Speaker 1: You and Me Both is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm Hillary Clinton, and this is You and Me Both.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but the number one thing
Speaker 1: that keeps me up at night these days is the
Speaker 1: fragile state of democracy in our country. Over the past years,
Speaker 1: we've lived through some alarming assaults that have been decades
Speaker 1: in the making. You know, I saw unnerving signs that
Speaker 1: there were those who wanted to undermine our institutions, destroy
Speaker 1: the rule of law, rig and take over our elections,
Speaker 1: and not make it possible for a lot of people
Speaker 1: to fully participate. I saw all of that as a
Speaker 1: first lady, as senator, a presidential candidate, a Secretary of State.
Speaker 1: And yet even with all of that, I am surprised
Speaker 1: at how far these efforts have come. I may not
Speaker 1: hold public off us anymore, but I remain as committed
Speaker 1: as ever to doing everything I can to protect and
Speaker 1: preserve our democracy. And over the course of this season
Speaker 1: of You and Me Both, We're going to take a
Speaker 1: hard look from various advantage points about the state of
Speaker 1: our democracy. I'll be talking to experts and leaders and
Speaker 1: advocates who are doing incredible work on the front lines
Speaker 1: today to kick us off. We're looking at how our
Speaker 1: democracy is doing at the state and local level, which
Speaker 1: sad to say, is not so great. Now, later, we're
Speaker 1: going to hear from a phenomenal young elected public servant
Speaker 1: out of Texas, Harris County Judge Lena Hidalgo. But first
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Ohio based political strategist David Pepper. David
Speaker 1: is someone I've known and admired for quite some time.
Speaker 1: Back in his home state of Ohio. He has served
Speaker 1: on the Cincinnati City Council and as chairman of the
Speaker 1: Ohio Democratic Party. David's the author of a new book
Speaker 1: called Laboratories of Autocracy, and he explains in the book
Speaker 1: about all the ways that a state and its powers
Speaker 1: can impact on our lives. He's got an incredible grasp
Speaker 1: of what's happening not only in Ohio but more generally
Speaker 1: at the state level, and he's got a way of
Speaker 1: explaining it so that we can all understand. So that's
Speaker 1: why I'm so excited to have him on this podcast.
Speaker 1: The first question I had for David is what led
Speaker 1: him to write this new book. What was he seeing
Speaker 1: in his state of Ohio and beyond across our country.
Speaker 1: I had no intention of writing a book at all
Speaker 1: last year, but by out April, my level of alarm
Speaker 1: about the state level attacks on democracy that most folks
Speaker 1: don't see or the media doesn't cover got so heightened
Speaker 1: that I started frantically writing this book to sound the alarm.
Speaker 1: And the subtitle is a wake up call from behind
Speaker 1: the lines. And that's literally why I wrote it, was
Speaker 1: to say all those out there, you know, in different
Speaker 1: parts of the country, you have to pay attention to
Speaker 1: these state house attacks on democracy. They're relentless and they're effective,
Speaker 1: and if we don't do something about them in almost
Speaker 1: every way we think about politics, they will continue in
Speaker 1: downward spiral. And even since I've written and it's gotten worse.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate the chance to talk about today. Well,
Speaker 1: the title of your book, Laboratories of Autocracy, is a
Speaker 1: play on the wonderful phrase from Supreme Court Justice brandis
Speaker 1: his idea that states are the laboratories of democracy. In
Speaker 1: other words, you know, states could try different things, how
Speaker 1: best to provide health care or educate kids, all kinds
Speaker 1: of experimentation which then could be proven at the state level,
Speaker 1: and other states could follow, and even the national federal
Speaker 1: government could learn, and so the idea that you took
Speaker 1: what was viewed as a very positive description of what
Speaker 1: states could do laboratories of democracy, and turned it on
Speaker 1: its head to be laboratories of autocracy, I think goes
Speaker 1: right to the heart of the problem. Most people, David
Speaker 1: don't know or realize how much power state legislatures, state
Speaker 1: governments have, right and in justice, Brandeis was right. You know,
Speaker 1: we've seen, whether it was the Affordable Care Act coming
Speaker 1: out of state ideas, whether it was the battle to
Speaker 1: create marriage equality, that was state level momentum. I turned
Speaker 1: the title in its head because folks turned the role
Speaker 1: of states on their head over the last forty years.
Speaker 1: And you know this sound disrespectful. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of good state reps working very hard, But the broader
Speaker 1: point is that state houses basically have emerged as the
Speaker 1: Achilles heel of American governance because of a mismatch huge
Speaker 1: amounts of power. No one knows about it. That's not
Speaker 1: good for democracy. The power is over almost every issue
Speaker 1: we care about, politics, economics, social policy, climate change. But
Speaker 1: then there's also the immense power over democracy itself. You know,
Speaker 1: they set the rules of the elections for the most part,
Speaker 1: although Congress cannons should do more to fight back on
Speaker 1: those they draw the district lines, as Donald Trump figured
Speaker 1: out too late, but it's the fact they control the
Speaker 1: electoral college process in many ways. So huge power over
Speaker 1: the substance of things we all care about, and then
Speaker 1: the huge power over democracy itself. Almost no one knows.
Speaker 1: But here's the bad news. Certain insiders figured it out,
Speaker 1: as you pointed out, for years decades ago. And if
Speaker 1: certain insiders figured out a lot of money and the
Speaker 1: average person doesn't, it, things get ugly real quick. And
Speaker 1: that's sort of what the book walks through. Well, I
Speaker 1: think it's such an important point, and I tried to
Speaker 1: sound the alarm starting in the nineties that there really
Speaker 1: was a well organized and extremely well funded effort to
Speaker 1: take over state houses, state elected offices, state judicial systems,
Speaker 1: local offices, and not just to wield power, but to
Speaker 1: wield power for purposes that sadly read down to the
Speaker 1: benefit of those on the right, corporate power, ideological power,
Speaker 1: even in some cases religious power. And Donald Trump sort
Speaker 1: of lit an even bigger fire under it. And so
Speaker 1: now clearly it's on steroids. But let's start with Ohio,
Speaker 1: because that's where you've been living and working most of
Speaker 1: your adult life. I mean, one of the things I
Speaker 1: was surprised about when I was running for president in
Speaker 1: is how actively the Ohio government apparatus had purged voters.
Speaker 1: Millions of Ohio voters who had voted in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight and two thousand and twelve, mostly for Barack Obama,
Speaker 1: were wiped from the voting rules. And I did not
Speaker 1: know that until you know, I got into it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a group of people who understand that their worldview
Speaker 1: would not survive in a robust democracy. Trick O on
Speaker 1: economics would not survive in a robust democracy. Too many
Speaker 1: people are left out, attacking Roe v. Wade NonStop, the
Speaker 1: crazy gun laws. None of that would survive in a
Speaker 1: world of robust democracy. They know that. So while we're
Speaker 1: fighting over elections, they're fighting democracy itself because only by
Speaker 1: keeping it at bay can they get their worldview in place.
Speaker 1: Long term. They need suppressed democracy. So decades ago they
Speaker 1: understood that state houses are heart of democracy, and they
Speaker 1: could weaponize state houses to both you know, get their
Speaker 1: substant events done in undemocratic state houses as well as
Speaker 1: you state houses to divert democracy Therefore they could get
Speaker 1: a worldview that's a minority view. They would not survive
Speaker 1: in a diverse majority, which we are today. And that's
Speaker 1: that's really what they've been doing in Ohio. We are
Speaker 1: the canary in the coal mine because, as you know,
Speaker 1: we weren't just blue and oh eight for Obama. Ted
Speaker 1: Strickland was the governor, our good friend. We had a
Speaker 1: democratic state house. And what they showed over the next decade,
Speaker 1: they were so furious that Obama turned Ohio blue and
Speaker 1: O eight, not just because it was about the presidency.
Speaker 1: What happened when he went into eight that Obama coalition
Speaker 1: won us the state house. We had ten members out
Speaker 1: of eighteen of Congress Democrats did after O eight. So
Speaker 1: the Obama Coalition, more than just Obama was as massive threat.
Speaker 1: And as we saw beginning and ten, they went to
Speaker 1: town intentionally going after the coalition that they knew was
Speaker 1: a threat long term, that represented the majority that would
Speaker 1: otherwise never let them accomplish their substantive goals. So they
Speaker 1: went after early vote because that was the way that
Speaker 1: Obama coalition voted disproportionately. They went after young voters. But
Speaker 1: the tool they used in Ohio that was so effective,
Speaker 1: like Georgia was purging. And by the way, just to
Speaker 1: be cleared to voters who may not know this, you
Speaker 1: can update your voting rules quite simply based on who's
Speaker 1: passed away and who's moved. The Post Office generates the
Speaker 1: list of who's moved on a regular basis. Health departments
Speaker 1: generate lists of who's passed away. That's not hard to do.
Speaker 1: It's the twenty one century. In Ohio, they also were
Speaker 1: purging people who vote infrequently. That's the net that has
Speaker 1: caught up millions of voters, disproportionately Obama voters, your voters,
Speaker 1: Democratic voters, and as I walked through in the book
Speaker 1: and your campaign, herculean effort to find those purge voters
Speaker 1: in sixteen months of it. But even with the resources
Speaker 1: and the capacity of your campaign, it's what everyone's focused on.
Speaker 1: We all worked hard, and we worked together. I was
Speaker 1: a chair then to get them all registered. We still
Speaker 1: didn't come close to how many been purged. And by
Speaker 1: the way, that also meant we weren't using resources to
Speaker 1: talk to swing voters or registered voters because we were
Speaker 1: doing everything we could to get those unregistereds back on,
Speaker 1: so they end up forcing to burn everything at both ends,
Speaker 1: and it has a massive impact. It's a devastating case
Speaker 1: study that when they decide to target the electorate that's
Speaker 1: defeating them, it works. So why did they fail in
Speaker 1: twenty Well, one reason is this mechanism of voting drop
Speaker 1: boxes that no one's ever cared about before. Drop boxes
Speaker 1: are an anchorage Alaska, there in some laxity of Utah,
Speaker 1: no one cared. But in twenty those drop boxes were
Speaker 1: disproportionately used by voters of color. So now what are
Speaker 1: they doing. They targeted the Obama coalition with early voted purging.
Speaker 1: Now it's drop boxes. And this is why I reject
Speaker 1: the notion we'll just out organize all this. Of course,
Speaker 1: we need to organize as hard as we ever have,
Speaker 1: but the response to voter suppression enacted by law must
Speaker 1: also be government pushing back at the federal level to
Speaker 1: just say to your volunteers or future volunteers, just go organize.
Speaker 1: In some states that will work, But when it's close
Speaker 1: enough and the suppression is brutal enough, the greatest volunteer
Speaker 1: effort in the world is not going to be enough
Speaker 1: to overcome the kind of suppression we're talking about. So
Speaker 1: the whole point of the book has to say, if
Speaker 1: we don't start engaging at the state level, ending jerrymandering
Speaker 1: when we can, but running in every district to at
Speaker 1: least hold them accountable, that lack of accountability is how
Speaker 1: everything else keeps going, and we're seeing that in painful
Speaker 1: ways in states like Ohio. Well, I know our listeners
Speaker 1: cannot see me nodding vigorously in agreement with you, David,
Speaker 1: but it is heartbreaking to me on several counts. One
Speaker 1: that we have this well organized, well funded effort to
Speaker 1: upend democracy, to seize power, to promote what are truly unpopular,
Speaker 1: less than majority points of view, and that the other
Speaker 1: side is relentless. And I think it's important for people
Speaker 1: to understand who's behind this. Where did this really all
Speaker 1: come from? In your opinion, So it's a convergence of
Speaker 1: several things. You know, a lot of it was driven
Speaker 1: by dollars. The Koch Brothers a worldview ideology of trickling
Speaker 1: on economics that they view any kind of stronger government
Speaker 1: as a threat too, because it's gonna pass regulations or
Speaker 1: enact tax policies that they view takes their dollars and
Speaker 1: and it goes beyond them, It goes to a broader population.
Speaker 1: They don't like the type of economics that you know,
Speaker 1: President Clinton led and Democrats always lead on, which is
Speaker 1: a middle class based economy. They knew that is taking
Speaker 1: from them. That's a big part of it, and that's
Speaker 1: what's funding. You know, I won't I don't go through
Speaker 1: all the acronyms, but a like the American Legislative Exchange
Speaker 1: Counsel they haired his foundation. The people funding that are
Speaker 1: largely you know, people like the Koke Brothers, large corporations
Speaker 1: that view any government interference with their quote unquote economic
Speaker 1: liberty as a threat. But we also need to acknowledge
Speaker 1: we have this very sad history of white backlash whenever
Speaker 1: there's a diverse majority that arises in our country and
Speaker 1: saying okay, we're gonna we're gonna run the show. It
Speaker 1: happened after the reconstruction. You know, huge numbers of registered
Speaker 1: black voters in the South, more black voters and write
Speaker 1: voters in states like Louisiana. They were electing black mayors
Speaker 1: and council members and state house speakers and even members
Speaker 1: of Congress. Backlash was fierce, you know, allegations of voter fraud, violence,
Speaker 1: and that backlash led to a century of Jim Crow.
Speaker 1: We saw it, you know, after the Civil rights movement
Speaker 1: and the laws of the sixties, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the Southern strategy. We saw it after Obama. Winn Is
Speaker 1: Isabel Wilkerson writes, Obama winning when many ways was this
Speaker 1: shock to this world that doesn't want a diverse majority.
Speaker 1: He symbolized it that Obama coas civilized it what happens
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven boom. They immediately pushed back. And obviously
Speaker 1: the prospect that large numbers of African American voters in
Speaker 1: Atlanta and Detroit, in Philadelphia elected Biden and Harris also
Speaker 1: triggers is fierce backlash. So there's economics, but there's also
Speaker 1: that very somber history. And again I wrote my book
Speaker 1: frantically for several reasons. One is I have a five
Speaker 1: and a seven year old, and I don't want them
Speaker 1: spending the rest of their lives fighting for democracy that
Speaker 1: we lost. Number Two, when I look at the history,
Speaker 1: the lessons of what we have to do are so
Speaker 1: clear from that history that I want to write it down.
Speaker 1: I have people read it because I think if you
Speaker 1: see the similarities to what led to not a decade
Speaker 1: of Jim Crow but generations of Jim Crowe are so
Speaker 1: stark that if that doesn't wake you up, I don't
Speaker 1: know what will. We're taking a quick break. Stay with us.
Speaker 1: You know, when you concentrate on Ohio, which you know
Speaker 1: is such an important state and every every way, but
Speaker 1: particularly in elections, as you know so well, you really
Speaker 1: bring it alive and shine a bright spotlight um on
Speaker 1: what's happening in your state. And I guess I would
Speaker 1: have to ask why are local politicians more invisible to
Speaker 1: everyday voters than they once were? How much of that
Speaker 1: is due to the fact that we don't have local
Speaker 1: newspaper In most places, we have what are called, you know,
Speaker 1: news deserts where there are no reporters covering city hall anymore.
Speaker 1: It's a huge part of it. I always think about
Speaker 1: it this way, what are the things that make the
Speaker 1: Koch brothers happy, and let's figure out how to do
Speaker 1: the opposite, okay? And what do they love? They love
Speaker 1: that no one covers state houses. They love that local
Speaker 1: papers are dying so that local state rep who everyone
Speaker 1: used to know, people don't even know what that person
Speaker 1: is doing. They love that. In Ohio, you know, a
Speaker 1: third of the races, the average margin of victory for
Speaker 1: a decade was or more so, no one even knew
Speaker 1: an election was happening. So the point is, yes, what
Speaker 1: you described is one of the key ways that there's
Speaker 1: no awareness. State house bureaus are dying. Ohio, by the way,
Speaker 1: we have a very strong one. There's still a city
Speaker 1: hall reporter in Cincinnati, but a lot of cities, the
Speaker 1: state house people are the first to go. It's further away,
Speaker 1: it's a bigger expense they have to live up there.
Speaker 1: And then the local papers just disappearing, not bigger cities,
Speaker 1: but smaller. Like I said, that means that the coverage
Speaker 1: of the individual officeholder from you know, Mansfield or from Manchester,
Speaker 1: no coverage whatsoever. So that combination is bad. And I'll
Speaker 1: just give a couple of other layers for this. You know.
Speaker 1: One other aspect that's often overlooked is that that a
Speaker 1: lot of the institutional knowledge of these papers is also
Speaker 1: getting hollowed out. When you and I, you know, would
Speaker 1: go to newspapers to get endorsements, you would have six
Speaker 1: or seven members of an editorial board. Many of those
Speaker 1: editorial boards are either gone or down to one person
Speaker 1: just like you have. You know, these long term calumnists
Speaker 1: that understand state houses, that know what a jerrymandered or
Speaker 1: a crazy budget looks like, they're all gone. So not
Speaker 1: only is the coverage of the facts much less intense
Speaker 1: or hardly at all there, but the people can provide
Speaker 1: a less heated analysis and Twitter or k Able who
Speaker 1: could say right now which needs to be said, The
Speaker 1: current attempt at jerrymander Ohio is absurd. And don't take
Speaker 1: it from David Pepper, a Democrat, take it from us
Speaker 1: at this paper. We've seen this for thirty years. This
Speaker 1: is the worst we've ever seen. All that institutional knowledge
Speaker 1: is also gone because they can't afford it. So if
Speaker 1: the state house business in in Columbus gets no attention
Speaker 1: and the elections essentially are predetermined, no one knows what's happening.
Speaker 1: And here's the worst part, there's a double whammy to this.
Speaker 1: We now have, because of jerrymandering, an entire generation of
Speaker 1: both officeholders and citizens who essentially don't think of their
Speaker 1: state house politics as a democracy. They've never really had
Speaker 1: a choice over these things, and that's really damaging long
Speaker 1: term I agree completely. Well, let's switch to the recommendations
Speaker 1: that you make, because you end the book which is
Speaker 1: so gripping and I highly recommend it to every one,
Speaker 1: but you end with a bunch of strategies to get
Speaker 1: our states back from being laboratories of autocracy to truly
Speaker 1: laboratories of democracy, and you reframe the whole discussion that
Speaker 1: we should be having at you know, national, state, local,
Speaker 1: even individual levels. So why don't you run through some
Speaker 1: of those, David? Sure? So let me just the way
Speaker 1: I try and frame it is, you have one side
Speaker 1: that has believed that democracy is intact us and we
Speaker 1: generally focus on federal elections to get the substance outcomes
Speaker 1: we want right, and that generally means we go to
Speaker 1: swing states where we can get our federal majorities for president,
Speaker 1: senate outs. The other side is not battling that battle.
Speaker 1: They are in a very different battle. Their battle because
Speaker 1: they know democracy is inconsistent with their worldview. Their battle
Speaker 1: is against democracy itself. They fight their battle everywhere every year,
Speaker 1: at all levels. And as my seven year old who
Speaker 1: plays soccer would would even observe, if one side is
Speaker 1: always on offense everywhere and you're playing in a few
Speaker 1: stage in a few years. Who's gonna win. They're gonna win.
Speaker 1: They are winning. Because of this, we have to change
Speaker 1: our mindset. First and foremost, we gotta go to where
Speaker 1: the battle really is, which is where they're taking it
Speaker 1: democracy itself. That reframes everything, and I go through all
Speaker 1: the specific ways everyone can take part, but big picture,
Speaker 1: what does that mean? First you adjust your mindset. This
Speaker 1: is a long game battle. The best near term example
Speaker 1: Stacy Abrams. She knew Georgia was a long struggle for democracy.
Speaker 1: If she had simply given up every time Georgia was read,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have a blue Georgia. Even when she didn't
Speaker 1: quite win the eighteen governors election because of a very
Speaker 1: tainted process by the opponent. Even that day where she
Speaker 1: stood up and said I'm not going to be governor,
Speaker 1: she said, we made progress. She has a long game mindset.
Speaker 1: She knew every voter that voted in her record turnout,
Speaker 1: every registered voter, every door knock was progress. Two years later,
Speaker 1: it was right she was She knew that it was
Speaker 1: a long game. So change the frame of everything, as
Speaker 1: are you billing toward the long game or aren't you
Speaker 1: measure your success. Accordingly, it also means get out of
Speaker 1: only thing about swing states. If your competee for democracy,
Speaker 1: no state should not have a democracy. It's guaranteed the
Speaker 1: Constitution that everyone have a republican form of government. Make
Speaker 1: that real. So we should reframe our political approach fighting
Speaker 1: for democracy all over the country. And that also means
Speaker 1: at all levels state House, state, Supreme Court seats, sector
Speaker 1: of state. No longer let the Koke brothers be the
Speaker 1: only people focused on these things. Let me put it
Speaker 1: this way. We love to get excited about the most
Speaker 1: exciting candidates. You think the Koke Brothers care about who's exciting. No,
Speaker 1: if you are in a state rep spot and you win,
Speaker 1: they love you because you're gonna do what they say. Well,
Speaker 1: I love when we've excited candidates. We all get excited.
Speaker 1: But when when it comes to putting our money into
Speaker 1: races or volunteering, if someone is running for an important
Speaker 1: seat that could affect democracy, and that could be school
Speaker 1: board two as we now know, help them out. Don't
Speaker 1: just wait for the greatest candidate you've ever seen. One
Speaker 1: other thing I would say in the battle for democracy,
Speaker 1: if all we do is focus on swing races in
Speaker 1: certain states or any states. That's a short game mentality,
Speaker 1: because we are thinking, well, the only thing we're gonna
Speaker 1: measure ourselves on is if we win the five or
Speaker 1: six swing seats in that state next year. Long game,
Speaker 1: it's a disaster to leave thirty seats unchallenged in any
Speaker 1: state else. That's thirty places where they never hear our message,
Speaker 1: mainly in rural parts of these states. It's thirty places
Speaker 1: where the incumbent never feels accountability, never feels challenged. We
Speaker 1: have to recruit to run everywhere. We need to celebrate
Speaker 1: someone running in a Jerrymander district as much as in
Speaker 1: a swing district. They are walking to a race they
Speaker 1: probably gonna lose. We should celebrate them for stepping up.
Speaker 1: And again, when you think about it as a long game,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden that makes per for sense. People
Speaker 1: running in Ohio and every district every two years. That's powerful.
Speaker 1: That's how you win the battle for democracy. That's the
Speaker 1: best thing for Tim Ryan is if they're none in
Speaker 1: the House districts. It's the best thing for Stacy Abrams
Speaker 1: because they're carrying the message. There lifting turnout. If all
Speaker 1: you care about is this federal game, and you don't
Speaker 1: worry about democracy. You'll never support those non swing candidates,
Speaker 1: you won't even recruit them. You know. I cannot help
Speaker 1: but underscore that by saying, it's been one of my
Speaker 1: real disappointments that democratic donors, democratic political consultants, democratic activists,
Speaker 1: democratic voters are so focused on the immediate, the flashy,
Speaker 1: who's the candidate of the moment, And we haven't had
Speaker 1: people on our side of the political divide invest in media.
Speaker 1: The other side certainly has, as we know very well,
Speaker 1: they haven't invested in the kind of institutions that you mentioned,
Speaker 1: like ALEC that has helped to put really regressive legislative
Speaker 1: agendas through state legislatures across the country. They are so
Speaker 1: candidate focused, and it's mostly a very narrow group of
Speaker 1: candidates who attract their money and their attention. And it's
Speaker 1: almost the opposite of playing the long games. I could
Speaker 1: not agree with you more. Well, before we wrap up,
Speaker 1: I have to ask you, how do we inspire young
Speaker 1: people to actually get in that arena and run for
Speaker 1: these offices and, as you rightly point out, run for
Speaker 1: every one of them. Yeah, I mean, I think we
Speaker 1: reframe it as the broader battle for democracy. We have
Speaker 1: to say, these young people, don't let the last ten
Speaker 1: years make you think that politics can't be about good
Speaker 1: public service. You know, there's a reason why back in
Speaker 1: the day a John Glenn wanted to be in politics
Speaker 1: a noble pursuit. It's how you change the world for
Speaker 1: the good. It was patriotic. And we're seeing right now
Speaker 1: a whole army of people like Josh Mandel in Ohio
Speaker 1: or Josh Holly running for the worst reasons. And so
Speaker 1: I think we have to find people and say, not
Speaker 1: long ago, this was where you went if you want
Speaker 1: to make a difference, and and then frame at all
Speaker 1: is a much broader battle for democracy than it currently
Speaker 1: is seen. And we have to all do this with
Speaker 1: funders and voices. We need to celebrate everyone who runs.
Speaker 1: That itself is a victory for democracy. They just gave
Speaker 1: people a choice that those rigging these elections didn't want
Speaker 1: them to have. We need to come up with mechanisms
Speaker 1: to say to every one of these people who runs,
Speaker 1: we're not just gonna encourage you to run, We're gonna
Speaker 1: lift you. We gotta take the billions that are spent
Speaker 1: presidential races and smooth it out over four years over
Speaker 1: the entire country. So we asked someone to run, and
Speaker 1: we celebrate the patriotism and them running. We also back
Speaker 1: it up with support, so it's got to be frame
Speaker 1: it better. But once you're in, we're still there. And
Speaker 1: if you lose, which many will lose in Drayman District,
Speaker 1: we don't walk away, but Democrats walk away from people
Speaker 1: who lose, and it's terrible. Some of my favorite, some
Speaker 1: of my favorite people in Ohio that I keep up
Speaker 1: with all the time, we're veterans or people who were
Speaker 1: the first in their family go to college, who ran
Speaker 1: an impossible districts. Because of their runs, they actually lifted
Speaker 1: other people to victory, to state House or somewhere else.
Speaker 1: We need to say to them that victory is partly
Speaker 1: because of you, and we're gonna keep going with you
Speaker 1: because you did something that was really tough. In a
Speaker 1: long game, every election, even if you lose, if you
Speaker 1: do it right, is additive to the next election. More
Speaker 1: voters voted, more voters registered, and we have to surround
Speaker 1: all these candidates with that kind of thinking versus thanks
Speaker 1: for running. You're not in a swing district, so you
Speaker 1: don't get support, and after you lose. It's like you
Speaker 1: never ran. That's a guaranteed long term failure. We have
Speaker 1: to change all that, and I think then will get
Speaker 1: a lot more people interested. I agree with that a percent.
Speaker 1: David Pepper, I am so happy to talk with you today,
Speaker 1: and I'm so grateful that you are out there in
Speaker 1: the arena every day with your speaking and your writing
Speaker 1: and your advocacy and everything you've been doing, not only
Speaker 1: in Ohio but around U the world. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Just was an honor to speak with you. David Pepper's
Speaker 1: book is called Laboratories of Autocracy, and you can follow
Speaker 1: him on Twitter for regular updates from the front lines
Speaker 1: of this crucial battle for our country's future. Well, that
Speaker 1: conversation is the perfect setup for me to introduce you
Speaker 1: to someone whom I really like and admire. Her name
Speaker 1: is Lena Hidalgo. She lives in Texas, and in ten
Speaker 1: at the ripe age of twenty seven, she ran four
Speaker 1: and was elected Harris County Judge. Now Harris County is
Speaker 1: where Houston is one of the biggest of all cities
Speaker 1: in our country, and Lena beat a three time incumbent,
Speaker 1: becoming the first woman and first Latina to hold that office.
Speaker 1: Since then, she's demonstrated time and again that voters made
Speaker 1: the right choice in Lena was featured on the Forbes
Speaker 1: thirty Under thirty list for her achievements in setting fairer
Speaker 1: tax rates and implementing disaster relief initiatives, and in one
Speaker 1: she won a John F. Kennedy New Frontiers Award for
Speaker 1: all of her initiatives around COVID relief. I was so
Speaker 1: delighted to be speaking with her about her life and
Speaker 1: her service and what she's seeing on the ground in
Speaker 1: the battleground state of Texas. I want to start on
Speaker 1: a really basic level, Lena, asking you what is a
Speaker 1: county judge? What does it do in Texas? I think
Speaker 1: people understand what a mayor is or even a governor,
Speaker 1: But county judge, especially for such a big county like
Speaker 1: Harris County, is a new term for some of our listeners. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: it's sort of a misnomer. You hear judge and you
Speaker 1: think you know a judicial role deciding on the outcomes
Speaker 1: of court cases. That is not this rule. The county
Speaker 1: judge in Texas is the county executive, and so I
Speaker 1: am the county executive for Harris County, which is the
Speaker 1: third largest county in the country. It is larger than
Speaker 1: twenty six states about the population of Colorado. So we've
Speaker 1: got we've got four point seven million people home to Houston,
Speaker 1: that's our largest city, and thirty three smaller cities. And
Speaker 1: I helped manage the budget about a five billion dollar budget, roads, bridges,
Speaker 1: flood control, libraries or jail, our justice system, um parks,
Speaker 1: you name it. But there's also a whole lot of
Speaker 1: good that can be done on top of that with
Speaker 1: that budget. So that's part of what I've been focused on. UM.
Speaker 1: But so it's it's me and and four commissioners. We
Speaker 1: formed the board that controls the budget for this huge county. Well,
Speaker 1: I want to go back a little bit and learn
Speaker 1: more about you. You were born in Bogata, Columbia, uh in,
Speaker 1: which is to say, you are thirty years old and
Speaker 1: came to the United States with your family in two
Speaker 1: thousand five, and byen you were running for high office.
Speaker 1: Now give us a little bit of journey that you
Speaker 1: made to get to where you are today. I will
Speaker 1: in Secretary, I'll spoil the ending, which is you have
Speaker 1: a lot to do with it, you know, So I
Speaker 1: was born in Columbia during the drug war, and it
Speaker 1: was kidnappings and ball blocked from our house. Of course,
Speaker 1: my parents wanted to keep us safe. My dad got
Speaker 1: a job in Peru and that was about the time
Speaker 1: that Fujimori was president. He was later indicted, convicted for
Speaker 1: corruption and other other charges. So then when we moved
Speaker 1: to Mexico as well, a period of a lot of
Speaker 1: political upheaval, corruption, et cetera. By the time we moved
Speaker 1: to Texas, government was the last thing I wanted anything
Speaker 1: to do with. I was just cynical about it. Um
Speaker 1: and my parents sent me to public school, the one
Speaker 1: that was assigned to our area. And I was just
Speaker 1: horrified because before I had watched them sort of make
Speaker 1: such an effort to keep me in private schools in
Speaker 1: Latin America, I could tell that was like the one
Speaker 1: thing that if we sacrificed everything else, they wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure I went to private school. Well, I show
Speaker 1: up to public school here and it was an incredible school,
Speaker 1: Tennis courts, film room, newspaper dissecting pigs, and biology class.
Speaker 1: And so I began to ask as an aside, obviously,
Speaker 1: not all public schools are are that fantastic? But look,
Speaker 1: just the possibility is something that I could not contemplate
Speaker 1: back then. So I began tast what is it that
Speaker 1: makes government work, that makes it accountable, makes it deliver?
Speaker 1: And I studied that at Stanford. I went to work
Speaker 1: on on promoting good government free expression abroad, and um,
Speaker 1: I thought I'd work sort of outside the system, beating
Speaker 1: it into shape as an activist, as a civil rights attorney.
Speaker 1: And then the election happened. I was in the middle
Speaker 1: of grad school. I was at n y U and Harvard,
Speaker 1: at the Kennedy School, and your incredible strength, your incredible
Speaker 1: dignity power, and my seeing if someone like Donald Trump
Speaker 1: can win and can run, why can't I? And it
Speaker 1: felt more dire than ever. So I'm one of thousands
Speaker 1: of women that you inspired to say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm going to see this through. I run unopposed secretary
Speaker 1: because people were so scared of the status quo here
Speaker 1: deep in the heart of Texas, and nobody thought we
Speaker 1: could win, and we won. And since then we have
Speaker 1: changed so much. And so what I want to I
Speaker 1: hope I can convey to day to folks is change
Speaker 1: has happened in Texas. Change can happen in Texas, and
Speaker 1: it is so happening that they're coming at us with
Speaker 1: relentless attacks and cruelty. But it's because of our success
Speaker 1: and we are undaunted. I love that, you know, because
Speaker 1: that is exactly what I have watched from afar from
Speaker 1: the time that you got elected. Um. You were, by
Speaker 1: the way, a run for something candidate, a group that
Speaker 1: I have supported through my umbrella group. Onward together. What
Speaker 1: did you learn about yourself when you started running for
Speaker 1: county judge? In just the resiliency that that we all have.
Speaker 1: You know, I can't tell you how many meetings I
Speaker 1: had where people looked at me and and I'm sitting
Speaker 1: here in front of you. I'd like to pretend them
Speaker 1: five too, but really I'm five one and three quarters
Speaker 1: and um, and so you know, people would just kind
Speaker 1: of look me up and down and said, you you know,
Speaker 1: you want to be the executive of this county? Had
Speaker 1: always been a man, of course, needless to say, yeah,
Speaker 1: there never been a woman, and never anyone Latina or Latino.
Speaker 1: And the five member board there had only ever been
Speaker 1: one woman elected um for one of the commissioners seats. Now,
Speaker 1: these these county leadership seats are ones that don't normally
Speaker 1: switch hands in competitive elections. Historically it's been when he
Speaker 1: dies or is convicted of a crime, or retires and
Speaker 1: appoints a pal and so. Um. It was a lot
Speaker 1: of that's very cute, sort of bless her heart, you know.
Speaker 1: But there were groups like Run for Something and others
Speaker 1: who said, you know, we need to support this change,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people were behind us. And I
Speaker 1: learned that that is how change is achieved. You can
Speaker 1: never be sure. You can do everything right and still lose.
Speaker 1: You can do everything wrong and still win. But for
Speaker 1: many people as beyond their wildest dreams that this could
Speaker 1: be done, and it was so worth it just just
Speaker 1: because of the policies we've implemented. Well, you've emphasized transparent,
Speaker 1: accountable government. Um, and you've made such a difference already.
Speaker 1: You had the first ever open transition process, you had
Speaker 1: seven town hall meetings, you did a survey of your constituents.
Speaker 1: You've ensured that these commissioners meet where actual community members
Speaker 1: are attending. I mean, you've really adept the process and
Speaker 1: I think that's made a difference, don't you. Absolutely Before
Speaker 1: we got here, these billions of dollars, right, five billion
Speaker 1: dollars annually were distributed in meetings that lasted forty five
Speaker 1: minutes every two weeks um. The budget process was whatever
Speaker 1: we gave them last year, plus two person for inflation.
Speaker 1: Most notably, and and many folks may not know this,
Speaker 1: it's very common in the states where laws against this
Speaker 1: don't exist, for local elected officials to fund their campaigns
Speaker 1: with contributions from the contractors that do business with their locality.
Speaker 1: So that's not just Harris County or just Texas as
Speaker 1: cities and county governments. So just imagine, right, we built
Speaker 1: these roads, these bridges, these buildings. It's enormously expensive projects
Speaker 1: millions and sometimes billions, and then you see the cow
Speaker 1: First there was just an expose in the Houston Chronicle
Speaker 1: where seventy plus percent of the contributions come from these contractors.
Speaker 1: So it was so funny because you know, when I
Speaker 1: was running, I needed fundraising help, and groups like Run
Speaker 1: for Something and others. Of course, the community helped us
Speaker 1: raise the funds we needed, but the sort of lead
Speaker 1: fundraisers in town, they wouldn't give me the time of day.
Speaker 1: Right when we won, I won't name names, but there
Speaker 1: was one in particular, you know, and and the and
Speaker 1: this person said, okay, I'll do the fundraising for you now.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, the thing is, I feel uncomfortable
Speaker 1: taking contributions from people who do business with Harris County
Speaker 1: or who want to do business with Harris County. And
Speaker 1: then this person said, never mind. And I haven't talked
Speaker 1: to them since. And but you know what, we've shown
Speaker 1: that it can be done. And then you know, to
Speaker 1: your point about just the policy making, it's co governance.
Speaker 1: So as we said policy be at homelessness, be at
Speaker 1: disaster recovery, be at veterans, we invite community members to
Speaker 1: design the actual program to the decision making table. And
Speaker 1: sometimes it means we say look for X, Y Z.
Speaker 1: Reason that doesn't make a whole lot of sense right now,
Speaker 1: it's not as important in the priority list. So it's
Speaker 1: an honest conversation. But I've found there are great ideas
Speaker 1: we would have never come up with. I love hearing
Speaker 1: that because I think you've figured out a way to
Speaker 1: get people involved at every stage of the process. But
Speaker 1: I also think that your success, both your success being
Speaker 1: elected and your success in governing, is one of the
Speaker 1: many reasons why the Texas state government is trying to
Speaker 1: restrict voters access to the polls, trying to make it
Speaker 1: harder to vote. What are you seeing happening on that front. Well,
Speaker 1: they're scared, you know, they're scared, and we've made change
Speaker 1: and it's good change. The largest environmental investment in thirty years,
Speaker 1: reducing a homeless population by a thousand in the middle
Speaker 1: of this pandemic, so and so forth. One of the
Speaker 1: things we did, and folks might remember this in the
Speaker 1: elections UM, it was Hair County that was in the
Speaker 1: news about twenty four hour voting and drive through voting,
Speaker 1: an incredible turn Now we're having friendly competition with Georgia
Speaker 1: because we said, well, we have half the population in
Speaker 1: Harris County of the state of Georgia, but we had
Speaker 1: just as much turn out that first day of early vote,
Speaker 1: I remember, and it's because we we put in seventeen
Speaker 1: million dollars for the most accessible, obviously secure elections UM
Speaker 1: record turnout of both parties, and that made me very proud,
Speaker 1: and actually that it was a heavily Republican area which
Speaker 1: most used drive through voting. Since then, the election that
Speaker 1: we had before it was banned. So you know, fast
Speaker 1: forward to one when the state legislature met they meet
Speaker 1: every two years, they made it a point to continue
Speaker 1: the pandering that Donald Trump, of course had started about
Speaker 1: the election. In practical terms, what that means is now
Speaker 1: in Texas, a partisan pole watcher can stand as close
Speaker 1: as they want to a voter as the voter is
Speaker 1: casting their vote, and the statute says as close as
Speaker 1: they need to see and hear, so they determine how
Speaker 1: close that is. Is this to intimidate voters? Is this
Speaker 1: to to say I'm watching you, I'm going to know
Speaker 1: who you voted for. There's even been recordings that were
Speaker 1: found from a far right Republican active is saying, you know,
Speaker 1: we have to go. They identified the Hispanic and African
Speaker 1: American areas of town and said this is where we
Speaker 1: have to focus our poll watching. And I think you know,
Speaker 1: folks have just been told over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: You know, these are the same folks that storm the
Speaker 1: capital based on these lives. So it's the same fervor
Speaker 1: that is being spun into people here to say there's fraud,
Speaker 1: you gotta go. And the other thing that we've seen recently,
Speaker 1: there's more to this. At some point they tried to
Speaker 1: ban voting before ten am on Sundays. Of course souls
Speaker 1: to the polls right. That didn't make it through, but
Speaker 1: they have tried with a straight face. The other thing
Speaker 1: that we are seeing now is they added sort of
Speaker 1: a web of technicalities to register and particularly request a
Speaker 1: mail in ballots. So we're having to flag around of
Speaker 1: mail ballot applications for rejection, and we're helping folks try
Speaker 1: to cure their ballots send the information they need, but
Speaker 1: many counties don't have the resources or won't write more. Fundamentally,
Speaker 1: those secretary, the concern is every time you cry wolf,
Speaker 1: every time you call for a phony audit, every time
Speaker 1: you claim fraud, you're weakening the democratic principles behind our country.
Speaker 1: You're weakening faith in our democracy. One of my commissioners
Speaker 1: even he refused to certify the November election because there
Speaker 1: was a power outage. That's a very scary thing that
Speaker 1: we're pushing back against. We'll be right back, you know.
Speaker 1: Beyond voting rights, it seems like Texas is becoming an
Speaker 1: incubator for a lot of regressive ideas. Um you've got
Speaker 1: obviously the new restrictive abortion law, but also laws that
Speaker 1: are being introduced to pull hundreds of books off the
Speaker 1: shelves of school libraries. Uh, how do you think these
Speaker 1: kinds of um ideas get supported so that they are
Speaker 1: put into law, approved by a governor, And how do
Speaker 1: you fight back on that level where it's more diffuse
Speaker 1: than you know, in one county in your state, the
Speaker 1: banning of the books you're referring to something that is
Speaker 1: taking hold across Texas and other states as well, with
Speaker 1: this pandering around critical race theory, etcetera. And it is
Speaker 1: very diffused. We saw school board candidates this past election November,
Speaker 1: several long serving it's nonpartisan, but generally they were Democrats.
Speaker 1: You sort of knew they were a school board trustees
Speaker 1: defeated by far right school board candidates who were supported
Speaker 1: by national groups very clearly, and they were you know,
Speaker 1: anti vax ers, and they were espousing this kind of
Speaker 1: you know, January six type mentality. And so there is
Speaker 1: a very organized effort to support that kind of candidate.
Speaker 1: One of those folks who was just elected this past November,
Speaker 1: recently in a school board meeting very clearly intimated that
Speaker 1: more African American teachers leads to more dropouts, and we
Speaker 1: had a big movement with the n double A, CP
Speaker 1: and other national leaders to fight back against this. So
Speaker 1: what do you do? Number one is call out this
Speaker 1: kind of racism that is now It's always been under
Speaker 1: the surface, but is now more seems to be that
Speaker 1: many people feel emboldened to just say this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Number Two, organized groups alike run for something. So many
Speaker 1: groups that support candidates at all levels. This past two
Speaker 1: years have made us realize your elections administrator, your your clerk,
Speaker 1: your sheriff, your county executive, those are crucial positions. You
Speaker 1: have got to make sure if you donate, if you volunteer,
Speaker 1: if you organize, that you focus on those races. That's
Speaker 1: absolutely crucial because the other side is doing that too.
Speaker 1: And then the third piece I'll say is, you know,
Speaker 1: we can't feed into this divisiveness, right, So I always
Speaker 1: try to talk about sort of the far right. You know,
Speaker 1: I serve, but I serve everyone, Democrats and Republicans. I
Speaker 1: work on flood control projects everywhere. I work on vaccinations everywhere,
Speaker 1: making sure they're done in a way that is fair.
Speaker 1: And so we need to take a moment and understand, Okay,
Speaker 1: these folks are being told that their children will be
Speaker 1: frightened and traumatized for life by learning this critical race theory. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's unpack that. So it's to say, look, we're not
Speaker 1: promoting that, we don't know. The goal is not to
Speaker 1: traumatize the children. So meet them where they're at, as
Speaker 1: opposed to saying, oh, that's a college course. You don't
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about, right, because folks are not
Speaker 1: coming from a bad place. Everyone's just in an echo chamber.
Speaker 1: I think that makes a great sense. And you mentioned vaccination.
Speaker 1: You you ran a very highly regarded vaccination program in
Speaker 1: Harris County that seemed to get results, whereas in a
Speaker 1: lot of places there was much more confusion and divisiveness.
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about how you set that up
Speaker 1: and how you and your team made it successful. So
Speaker 1: you know, we'll see what the listeners can remember from
Speaker 1: when they first got their vaccine. But a lot of
Speaker 1: what we were hearing from around the nation and around
Speaker 1: here is it was sort of like the Hunger Games, right,
Speaker 1: Like you needed to um make sure that you knew
Speaker 1: which website and and get the latest intelligence on when
Speaker 1: to click register, and then you had to wait in line,
Speaker 1: and you know, lucky you if you had a pal
Speaker 1: who was a doctor UM. So we really wanted to
Speaker 1: to move past that and have something that was that
Speaker 1: was fair, that had equity built in. So we had
Speaker 1: a randomized system. It was via phone, so you didn't
Speaker 1: need a computer. You could register all kinds of languages.
Speaker 1: Harris Counties is one of them, not the most diverse
Speaker 1: county UM in the country, and so many languages, and
Speaker 1: then folks were selected at random, with additional entries for
Speaker 1: the people who were older or had pre existing conditions
Speaker 1: or this kind of thing. But you know, with everything
Speaker 1: we do, we try to see even the funds we've
Speaker 1: given for landlords and for renters and UM just support
Speaker 1: on all kinds of issues, most recently on crime. Where
Speaker 1: we focus our programs is where the data tells us,
Speaker 1: you know, this is where there's the most crime, This
Speaker 1: is where there's the most under investment. It's not about
Speaker 1: who has a buddy downtown or you know, what's the
Speaker 1: latest group that's freshest on your mind. And maybe that
Speaker 1: loses me some political alliances, but I don't think it
Speaker 1: necessarily does. People see the work and I think I'm
Speaker 1: setting a tone. I know I am, and I hope
Speaker 1: that more folks come into government who are sort of
Speaker 1: don't feel compelled to adopt the icky nous of government.
Speaker 1: And what I've learned over this past three years have
Speaker 1: been in office is it's not naive to say, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't do it that way. Apply through this, you know,
Speaker 1: apply through this committee, and we'll see and and people
Speaker 1: get it and they stop kind of asking you for
Speaker 1: icky things and you can actually, you know, you can
Speaker 1: do good stuff like that. I think that's a slogan
Speaker 1: for your next campaign. Get the icky out of politics,
Speaker 1: right right? Love it. Well. You know, sometimes we hear
Speaker 1: only the negative um about what's going on at the
Speaker 1: state level, one outrage after another. So if what advice
Speaker 1: would you give someone who, you know, maybe I might
Speaker 1: want to get involved, but it's only seeing the negative,
Speaker 1: seeing the ikey, they're not sure that it's for them.
Speaker 1: How would you make the case that people like you, Lena,
Speaker 1: people with energy and a positive approach and good common sense,
Speaker 1: you know, should get involved in politics and government. One
Speaker 1: thing I think about a lot is we have ups
Speaker 1: and downs, and and the downs are heartbreaking many times,
Speaker 1: but the other side is not giving up, so we
Speaker 1: can't either. You know, I'm not going to pretend like
Speaker 1: it's easy. I'll give you an example. We have funded
Speaker 1: criminal justice reform but also a lot of crime fighting initiatives,
Speaker 1: and we try to really smart things, so I don't
Speaker 1: want to contribute to mass incarceration two point out. But
Speaker 1: it's been record levels of funding and they still say
Speaker 1: I defunded the police. And you know, my detractors are
Speaker 1: over here saying I'm releasing violent criminals. So there's people
Speaker 1: that really believe this, you know, and of course it's scary,
Speaker 1: something as scary as violence, so folks, you know, the
Speaker 1: vitriol and the nastiness of folks that really think I'm
Speaker 1: out there as part of some conspiracy to cause crime. Right,
Speaker 1: you know how this goes, and to be able to
Speaker 1: walk through that with your headheld high is important. And
Speaker 1: anyone who jumps into this they need to fully expect
Speaker 1: that there's going to be something like this. But that's
Speaker 1: the reason to prevail is so this cynical bullshit frankly
Speaker 1: doesn't win, right, so that we can be civil and
Speaker 1: disagree on policy, but not this kind of stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: I did not think i'd have to deal with a
Speaker 1: pandemic and floods and fires in a winter storm. But
Speaker 1: I'll tell you it is so worth it. Giving early
Speaker 1: child education to kids, um, keeping somebody safe from domestic violence,
Speaker 1: keeping someone off the streets, my god, it's just setting
Speaker 1: a community up for for competitiveness for a generation. So
Speaker 1: you know, it is so worth it. It It is not easy,
Speaker 1: but they're not giving up either, so let's keep going. Oh,
Speaker 1: a woman after my own heart. I love that, Lena,
Speaker 1: and you're a right. I mean, if you believe that
Speaker 1: things can be better, people can have access to a
Speaker 1: better life, that we can work together to achieve common goals,
Speaker 1: you can't give up in the face of relentless criticism
Speaker 1: and negativity. And I know that's true about you. I
Speaker 1: am so happy to talk to you today, and I'm
Speaker 1: so proud, Secretary, that you're in this fight still so
Speaker 1: many of us. I just have to say it. As
Speaker 1: I face these attacks, you know, I think of you,
Speaker 1: and I hope that folks get a picture of me
Speaker 1: cheering them on as well, and we could have a
Speaker 1: big group here of wishing for positive change. Thank you
Speaker 1: for including me, Thank you, Thank you so much, Judge
Speaker 1: Lena Hidalgo. To keep up with this rising star from
Speaker 1: the Lone Star State, you can follow Judge Lena Hidalgo
Speaker 1: on Twitter. And if my conversations with Lena and David
Speaker 1: have got you thinking about how you can help strengthen
Speaker 1: our democracy, you know there are so many ways to
Speaker 1: do your part. Run for something, whether it's for your
Speaker 1: school board, your city council, or some other local office,
Speaker 1: as Lena told us, and as she has demonstrated it's
Speaker 1: worth it. Or support local candidates with your time, your money,
Speaker 1: or your big Instagram following. Show up at a local meeting,
Speaker 1: let your representatives know that they have to answer for
Speaker 1: their decisions. And make sure please that you and everyone
Speaker 1: you know is registered to vote, and that your registration
Speaker 1: is up to date. Don't get purged or dropped off
Speaker 1: the rolls. As David reminded us, we've got to get
Speaker 1: better at playing the long game so that together we
Speaker 1: can make our states once again vital laboratories of democracy.
Speaker 1: You and me both. Is brought to you by I
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