speaker 1: and I think also forgiveness, which is really important. I
Speaker 1: am my only sibling that speaks to my dad, UM,
Speaker 1: and I think it makes me a much better person
Speaker 1: to have his love, his light um in my life. UM.
Speaker 1: It has yeah. Yeah. And where is he? He lives
Speaker 1: in Columbus, Ohio. He's in Senny, Ohio, Sonny, Ohio. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but he You know, my dad is like incredibly brilliant.
Speaker 1: My first books that my dad ever gave me about
Speaker 1: politics or civil rights came from my father. He gave
Speaker 1: me Um Malcolm X's biography to read when I was
Speaker 1: in high school. My dad gave me My dad did
Speaker 1: not give me Eldridge Clever Um, but he gave me
Speaker 1: that book. He also gave me Anti Woman by Bell Hooks.
Speaker 1: And he always encouraged me to be proud of who
Speaker 1: I am and where I came from. And my dad
Speaker 1: also taught me that human beings are complicated. I don't
Speaker 1: seek perfection and anything I do, I seek progress. And
Speaker 1: my father taught me that too, and I think that
Speaker 1: that's made me be able to be imperfect in my work.
Speaker 1: But know that trying and failing is better than not
Speaker 1: trying at all. You're the one that reconciled with your dad.
Speaker 1: How did that happen? How are you able to do that? Um?
Speaker 1: How was I able to do that? UM? I think
Speaker 1: forgiveness is one of my gifts. I think that I
Speaker 1: recognize that human beings are complicated, that we are all contradictions,
Speaker 1: that no one is purely good or bad. And he
Speaker 1: never abandoned me, um, And so he's imperfect, but so
Speaker 1: am I and I love him for the best dad
Speaker 1: that he knew how to be. Who made the first move? UM?
Speaker 1: I think probably it was me. I think it was
Speaker 1: probably it would have been me. UM. I feel like
Speaker 1: when you reconcile, it doesn't just like free the other person,
Speaker 1: It frees you from carrying a weight that you don't
Speaker 1: need to carry. And so I think it's made me
Speaker 1: a better, stronger person. And I can call my dad
Speaker 1: at any hour at any time. You know, I've gone
Speaker 1: through some challenging times and he's been there all along
Speaker 1: the way with me. There is no one that will
Speaker 1: love you as much as your parents, I think, in
Speaker 1: this life. And so to take one of your parents
Speaker 1: out of your life, um for their imperfections if you can.
Speaker 1: You know, everyone's situation is different. But I think that
Speaker 1: my dad taught me also that forgiveness is powerful and
Speaker 1: forgiveness freeze yourself. Um, and for him, I'm eternally grateful
Speaker 1: for that gift in lesson because I learned it a
Speaker 1: lot earlier than most people learned it in their lives.
Speaker 1: When did you relocate to Texas? So when I was
Speaker 1: about one and a half, we moved to Dallas. We
Speaker 1: moved to oak Cliffe, which was a working class neighborhood,
Speaker 1: and I lived there until I was close to five
Speaker 1: and we moved back to Columbus, Ohio. My dad went
Speaker 1: to high school in Texas. He had two parents that
Speaker 1: were divorced, one lived in Ohio, one lived in Texas.
Speaker 1: And my mom is the oldest of nine kids from
Speaker 1: a very very poor, farm working family in southern Mexico.
Speaker 1: And my dad was traveling through Mexico in the seventies
Speaker 1: with a bunch of other students from ut Austin, hitchhiking
Speaker 1: backpacking around and he met my mother, UM and so
Speaker 1: I got this great upbringing. My white grandpa used to
Speaker 1: say we were pure bred Irish Mexican Americans. The new
Speaker 1: term I've learned on the campaign trails. People told me
Speaker 1: you can use the term Mike Mexican, so Mexican. It
Speaker 1: gave me this great view into the world that I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people don't have. So I grew
Speaker 1: up in between one world that was very white, upper
Speaker 1: middle class, one that was very brown and poor, and
Speaker 1: I got different lessons. I got to see that people,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day just all want the
Speaker 1: same things for their children. And I also got to
Speaker 1: see growing up, when I would go into doctors offices
Speaker 1: or meet with teachers, holding the hand of my mother,
Speaker 1: who spoke English with an accent and was dark skinned,
Speaker 1: we would be received differently than when we would go
Speaker 1: in with our father, who was white. And that taught
Speaker 1: me that there were different rules for different sets of people,
Speaker 1: and that they weren't based necessarily on how hard you
Speaker 1: worked or um based on any other characteristics besides where
Speaker 1: you came from and what you looked like. Where did
Speaker 1: you live during your high school years? I lived in Columbus, Ohio.
Speaker 1: I went to one of the best high schools, public schools,
Speaker 1: and Columbus called Upper Arlington. I hated it. I would
Speaker 1: skip school regularly to go to the library and read books.
Speaker 1: It was a nerd. And when you were done with school,
Speaker 1: where did you go to college? I went to Austin
Speaker 1: Community College, UM, and then I went to UT Austin
Speaker 1: and studied Latin Americas. You were all if you were
Speaker 1: all four years in Columbus. You spent your entire high
Speaker 1: school career in Columbus. What's the draw that took you
Speaker 1: back to Texas? And you keep coming back to Texas?
Speaker 1: So I hated cold weather, and I also didn't like
Speaker 1: Ohio very much UM at the time, and my parents
Speaker 1: used to tell me that I would love the city
Speaker 1: of Austin, Texas. You know, I couldn't remember going from
Speaker 1: when I was two or three years old, but I
Speaker 1: would look up articles about it in high school and
Speaker 1: every day I would look up the weather in Austin,
Speaker 1: and my parents told me it had some of the
Speaker 1: things I love most, which is year around sunshine, UH,
Speaker 1: lots of Mexicans and great food. And so I moved
Speaker 1: to Austin when I was twenty one. Actually I didn't
Speaker 1: know a single soul. I packed up a suitcase UM,
Speaker 1: took a plane and went and lived at the youth
Speaker 1: hostel and cleaned until I could find a place to
Speaker 1: live and work. And that's how I ended up in Austin.
Speaker 1: I didn't know anyone when I moved there. What's the
Speaker 1: first thing you engaged with? Workers? Defense on fund is
Speaker 1: not your first project, where it is, it's one of
Speaker 1: the first. So the first things I did, beside finding
Speaker 1: housing as I immediately started volunteering UM. I became an
Speaker 1: intern at several different organizations working with immigrants, and I
Speaker 1: found this organization that was just a volunteer project, like
Speaker 1: a legal clinic, helping workers mostly working in construction that
Speaker 1: wouldn't be paid for their work UM or we're being
Speaker 1: paid to three dollars a dollar an hour systematically. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I remember walking in when I was twenty one. I
Speaker 1: went to be a translator, and I thought that there'd
Speaker 1: be a few people, and it was a packed room,
Speaker 1: and every week there would be a new room of
Speaker 1: people coming in every story, just like you would leaving.
Speaker 1: You would cry after the first few times of being there,
Speaker 1: because I just couldn't believe that human beings would treat
Speaker 1: other human beings so badly. I remember the first case
Speaker 1: I worked on was for these workers that worked at
Speaker 1: a restaurant. They were making about like a dollar fifty
Speaker 1: an hour. Um, if you totaled up how many hours
Speaker 1: they worked. They worked every single day. They only had
Speaker 1: like evenings off on Sundays. And when we called the
Speaker 1: employers that you have to at least pay the minimum wage,
Speaker 1: which at the time was five fifteen an hour, it
Speaker 1: wasn't a great wage either. UM. Their response was they
Speaker 1: should feel lucky that they have a job, and if
Speaker 1: they don't like how they're being treated, they should crawl
Speaker 1: back to Mexico where they came from. And so it
Speaker 1: shocked me as a young person to know that this
Speaker 1: was the economic system we had created, where we were
Speaker 1: willing to accept undocumented workers labor, but not their humanity. Um.
Speaker 1: There's a beautiful quote from Frederick Douglas, slavery also hurt
Speaker 1: those that enslaved people, that it took away their humanity.
Speaker 1: And I feel like this system we created around undocumented
Speaker 1: workers in Texas also hurt our state's humanity and literally
Speaker 1: our economy was being built on the backs of undocumented workers.
Speaker 1: We had workers dying of heat exhaustion in Texas because
Speaker 1: it gets very hot and working twelve thirteen, fourteen hour days.
Speaker 1: And um, we passed in Dallas and in Austin the
Speaker 1: right to paid rest breaks because there was no law
Speaker 1: at the state or local level, And so that covers
Speaker 1: roughly two and fifty quarter million workers now benefit from that.
Speaker 1: Laws about something that got by you that you wished
Speaker 1: you had accomplished. We did help raise safety standards, but
Speaker 1: the death rate and the construction industry still stayed very high.
Speaker 1: So in Texas every two and a half days a
Speaker 1: construction worker is killed on the job. You have to
Speaker 1: understand in California they have nearly double the workforce that
Speaker 1: we do, and they have a third of the number
Speaker 1: of deaths. No state got anywhere as close as we did,
Speaker 1: UM with the number of people being just killed on
Speaker 1: the job, many times not even money to pay to
Speaker 1: send the bodies home. Anything understood that lobbyists or associations,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, organizations related to the
Speaker 1: building industry, they get things done the way they want
Speaker 1: them done. Yeah, And in Texas, one of the largest
Speaker 1: contributors to the Republican Party has consistently been the construction industry.
Speaker 1: Bob Perry was one of the wealthiest people in our state,
Speaker 1: was the largest individual homebuilder until he passed away. He
Speaker 1: was the largest single contributor to the Republican Party and
Speaker 1: candidates in our state. So the irony was not lost
Speaker 1: on me as a young person that here we had
Speaker 1: politicians that were link to scapegot undocumented immigrants, um. Not
Speaker 1: willing to protect their labor, um, not willing to protect
Speaker 1: their humanity, but we're willing to accept the economic resources
Speaker 1: that they helped create for their campaigns. Now, I always
Speaker 1: approach these things in terms of two phases. Phase one
Speaker 1: is you think about, boy, what would it be like
Speaker 1: And these are my words, by the way, boy, what
Speaker 1: would it be like to be in the Senate or governor,
Speaker 1: you know, statehouse, president, whatever you're I would love for
Speaker 1: you to run for president. Well, I would love to
Speaker 1: run for president, but I wouldn't win. That's the problem.
Speaker 1: I think you would win. I don't think. I think.
Speaker 1: I think, actually, in all seriousness, I think I'm the
Speaker 1: only person that could beat Trump. I think I'm the
Speaker 1: only person that could beat Trump, because I think you
Speaker 1: really need to be able to in a modified way
Speaker 1: fight him the way he fights, you have to really
Speaker 1: be I mean everybody that's running. Now, I look at
Speaker 1: all of them, I say, well, there's another job you
Speaker 1: should be. You should be attorney general, you should be
Speaker 1: on the Summe Court, you should be the secretary of State. Uh.
Speaker 1: One or two of them might have a chance of
Speaker 1: beating Trump, but it's not something that's a slam duck.
Speaker 1: And I'm really really tired by the way of And
Speaker 1: I'll get this off my chest because it's interesting to
Speaker 1: talk to you about this, which is, I'm really really
Speaker 1: tired of a lot of people who are running for president.
Speaker 1: They've got a lot of big ideas, and I haven't
Speaker 1: heard one convincing thing from Sanders, from Warren, none of them.
Speaker 1: How they're going to pay for it. Do you think
Speaker 1: that's a problem. So when I think about the reason
Speaker 1: part of the reason that Democrats lost in there are
Speaker 1: numerous reasons, of course, but one of the big reasons,
Speaker 1: coming from a state like Ohio and also working with
Speaker 1: peign working class people, is that Democrats were not, for
Speaker 1: a long time willing to talk about the deep economic
Speaker 1: pain that the majority of Americans feel. Um Americans don't
Speaker 1: have more than a thousand dollars in savings a thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: There are certain basic things that Americans want that I
Speaker 1: don't think is asking too much. I don't think that
Speaker 1: in the richest nation in the world, that it too
Speaker 1: much to ask that everyone be able to go to
Speaker 1: the doctor when they are sick and have the highest
Speaker 1: quality healthcare. We have a system right now where we
Speaker 1: have some of the worst health outcomes of any industrialized nation,
Speaker 1: and yet we pay the most. I mean, by any measure,
Speaker 1: that is a complete failure. So I think that the
Speaker 1: debate that Democrats are having about what are the basic
Speaker 1: rights and fundamental goods that every American should have is
Speaker 1: the right one. How you pay for it is also
Speaker 1: a good question to ask. Right now, people are already
Speaker 1: paying a lot for their healthcare when they pay co
Speaker 1: pays and deductibles and premiums, or when you look at
Speaker 1: the fact that how much we spend in our national
Speaker 1: budget on military and the shrinking portion we spend on education.
Speaker 1: I see the American people as an asset to our economy,
Speaker 1: and right now we don't measure them as an asset.
Speaker 1: I feel like as Democrats, people are unwilling sometimes to
Speaker 1: call out the real crisis that our nation faces and
Speaker 1: actually what the real emergencies are. And it's been Democrats
Speaker 1: sometimes that have said, we want to spend money on
Speaker 1: more borders security. They had a package several years ago
Speaker 1: to spend forty plus billion dollars on border security. Well,
Speaker 1: I live on the state with miles alongside Mexico. There
Speaker 1: are American communities that live alongside the border that don't
Speaker 1: have running water and electricity. That's the crisis on the border. Um,
Speaker 1: this has the highest uninsured rate in the country, some
Speaker 1: of the worst health outcomes, the worst infrastructure. That's the
Speaker 1: crisis that border communities face, not from families that are
Speaker 1: hungry and tired and that want a better life. I
Speaker 1: think that, um, we have a democracy and we have capitalism,
Speaker 1: and there's a constant friction between the two. But where
Speaker 1: that that friction creates choices where you choose one or
Speaker 1: the other, and they're always choosing capitalism of a democracy,
Speaker 1: You often wonder how much longer can it last? I mean,
Speaker 1: I think we're at a breaking proct We are at
Speaker 1: a break we Trump's election is already a signal that
Speaker 1: the first snap Yeah, and it's a question of when
Speaker 1: runaway inequality happens, you also have the demise of democracy. UM.
Speaker 1: That's why I think people fear the concentration of wealth
Speaker 1: because you also, when people have that much money, they
Speaker 1: have incredible not just wealth, they have incredible political power,
Speaker 1: and that dilutes everyone else's power and voice and a democracy. UM.
Speaker 1: I think that we've made some major failures, especially as progressives.
Speaker 1: We let for a long time Republicans control the debate
Speaker 1: about who deserved what in this country. UM. We allowed
Speaker 1: people to racialize welfare, including democrats. We allowed people to
Speaker 1: scapegold immigrants in our community and our economy when immigrants
Speaker 1: and people of color were not why the middle class
Speaker 1: was shrinking. The middle class was shrinking because corporations were
Speaker 1: heaping more and more of the wealth at the top
Speaker 1: and not sharing that wealth with all the workers that
Speaker 1: helped produce that wealth for them. In my mind, one
Speaker 1: of the biggest fundamental changes we need to make as
Speaker 1: a democracy in a country is to not only judge
Speaker 1: our economy how well big corporations are doing, but judge
Speaker 1: our economy by how well ordinary people are doing. How
Speaker 1: much do they have in savings, um, how much do
Speaker 1: they have in retirement of their debt ratio. By twenty
Speaker 1: the figure show that fort of student debt borrowers are
Speaker 1: going to be in default. That is our next big
Speaker 1: economic crisis. The question has been proposed me, do you
Speaker 1: think it's immoral to be a billionaire? I don't necessary.
Speaker 1: What I think is a society that does not look
Speaker 1: at how, by not judging our economy by how what
Speaker 1: ordinary people are doing. We have concentration of wealth that
Speaker 1: is a demise to our democracy. Um. Facebook employs what employees. Um,
Speaker 1: Yet they're one of the richest corporations in the whole world.
Speaker 1: Because they have so few employees, were not having enough
Speaker 1: of their wealth redistributed through our economy to have a
Speaker 1: strong economy. So I think it's also a question of
Speaker 1: like when does something become a monopoly. It's not to
Speaker 1: me about the individuals. To me, it's about the structure
Speaker 1: of us as a society, and are we building a
Speaker 1: strong structure for a strong society, for a strong democracy,
Speaker 1: for a strong economy. Right now, the concentration that we
Speaker 1: have is not building. They'll go full throttle until everything
Speaker 1: is destroyed. And the only lever to change that, I
Speaker 1: think is government. It's a bold and controversial vision of
Speaker 1: what government can be from Christina itsin soon. She thinks
Speaker 1: Texas is ready for it. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're
Speaker 1: listening to Here's the Thing