Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds, and Republicans are worried Mitt Romney's new
Speaker 1: book will reveal their true feelings about Trump. Lol. We
Speaker 1: have such a great show for you today. Wisconsin Democrats
Speaker 1: chair Ben Wickler talks to us about Republicans' latest anti
Speaker 1: democratic play to impeach a newly elected Supreme Court judge
Speaker 1: because they don't like her. Then we'll talk to Russett Perry,
Speaker 1: who was running for a critical swing district in Virginia's
Speaker 1: very important state Senate election. But first we have senior
Speaker 1: editor at The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein. Welcome back to Fast Politics.
Speaker 2: Ron Brownstein, Hey, good to be here again. Thanks for
Speaker 2: having me.
Speaker 1: I'm so delighted to have you, and I know how
Speaker 1: unprecedented I feel. And I McCarthy today saying you saw
Speaker 1: that where he said they should try to take me
Speaker 1: down with a motion to vacate explative explative.
Speaker 3: I mean, what is happening, Ron Brownstein.
Speaker 4: Well, at the broadest level, you know, we are rolling
Speaker 4: through this ongoing confrontation between what I've called the Coalition
Speaker 4: of Transformation and the coalition of restoration, which simplifies to
Speaker 4: the parts of the country that are and are not
Speaker 4: comfortable with the way we are changing culturally, demographically, and economically.
Speaker 4: And our politics was heading in this direction before Trump.
Speaker 4: I coined those phrases immediately after the election of twenty twelve,
Speaker 4: when it was pretty clear in the pattern of voting
Speaker 4: even for Obama and Romney. But Trump has really crystallized this,
Speaker 4: and his emergence has both radicalized the Republican Party and
Speaker 4: created this existential, permanent sense of dread on the other
Speaker 4: side of the ledger and left us with the politics
Speaker 4: that is just see seems to be unable to climb
Speaker 4: down from the battlements, is constantly in crisis, and in
Speaker 4: part because we are so closely divided, and it seems
Speaker 4: like very small changes among very small groups in very
Speaker 4: few states can tip the balance of power for a
Speaker 4: nation of syringe of thirty million people. And because we're
Speaker 4: so polarized, the future, right, I mean, the future of
Speaker 4: Republican dominated government and democratic dominated government is so wide
Speaker 4: at this point. So we have these kind of massive
Speaker 4: stakes hanging on tiny morgins, and that is kind of
Speaker 4: a recipe for like permanent stress.
Speaker 3: It's true. I mean, there is an anxiety.
Speaker 1: I was promised that once Trump was defeated, we wouldn't
Speaker 1: all be walking around on tinderhooks.
Speaker 3: But it seems like this impeachment thing.
Speaker 1: I've heard a lot of theories about it, that McCarthy
Speaker 1: had implemented it to avoid a shutdown.
Speaker 3: Does that even make any sense.
Speaker 4: I think McCarthy implemented it because it was more about
Speaker 4: McCarthy's job security than Biden's job security, right, I mean,
Speaker 4: I think we discussed this even on the show. I
Speaker 4: felt that as soon as McCarthy avoided the debt default,
Speaker 4: which was truly a potentially catastrophic event, and I assume
Speaker 4: that he got his chain yanked by the Wall Street
Speaker 4: wing of the Republican Party saying you cannot mess around
Speaker 4: with this, that you're going to only go so far.
Speaker 4: Once he did that, I've always felt that a government
Speaker 4: shut down was inevitable because he could not stiff his
Speaker 4: right flank on both of those issues. The impeachment inquiry,
Speaker 4: which he can authorize but really can't take too far
Speaker 4: without a vote. Sooner or later, he's going to need
Speaker 4: a vote both to continue the inquiry as a full
Speaker 4: pledged inquiry, but much less to you know, actually impeach Biden.
Speaker 4: And so the issue that he's tried to avoid now
Speaker 4: where pretty clearly he doesn't have the votes.
Speaker 2: Sooner or later he's going to have to face that.
Speaker 4: But whatever he did on impeachment, I think he is
Speaker 4: going to have to shut down the government because and
Speaker 4: see how he could tell the right no on both fronts,
Speaker 4: and he chose the one that could really be catastrophic
Speaker 4: for the domestic and global economy. That was where he
Speaker 4: chose to kind of behave in a more responsible way,
Speaker 4: which I assume was was a stern message from the
Speaker 4: kind of financial infrastructure of the party.
Speaker 1: I feel like the donor class is not happy when
Speaker 1: you destroy all of their public market holdings.
Speaker 2: Yes, for example, right exactly.
Speaker 4: You know, what was it, Carnegon you said during the
Speaker 4: depression liquid eight, you know, liquid a capital, liquid e labor.
Speaker 4: I don't know, I'm not sure that's I'm not sure
Speaker 4: that's the battle cry today.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, I mean I do feel like Democrats are hand
Speaker 1: ringing in a way that is so profoundly democrat.
Speaker 3: I mean, you would never have Republicans being.
Speaker 1: Like our guy is three years older than Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: and so he must drop out.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just so nuts.
Speaker 2: I guess I'm in the yes and no in this camp.
Speaker 4: I would say that if you look at the environment today,
Speaker 4: I believe it is still true that Joe Biden has
Speaker 4: an easier path to two hundred seventy Electoral College votes
Speaker 4: than Donald Trump or any Republican nominee who might actually
Speaker 4: win the nomination. But that doesn't mean that you can
Speaker 4: completely ignore what I think is pretty clear resistance in
Speaker 4: poll I mean, there is definitely resistance in the public
Speaker 4: to re electing Joe Biden for another term. There are
Speaker 4: many Democratic strategists who hope that by now things would
Speaker 4: be improving for Biden. They're really not. I have argued
Speaker 4: that there are four big changes in the electorate since
Speaker 4: Biden and Trump met in twenty twenty four, changes in
Speaker 4: the environment, and two of them are hurting Biden and
Speaker 4: benefiting Trump, and two of them are hurting Trump and
Speaker 4: benefiting Biden. I mean, the concern about inflation is real, right,
Speaker 4: I mean, its real and pervasive, particularly for people around
Speaker 4: the median income or below, upbringing people.
Speaker 2: It is an invenience, an annoyance.
Speaker 4: All of these things but it is really a struggle
Speaker 4: for people of less means. And even though inflation is
Speaker 4: slowing down, that doesn't mean prices are going down. The
Speaker 4: overwhelming likelihood is that by election day in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 4: people will go into the booth with the necessities of
Speaker 4: daily life costing more than they were when Biden took office.
Speaker 4: I mean, we're you know, it's hard to believe milk
Speaker 4: and eggs and rent and gas are going to be back.
Speaker 2: Well, that is a headwind.
Speaker 4: And then I agree real quick, the other headwind is
Speaker 4: people are genuinely concerned about his age, right, I mean,
Speaker 4: we have multiple goals. That doesn't mean he can't win,
Speaker 4: but it does mean that the whole situation.
Speaker 2: Is much more precarious than you would expect.
Speaker 3: And then what are the Trump headwinds?
Speaker 4: Well, I think the two big Trump headwinds that weren't
Speaker 4: there in twenty twenty are abortion and insurrection. January sixth
Speaker 4: happened after election day, and everything that he did to undermine.
Speaker 2: The election happened after election day.
Speaker 4: So I think that there is more concern about Trump
Speaker 4: as a threat to American democracy than there was even
Speaker 4: on election Day in twenty And then you know, obviously
Speaker 4: the Supreme Court decision overturning Row was in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 4: Abortion was not nearly as big an issue in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty as it will be in twenty twenty four. And
Speaker 4: I think when you add up you know, age and
Speaker 4: inflation on one side, and abortion and insurrection on the other, layer,
Speaker 4: that over the underlying calcification, as you know, John Side's
Speaker 4: and Lynn Vaverick call it of our politics, where it's
Speaker 4: really hard to move a large number of voters under
Speaker 4: any circumstance. And that explains why the two of them
Speaker 4: are so close together. The other, you know, the other
Speaker 4: implication of all this molly is that Biden, just on
Speaker 4: Labor Day once again, he calls himself middle class Joe.
Speaker 4: You know, he says, the last guy looked at the
Speaker 4: world from Park Avenue. I looked at it from Scranton.
Speaker 4: I think if you add up all of these factors,
Speaker 4: both the vulnerability and the opportunity, Biden is probably going
Speaker 4: to be even more dependent on better educated and more
Speaker 4: affluent voters in twenty four than he was in twenty.
Speaker 4: I mean, he's going to struggle to equal his twenty
Speaker 4: twenty vote, not only about not only among whites without
Speaker 4: a college degree, but non whites without a college degree,
Speaker 4: especially Latinos, who are feeling really really squeezed by inflation.
Speaker 4: And I think he can offset that by running better
Speaker 4: among white collar suburbanites who are the most concerned that
Speaker 4: Trump represents a threat to democracy and are also the
Speaker 4: most likely to vote on abortion. And we've seen that
Speaker 4: in everything from the Ohio ballot initiative to the Wisconsin
Speaker 4: State Supreme Court election. There is a pathway for Biden
Speaker 4: to win reelection, but I think it's one that runs
Speaker 4: more upscale than even he did in twenty twenty and
Speaker 4: is really about values more than it is that I
Speaker 4: delivered for your interests. I think it's going to be
Speaker 4: hard for him to win that argument if prices are
Speaker 4: higher in twenty twenty four then they were in twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: You know, we have multiple polls in putting another one
Speaker 4: this week. People have asked directly who would be better
Speaker 4: at managing the economy. I mean Trump has a significant
Speaker 4: lead over Biden, but that doesn't mean Trump is guaranteed
Speaker 4: to win, because people have those same doubts in twenty
Speaker 4: two and in the states that matter abortion and democracy.
Speaker 4: Did Trump inflation and concern about Biden in Arizona, Georgia
Speaker 4: Senate race, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2: So it can be done.
Speaker 4: It's just but there are reasons it's not irrational for
Speaker 4: Democrats to be a little nervous about how this all looks.
Speaker 1: At this point, we have seen Biden continually overperform in
Speaker 1: elections where he's been on the ticket. Again, like, there
Speaker 1: is no mechanism for like, say the polls were really bad,
Speaker 1: say you had Biden it, because like, the thing I'm
Speaker 1: struck by is like Republicans want Democrats to think he's
Speaker 1: too old, and they want that because they know that
Speaker 1: he has incredible power in incumbency. Can we talk about
Speaker 1: the power of incumbency because I feel like when Trump
Speaker 1: was running for reelection, everyone's like the power of incumbency,
Speaker 1: and now that Biden, who is the incumbent, is running,
Speaker 1: there's let's talk about the power of incumbent.
Speaker 4: Say well, look, I think Biden is very aware of
Speaker 4: this and one reason why he so far is so
Speaker 4: dead set on running. I mean, there are obvious costs
Speaker 4: of trying to replace a sitting president. I mean I
Speaker 4: think he is worried that if he stepped aside, there
Speaker 4: would be a full scale Donnie Brook to replace him.
Speaker 4: There obviously would not be deference to Kamala Harris and
Speaker 4: would certainly see serious opponents to her, and she might
Speaker 4: not win the nomination because there are a lot of
Speaker 4: Democrats who are worried that she can't beat Trump. But
Speaker 4: of course, ousting the first woman of mixed race, it
Speaker 4: would be just a mess in the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2: Obviously, Biden.
Speaker 4: That's one reason why Biden thinks it's important for him
Speaker 4: to stay on. And there is a kind of a
Speaker 4: value in incumbency. I have noted in the past that
Speaker 4: every incumbent president, including Trump, ran better among Latino voters,
Speaker 4: for example, in their second election than they did in
Speaker 4: their first. There is kind of a you know you
Speaker 4: have the job, You look like you can, you can
Speaker 4: do the job.
Speaker 5: I mean.
Speaker 4: The offset to this is what Ben Tulchin, who was
Speaker 4: Bernie's polster in sixteen and twenty said to me for
Speaker 4: one of these recent stories, which is that, and I
Speaker 4: should add the the other thing is obvious. You can
Speaker 4: raise an enormous amount of money. You get an early start.
Speaker 4: Biden is advertising now in the Swing States. Trump is
Speaker 4: using his fundraising to you know, pay for his legal bills,
Speaker 4: and that will probably be true for months. I mean,
Speaker 4: Biden could be unanswered unless you know, Carl Rove and
Speaker 4: Steven Law get around to it, you know, I mean,
Speaker 4: They're going to be unanswered in these swing states for
Speaker 4: a long time. The counter point on the other side
Speaker 4: is that, you know, he is an incumbent at a moment
Speaker 4: when people are really unhappy about the economy, right, and
Speaker 4: that does put a ceiling on how much Again, he
Speaker 4: has an argument to make that he is helping families
Speaker 4: by lowering costs and by creating good middle class jobs,
Speaker 4: and they are putting that argument on TV, you know,
Speaker 4: about Medicare drug prices and about all the construction jobs
Speaker 4: that are flowing out of all of the Big three
Speaker 4: bills that he passed. But I still believe that if
Speaker 4: things cost from or daily necessities costs more on the
Speaker 4: fall of twenty four than the in the fall of
Speaker 4: twenty it is highly likely that going to the election,
Speaker 4: more people will think Trump can deliver on the economy
Speaker 4: than on him and he's going to have to win
Speaker 4: despite that, which is doable but is not negligible.
Speaker 3: You know, Obama did also have this problem.
Speaker 4: Obama did have this problem, and he disqualified Romney on
Speaker 4: the economy eventually, right, I mean Obama made Romney the
Speaker 4: symbol of the guy who came to town and shut
Speaker 4: down the plant, and that allowed him even to win
Speaker 4: Ohio and idaha, we forget. Obama won Iowa against Romney
Speaker 4: and he won Ohio against Romney, and Biden will have
Speaker 4: that case to make, which.
Speaker 2: Is you will argue I am delivering.
Speaker 4: Lower drug prices, I am delivering lower utility prices. I
Speaker 4: am creating good middle class jobs. And this guy's worried
Speaker 4: about the rich and Park Avenue. Democratic consultants like Terrence
Speaker 4: Woodbury or Ben Tulchin again, people who do focus groups
Speaker 4: and polls among young, non wide voters, and they are
Speaker 4: hearing things in focus groups like I hate everything Trump
Speaker 4: stands for. He's a racist, he's a horrible person. But
Speaker 4: I had more money in my pocket at the end
Speaker 4: of the week when he was president. That is a
Speaker 4: headwind that is going to make it challenging for Biden.
Speaker 4: I think to match his vote in twenty among non
Speaker 4: college voters of whatever race, meaning that he's going to
Speaker 4: probably have to do even better than he did among
Speaker 4: college voters who are not nearly as inconvenienced or frustrated
Speaker 4: by the economy. The stock market's going back up and
Speaker 4: so forth. That's doable, but again, always struggle with younger voters.
Speaker 4: He always struggled with the Latino voters. And now he's
Speaker 4: four years older, and in many ways he looks it.
Speaker 4: So you know, those are those are real issues for him,
Speaker 4: not insurmountable issues, but you know you can't sweep them
Speaker 4: away either.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about how impeachment may
Speaker 1: figure into this, because from what I understand of history,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking of Bill Clinton's impeachment and also the
Speaker 1: anxiety that Nancy Pelosi had about impeaching Trump to begin with.
Speaker 3: Talk to us about.
Speaker 1: What an impeachment looks like when it feels frivolous.
Speaker 4: The ninety eight one with Clinton really is the example.
Speaker 4: And obviously we are even more dug in and polarized
Speaker 4: than we were then to be. Clinton approverrating was over
Speaker 4: sixty percent at that point. I'm not sure a president
Speaker 4: you'd get there anymore. And there was an undeniable backlash
Speaker 4: against Republicans in the nineteen ninety eight elections.
Speaker 2: It wasn't enormous. I mean, there were I believe at.
Speaker 4: That point ninety six or ninety eight House Republicans and
Speaker 4: districts that voted for Clinton. That's how different our politics
Speaker 4: were at that point. There were so many split ticket districts,
Speaker 4: and virtually all of them voted to impeach him. Only
Speaker 4: a few of them lost. Democrats gained five seats in
Speaker 4: the nineteen ninety eight a midterm. I think that if
Speaker 4: Republicans move forward with an impeachment that it would hurt
Speaker 4: House Republicans, the eighteen House Republicans and districts that Biden carried,
Speaker 4: the additional circle of Republicans and districts that narrowly voted
Speaker 4: for Trump. It would hurt then because the one reason
Speaker 4: why Democrats avoided the worst case outcome in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 4: despite majority disapproval of Biden, despite seventy five to eighty
Speaker 4: percent of voters in all the key states saying the
Speaker 4: economy wasn't that jape, was because many of the voters
Speaker 4: who were dissatisfied with conditions voted for Democrats anyway because
Speaker 4: they view the Republican alternatives extreme. And I think a
Speaker 4: groundless impeachment would certainly make it easier for Democrats to
Speaker 4: stamp Republicans in that way. I'm not sure it would
Speaker 4: solve Biden's problems, but I think it would increase the
Speaker 4: problems of House Republicans.
Speaker 1: You're answering all the questions I want answered, and so
Speaker 1: now the time is going by so quickly. One of
Speaker 1: Biden's problems right now with these poll numbers is that
Speaker 1: the base is not rallying around him.
Speaker 3: But that is.
Speaker 1: Theoretically a problem that could be solved with impeachment.
Speaker 2: I mean, you will help with part of the base.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think when I look at the polling,
Speaker 4: and I think when many Democratic pollsters look at the polling,
Speaker 4: the two things that jump out are young people and
Speaker 4: Latinos are approving of Biden rates way below their vote
Speaker 4: for him in twenty twenty. And that reflects the fact
Speaker 4: that he was never connected that well with either of
Speaker 4: those groups either in the primary. They came back to
Speaker 4: him in the election against Trump, but they've been hard
Speaker 4: hit by inflation, right. I mean, those are groups that
Speaker 4: are that don't have a lot of financial marching, so
Speaker 4: they're not really enthusiastic. The Catalyst data shows though, that
Speaker 4: in the states where Democrats did run campaigns in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty two. They did fine among Latinos, and they may
Speaker 4: have done even better among young people than they did
Speaker 4: in I believe, the twenty eighteen elections. So there are
Speaker 4: arguments that Biden has and that Democrats have to make
Speaker 4: this case, particularly to young people. I think about climate,
Speaker 4: about abortion, about democracy.
Speaker 2: I think the Latino thing.
Speaker 4: Is a separate problem where inflation is really going to
Speaker 4: make it hard for Biden. If you agree with sides
Speaker 4: in Baverick, which I largely do, you know that we
Speaker 4: are in an era where the two sides, you know,
Speaker 4: mobilize in the end. The issue is more differential turnout
Speaker 4: than it is swing voters, although it's a little bit
Speaker 4: of both. I mean, I think there are going to
Speaker 4: be eight million more gen Zers eligible to vote in
Speaker 4: twenty four than in twenty I mean, that is a
Speaker 4: big group of people. It is potentially dispositive, you know.
Speaker 4: I mean the electric is evolving generationally, evolving toward the
Speaker 4: generations that have been most favorable to Democrats, and we'll
Speaker 4: have to see how many of them will come out
Speaker 4: to vote for Joe Biden. When you phrase it that way,
Speaker 4: the answer almost certainly is going to be not enough.
Speaker 4: But the question if it's Trump, how many of them
Speaker 4: will come out to stop trump Ism that is in
Speaker 4: many ways not only in collision with their values, but
Speaker 4: like is actively targeting their identity. I mean, gen Z
Speaker 4: is the most diverse, most secular, most LGBTQ friendly generation
Speaker 4: ever and trump Ism aims at all of that. So
Speaker 4: maybe Trump can do again what Biden probably can't do
Speaker 4: on his own motivate that constituency. But there is a
Speaker 4: turn of the dial in terms of what the eligible
Speaker 4: voterpool looks like that should make this a little easier
Speaker 4: for Biden than it was in twenty twenty. The counter
Speaker 4: you know, the counterwavailing forces our agent inflation.
Speaker 1: Ron Brownstein so helpful. I feel like every time I
Speaker 1: talk to you again, so much clarity.
Speaker 3: For my own work. I mean, you just are a
Speaker 3: font So thank you.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Ben Wickler is the chairperson of the Wisconsin Democrats.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Fast Politics, Ben.
Speaker 6: So good to be back. In a wild moment in
Speaker 6: the state of Wisconsin, I.
Speaker 1: Mean wild, So explain to us the story because you
Speaker 1: are there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Republicans during the Scott Walker era decided that they
Speaker 6: didn't like how elections were administered. So they created something
Speaker 6: called the Wisconsin Elections Commission, scrapping the old system. Like
Speaker 6: a nonpartisan agency, this one has democratic commissioners and publican commissioners,
Speaker 6: and for anything to happen, they have to have a
Speaker 6: majority vote. So they had a majority vote to a
Speaker 6: number of years ago to nominate Megan Wolf to lead
Speaker 6: the to actually run the administrator for the Wisconsin Elections
Speaker 6: Commission to run elections in the state. Other states, it's
Speaker 6: the Secretary of State some other office. Here, it is
Speaker 6: as a nonpartisan civil servant who's chosen by this nonpartistan
Speaker 6: commission and then voted by the state Senate, which voted
Speaker 6: unanimously to confirm Megan Wolf. And she's done a spectacular
Speaker 6: job as the Wisconsin Elections Commission leader. Under her tenure,
Speaker 6: Wisconsin has consistently been in the top five or even
Speaker 6: top three states in the country for running successful, free
Speaker 6: and fair elections. But then Trump lost and a whole
Speaker 6: lot of Republicans concluded the only way that was possible
Speaker 6: is if there was cheating, and there was fraud, and
Speaker 6: that must be the fault of the Wisconsin Elections Commission,
Speaker 6: and this conspiracy theory started that death threats started, and
Speaker 6: they held investigations, they held hearings, they didn't find anything.
Speaker 6: There was nothing defined. She did a great job. We
Speaker 6: have a very transparent, very clean tradition and continued system
Speaker 6: to actually run our elections. But now Republicans in our
Speaker 6: state Senate have decided they want to get rid of her.
Speaker 6: So they had a vote today, but they have a
Speaker 6: little problem. They voted twenty two to eleven to get
Speaker 6: rid of her. Here's their problem. Under the system that
Speaker 6: they set up, they would need a majority of the
Speaker 6: Wisconsin Elections Commission commissioners to actually send her nomination to
Speaker 6: the state Senate for consideration, and that didn't happen. The
Speaker 6: three Democratic appointees voted against having a new nomination vote.
Speaker 6: The three Republicans said yes. There was no majority vote,
Speaker 6: which means there's no vacancy there, which means there's nothing
Speaker 6: for the state Senate to actually vote on. So this
Speaker 6: was just a sham stunt to try to claim that
Speaker 6: she should be kicked out. And now this issues in court,
Speaker 6: So there's already a lawsuit filed to say that there
Speaker 6: is no vacancy. What Republicans are doing is completely invalid
Speaker 6: and Megan Wolfe, who's at the center of all this,
Speaker 6: who's not partisan in any way, doesn't lean in either direction,
Speaker 6: just tries to do her job and make sure elections
Speaker 6: actually work. She is just how the press conference like
Speaker 6: an hour ago and said that she will keep doing
Speaker 6: her job until a court tells her that she shouldn't,
Speaker 6: if that should ever happen, or until there's actually a
Speaker 6: legitimate process, which there hasn't been. So we're now entering
Speaker 6: a twilight zone where Republicans will claim that they have
Speaker 6: fired her, but they actually haven't because they can't, y
Speaker 6: as they can't under the rules that they set up.
Speaker 6: This is their system. It's amazing and it's so characteristic
Speaker 6: of what the fight for democracy is like in Wisconsin
Speaker 6: right now. It has a number of parallels to the
Speaker 6: situation of the state Supreme Court.
Speaker 3: Start with the big election and go from there.
Speaker 6: So this spring we had a blockbuster Supreme Court election.
Speaker 6: It was probably like fifty five million dollars in tracks
Speaker 6: spending on TV ads. The previous record was like fifteen
Speaker 6: million in one in any judicial election in the country. Massive, massive,
Speaker 6: massive stakes, a huge person on both sides, a far right,
Speaker 6: mega Republican who was involved in the fake elector scheme
Speaker 6: and endorsed enthusiastically by all the most extreme anti abortion
Speaker 6: groups in Wisconsin. On the on the kind of Republican backside,
Speaker 6: it's officially non partisan the court. And on the progressive side,
Speaker 6: we had Janet Protocewitz, who ran a great campaign and
Speaker 6: as she was very clear on the campaign trail, she'd
Speaker 6: say like, I would never prejudge a case, but you
Speaker 6: should know what my values are, and I think abortion
Speaker 6: should be your decision about what you do with your
Speaker 6: own body. And I acknowledge that our maps are rigged
Speaker 6: and we should take a look at them. Yeah, And
Speaker 6: Republicans were apoplectic about this, but the public was like, Okay,
Speaker 6: this person understands reality, and they voted in an eleven
Speaker 6: point landslide for Janet Protoswits, which.
Speaker 1: Which for Wisconsin, eleven points is humongous because you're very
Speaker 1: split state.
Speaker 6: Exactly, just to put that into context, that is more
Speaker 6: than eleven thousand percent of the margin in four of
Speaker 6: the last six presidential actions, Like it's been under one
Speaker 6: percent in form we had a one percent margin center
Speaker 6: race last year. Getting to eleven points is just that
Speaker 6: is the public thunderously saying this is what we want here. Yeah,
Speaker 6: the public has its say and to get to that number,
Speaker 6: it means you have a bunch of Republicans crossed over
Speaker 6: voted for Jenipro Sviits. It means you won overwhelmingly with
Speaker 6: independent voters and the united support from Democrats. That's the
Speaker 6: verdict of the people. The jenipot Sawitz has sworn in
Speaker 6: on August first, and immediately the Republican Speaker of our
Speaker 6: State Assembly, Robin Voss, starts floating this idea that maybe
Speaker 6: he's going to impeach her to stop her from being
Speaker 6: able to rule on the court. There's a two lawsuits
Speaker 6: now that different groups have filed. Not the Democratic Party,
Speaker 6: by the way, but two different organizations have filed lawsuits
Speaker 6: challenging the constitutionality of our ultra jerrymandered maps. Even though
Speaker 6: we're a fifty to fifty state where you know, winning
Speaker 6: or losing by one point is the norm. Republicans have
Speaker 6: rigged the state so much that they have a two
Speaker 6: third supermajority in the state Senate and are hair's bread
Speaker 6: the way from a two third supermajority in the state Assembly.
Speaker 6: It is the biggest partisan advantage of any state in
Speaker 6: the United States, according to the Princeton Dairymandering Project. So
Speaker 6: those are the maps we have right now. All it
Speaker 6: takes in the Constitution is a simple majority in the
Speaker 6: state Assembly to impeach a judge or justice. And what
Speaker 6: someone's impeached, they're suspended, so they can't rule on anything.
Speaker 6: But the rule is you're supposed to be under the Constitution.
Speaker 6: You're supposed to only impeach if someone's had corrupt conduct
Speaker 6: in office, or crime or misdemeanor.
Speaker 3: Or if you really don't like them.
Speaker 6: That is the thing that Robin Voss seems to have
Speaker 6: added in his head. She hasn't done anything in office.
Speaker 6: She hasn't ruled on a single case in office. But
Speaker 6: the idea that Republicans are pursuing their claim is that
Speaker 6: by saying the maps were rigged, that was prejudging a
Speaker 6: case against them. There was no case. When she said
Speaker 6: that the maps are ragged, she said that was her
Speaker 6: personal view. She said she never prejudge a case. Republicans
Speaker 6: have run for State Supreme Court, like with wearing NRA
Speaker 6: logos and holding guns in their campaign materials, like of
Speaker 6: course you're allowed to have your person and on.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have ron but right, you're allowed to
Speaker 1: have a personal view. It's total bs. But what I
Speaker 1: want to ask you now, isn't there a theory that
Speaker 1: if she is impeached that the gu governor, who is
Speaker 1: a Democrat and won by a landslide of four points,
Speaker 1: which is right among this for Wisconsin, can actually appoint
Speaker 1: someone else.
Speaker 6: If there's a vacancy, the governor appoints someone. Normally we saw,
Speaker 6: you know when Trump was president, the House impeaches and
Speaker 6: then the Senate holds the trial and either equits or convicts.
Speaker 6: And Republicans in theory, could they have two third super
Speaker 6: majority in the state Senate so they could convict someone.
Speaker 6: We've heard from multiple state senators and the Republicans side
Speaker 6: that they would not do that. They're not into this
Speaker 6: at all. But most of all, it seems like the
Speaker 6: Republicans in the state Senate don't want to even have
Speaker 6: the trial. But if they don't, then we're in limbo
Speaker 6: because if you impeach without a trial under the Constitution,
Speaker 6: you're suspended until acquit it, which means that they could
Speaker 6: essentially suspend someone indefinitely unless either a court step in
Speaker 6: or the Republican legislature actually, you know, does its constitutional
Speaker 6: duty and has a trial which would I think lead
Speaker 6: to acquittal if they actually did it.
Speaker 1: So what I think is really interesting is what's happening
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin is not not happening in Florida, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: there are other states where Republicans are getting way over
Speaker 1: their skis and taking the anti democratic nugget that Trump
Speaker 1: is sort of birthed and taking it to its logical conclusion.
Speaker 3: The difference is, I think in a.
Speaker 1: Place like Wisconsin, we have a very strong Democratic Party
Speaker 1: that is really taking them to task, and it's much
Speaker 1: more split, so they're not getting away with it the
Speaker 1: way they are in Florida.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I mean, Wisconsin has a Democratic governor. All but one
Speaker 6: of our state constitutional officers are Democrats. We have Ron Johnson, yes,
Speaker 6: but we have Tammy Baldlet is a fantastic progressive center
Speaker 6: and the public has been we voted for Biden in
Speaker 6: twenty twenty. We've Democrats have won fifteen to the last
Speaker 6: eighteen contested statewide elections. So it is a different situation
Speaker 6: in that sense. And it's true that both the Democratic
Speaker 6: Party and the progressive movement here broadly is super engaged
Speaker 6: and super fired up. And so right now there's a
Speaker 6: massive campaign that we're helping to organize to ensure that
Speaker 6: voters in Republican legislative districts know what's happening and contact
Speaker 6: their legislators about it. The first poll came out today,
Speaker 6: the public is two to one against this impeachment. Republican
Speaker 6: legislators are you know what we're hearing just being flooded
Speaker 6: with calls from people who oppose it. There's not a
Speaker 6: kind of like groundswell to fundamentally shatter our system of
Speaker 6: government by having the legislative branch execute a kind of
Speaker 6: coup of the judicial branch. And there's still a faction
Speaker 6: of the Republican Party that are like business Republicans and
Speaker 6: they want to you know, make sure that they rake
Speaker 6: in the tens of millions of dollars in corporate donations
Speaker 6: for their national convention next summer. That they want they
Speaker 6: want their tax cuts. There's like, while this is happening,
Speaker 6: Republicans and the state legislature are trying to do a
Speaker 6: big tax cut for rich people. They're trying to undercut
Speaker 6: the governor's proposal. They increase support for childcare, like that's
Speaker 6: traditional Republican stuff.
Speaker 3: This is true, big mean to poor people.
Speaker 1: They should all get around there, you know, we're really
Speaker 1: here to take things away from people who need them and.
Speaker 6: Give tax cuts to the super wealthy. Like that's what
Speaker 6: they're really about. For those Republicans, it's like, oh my god,
Speaker 6: why are we talking about this impeachment thing. This is
Speaker 6: a disaster, And so they're split. They've had two public
Speaker 6: defections already in the State Assembly the State Senate. Again,
Speaker 6: this is really at this point an Assembly question because
Speaker 6: the State Senate doesn't want to have a trial, but
Speaker 6: the state Senators are kind of like publicly trying to
Speaker 6: wave this away every chance they did. It still could happen.
Speaker 6: But I think that the political costs that the GOP
Speaker 6: will pay if they do this, he will engulf everything
Speaker 6: else they try to talk about. They will be known
Speaker 6: and proven and very clearly the people who overturned a
Speaker 6: free and fair landslide election in order to get political power.
Speaker 6: That will echo all the way through twenty twenty four.
Speaker 6: It just reminds people of January sixth and everything else.
Speaker 6: And for some Republicans, I think there's a real I
Speaker 6: wish that they can find a way to stomp on
Speaker 6: the brakes and Robin Voss again, the Republican Assembly speaker,
Speaker 6: he did just kind of do a delay play. After
Speaker 6: rumors that they were going to do the impeachment this week,
Speaker 6: he yesterday announced that he was appointing a secret commission
Speaker 6: of three former Supreme Court justices who advise him on
Speaker 6: impeachment and that it would take a few weeks to
Speaker 6: do it. So there's now a window of time where
Speaker 6: the public can make its views heard. Where you have
Speaker 6: a website at defendjusice dot com where you can find
Speaker 6: your state legislators. I will say, if you live outside
Speaker 6: Wisconsin or if you're not in a Republican legislative district,
Speaker 6: don't contact the legislators yourselves. They don't care about what
Speaker 6: you think. What you can do is go through that website,
Speaker 6: find the phone bank, and then you can call voters
Speaker 6: in the Republican legislative districts and tell them about this,
Speaker 6: and then they can call their legislators and that actually
Speaker 6: does help. Or you can donate all that's very helpful too,
Speaker 6: But we need these Republicans to hear from the people
Speaker 6: that they actually have to face. Every November and I'll
Speaker 6: say one last piece of this. I think Republicans have
Speaker 6: realized that there's a bunch of ways that not only
Speaker 6: could they if they do this, could that have huge
Speaker 6: kind of backfire impact on then it also could fail
Speaker 6: to stop new maps from getting drawn. And then they're
Speaker 6: the worst of all possible worlds because they have fair
Speaker 6: maps that they're running in where it's actually like fifty
Speaker 6: to fifteen a lot of districts, and they have an
Speaker 6: electorate that is enraged by having been kicked in the
Speaker 6: teeth by this legislators. And so I hope for democracy's
Speaker 6: sake that they pull back from the brink. But if
Speaker 6: they don't, I think it's a political disaster for them.
Speaker 6: And then aleco across the country.
Speaker 1: Well, give us like the TLDR on how it's going,
Speaker 1: and you know how you've done it. And also white states,
Speaker 1: you feel like there's something to be hopeful about.
Speaker 6: Absolutely so all certain. On the other end, if you
Speaker 6: look at Anderson Clayton in North Carolina, the new Democratic
Speaker 6: Party chair there, or Yoli Bejerado in Arizona, or Liz
Speaker 6: Walters in Ohio, these are all like very tough, very
Speaker 6: complex states with amazing and as today. All these are
Speaker 6: women's chairs. Lavora Barnes, and in Michigan has already achieved
Speaker 6: what all of us are hoping for another absolutely down
Speaker 6: in my chair. But in those three states they have
Speaker 6: these gigantic fights that will have enormous implications for twenty
Speaker 6: twenty four. They have constant fights on the way there,
Speaker 6: from the election deniers of Arizona to the new Republican
Speaker 6: supermajority in North Carolina to in Ohio Republicans trying to
Speaker 6: change the ballot initiative rules to stop the abortion ballot initiative,
Speaker 6: and it shares there in each of those states and
Speaker 6: a number of others are doing the thing that we've
Speaker 6: had the chance to do for several years now in
Speaker 6: Wisconsin and in Michigan, which is to not just build
Speaker 6: up right before an election, but to build a year
Speaker 6: round organizing machine. And what that means for us is
Speaker 6: we have staff in every region of the state, every
Speaker 6: corner of the state, rural areas, suburbs, and cities who
Speaker 6: work to build these teams of volunteers that understand their
Speaker 6: own neighborhoods and their own communities, and they knock on
Speaker 6: doors year round, sometimes in iceon Stowe in Wisconsin. I
Speaker 6: imagine another places the sheet and humidity would be the
Speaker 6: bigger challenge. But the really key thing is you don't
Speaker 6: shut down that takes money. You have to raise money.
Speaker 6: We have a thousands now of monthly donors who make
Speaker 6: that possible for us to keep this team on board.
Speaker 6: We have a year round voter protection team that works
Speaker 6: on local elections as well as the big state wide elections,
Speaker 6: that works to make sure there's pole observers you're showing
Speaker 6: up everywhere. Often local elections literally come down to one vote,
Speaker 6: and if you build up the kind of infrastruate sure
Speaker 6: of democracy that stuff has, it carries forward, it works
Speaker 6: more successfully when you get to the really big elections.
Speaker 6: We have a year round coalitions program, so we have
Speaker 6: staff that work to build our relationships in our parties,
Speaker 6: partnerships and train candidates from all the different communities of
Speaker 6: color around the state, from tribal nations you know, Latino
Speaker 6: candidates and voters and Black and API and all the
Speaker 6: different communities that make up our state. We have a
Speaker 6: Rural Power Up initiative that we've been doing to support
Speaker 6: our rural county parties in how they communicate, how they organize,
Speaker 6: also how they do yard signs, which has been for
Speaker 6: a long time. There was a kind of a thing
Speaker 6: where Democratic operatives would say signs, yard signs don't vote.
Speaker 6: But like when you know the people who put up
Speaker 6: the yard sign and they are publicly endorsing someone, it's
Speaker 6: an enormous validator. So we actually take that seriously. We
Speaker 6: do that work all around the state. And it means
Speaker 6: that a we like the Democrats in bright red areas,
Speaker 6: know they're they're not the only one. So Democrats are
Speaker 6: not automatically it will lose, so they know it's so
Speaker 6: worth voting and organizing, and it engages people in the
Speaker 6: bigger product that includes all the other stuff that we do.
Speaker 6: So we do all that stuff year round, and it
Speaker 6: means that when we get a crisis like this one,
Speaker 6: we're actually already in the communities around the state and
Speaker 6: we can fight back that instant. We don't have to
Speaker 6: wait then parachute in someone in from some other place
Speaker 6: to be able to do this work. It also means
Speaker 6: that in elections like this spring the Supreme Court election,
Speaker 6: we had an infrastructure already in place to be able
Speaker 6: to organize and fight all across the state and on
Speaker 6: and on. We'll have local elections in the spring of
Speaker 6: twenty twenty four. Those tee up what needs to happen
Speaker 6: for the fall of twenty twenty four, and by the
Speaker 6: time we get there, we're going to have Tammy Baldwin
Speaker 6: for US Senate. We'll have the presidential race where we'll
Speaker 6: have be the tipping point state. We have at least
Speaker 6: two potentially flippable House seats. We under either the current maps,
Speaker 6: we have to stop supermajorities, or if we have new maps,
Speaker 6: we might be able to fight for majorities, but will
Speaker 6: have already done the groundwork so that it's not like
Speaker 6: we're rocking up a few weeks before the election and
Speaker 6: trying to introduce ourselves with Democrats and that, to me,
Speaker 6: it's the long term project of building a democracy actually
Speaker 6: involves building community and helping remind people that they have
Speaker 6: power over the way that the world unfolds. They don't
Speaker 6: just have to post angry what do they called that?
Speaker 6: X's you know, if there's something you can do. To me,
Speaker 6: that's the big project. And I'm thrilled about the work
Speaker 6: that other state chairers are doing around the country, And
Speaker 6: to me, where everywhere we can. In the purple places,
Speaker 6: it's very clear how if you work a little bit
Speaker 6: extra hard, if you push a little bit further, it
Speaker 6: might have a huge impact. Sometimes that's harder to summon
Speaker 6: in places that look nominally bright blue or bright red.
Speaker 6: But as we saw in New York, the stakes if
Speaker 6: you don't do this can be enormous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we lost the House beacause of our Democratic Party.
Speaker 1: Not that I am salty about this at all, because
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy is a very serious leader. Then so appreciate
Speaker 1: you tell people what they can do, how they.
Speaker 3: Can suppore you.
Speaker 6: So if you're listening right now, first thing is go
Speaker 6: to defend Justice dot com. If you're in Wisconsin, find
Speaker 6: your legislator and contact them. If you're not, join our
Speaker 6: virtual phone bank and call Wisconsin voters. And then second
Speaker 6: thing you can do anyone can do from that website
Speaker 6: or with stems dot org you can click through and
Speaker 6: don't and especially if you become a monthly donor you
Speaker 6: support the kind of year round infrastructure I'm talking about.
Speaker 6: What happens now is going to have a gigantic impact
Speaker 6: on the presidential election in twenty twenty four. The Republicans
Speaker 6: have moved all their chips to Wisconsin. Their national convention
Speaker 6: is in Wisconsin. You just saw their first presidential primary
Speaker 6: debate here. They know that if they win here they
Speaker 6: probably get the White House. If they lose, they probably don't.
Speaker 6: So if anyone who is able to help us, you
Speaker 6: can volunteer and you can donate, you can help us
Speaker 6: make sure that we make the state blue. And if
Speaker 6: we do this and then we have new maps, maybe
Speaker 6: we have a chance to unrigistate. The Republicans have built
Speaker 6: through law after law to be totally voter proof and
Speaker 6: voter hostile and democracy proof. We have a chance to
Speaker 6: unwind that trap. And if we do that, it could
Speaker 6: have enormous long term implications for the whole country.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Ben, thank you, Molly.
Speaker 6: Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Russet Perry is the Democratic candidate in Virginia's thirty first
Speaker 1: Senate district.
Speaker 3: Welcome too fast politics for us.
Speaker 5: It hi, I'm so happy to be here. Thank you
Speaker 5: for having me explained.
Speaker 1: To us a little bit about your race when it
Speaker 1: is what it is, et cetera.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So I'm running for state Senates in Virginia. My
Speaker 5: race is the most competitive race this year in Virginia
Speaker 5: probably in the entire country. It is coming up early.
Speaker 5: Voting starts September twenty second, and the actual election day
Speaker 5: is November seventh. But the reason my race is so
Speaker 5: important is because of the way that Virginia is currently divided.
Speaker 5: We have a Republican governor, a House of Delegates that
Speaker 5: is Republican held in a Senate that is narrowly held
Speaker 5: by Democrats. My seat is the tipping point seat for
Speaker 5: whether or not Democrats are able to hold the Senate
Speaker 5: this fall here in Virginia. What that means sort of
Speaker 5: the top priority is abortion and abortion rights and abortion
Speaker 5: access and abortion freedom. Like we've seen across the country
Speaker 5: and other states and on other ballots. My race is
Speaker 5: the race that will, like libit at this siding vote
Speaker 5: for what happens with abortion here in Virginia this year.
Speaker 1: This is sort of the big election before twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Is this Virginia State House race. Will you explain to
Speaker 1: our listeners. Virginia has a House of Delegates and it
Speaker 1: has a state Senate. Right, that's right, Yep, the entire
Speaker 1: thing everybody is up this year.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's the right. Every single race is on the ballot.
Speaker 1: We saw right after Trump got elected, Democrats were able
Speaker 1: to flip both the House of Delegates and the state Senate.
Speaker 1: Since then, Virginia has sort of lost democratic focus and
Speaker 1: Republicans were able to win back the House of Delegates.
Speaker 5: Yes, and that came with the wave of Governor Younkin,
Speaker 5: who we saw national news come out with this parent's
Speaker 5: right sort of thing that happened primarily in my district
Speaker 5: here in Louding County, Virginia.
Speaker 1: And then we were subjected to cycles and cycles about
Speaker 1: how what a genius Youngkin was because he wore a
Speaker 1: red vast and didn't advertise himself to be a total fascist,
Speaker 1: unlike a lot of other Republican governors. Explain to us
Speaker 1: what his gubernatorial record has been like, because I think
Speaker 1: some of us in the national press got the idea
Speaker 1: that because he was treated as a moderate, he was
Speaker 1: governing as a moderate. I don't think that's really accurate.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't think that's accurate either, But that is
Speaker 5: the press that he's been able to get. But that
Speaker 5: is in large part due to the fact of what
Speaker 5: we call the blue brick wall in the Senate.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: So whatever Youngkin's agenda is it has been routinely stopped
Speaker 5: by Virginia State senators.
Speaker 3: Can you say more about that.
Speaker 1: Give me an example of something he tried to pass
Speaker 1: that you were able to stop.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's a false lieu of bills, right that he's
Speaker 5: put forward. That are these more extremist type bills that
Speaker 5: we have seen from these maga Republicans, right, that have
Speaker 5: only been stopped in the Senate, and those include things
Speaker 5: like wanting to be able to access menstrual data from
Speaker 5: him and through search warrant, which is used of course
Speaker 5: in criminal prosecution, wanting to outright being abortion altogether. You know,
Speaker 5: we've just seen bill after bill after bill that has
Speaker 5: been these these extremist magal like positions.
Speaker 3: So Youngkin is not up now.
Speaker 5: Youngkin is not up for election this year. That's exactly right.
Speaker 5: There has been national press over the issue, and Youngin
Speaker 5: himself has said that his focus right now is on
Speaker 5: trying to flip the Senate right and making sure that
Speaker 5: he has that Republican trifecta, the Republican governorship, the Republican
Speaker 5: House of Delegates, and a Republican Senate, with the goal
Speaker 5: of being able to enact the agenda that he has
Speaker 5: been wanting to enact and using that as a launchpad
Speaker 5: to run for president.
Speaker 1: So if he is able to do that, tell us
Speaker 1: what it will look like. If Youngkin is able to
Speaker 1: flip the House of Delegates read and keep the Senate.
Speaker 5: Yeah, if he's able to flip the Senate and keep
Speaker 5: the House of Delegates red, then there is no more
Speaker 5: blockade to these extremist bills that I that I previously referenced.
Speaker 5: There is no stopping it. And we've seen nothing from
Speaker 5: Republicans on wanting to limit or tamp down or stand
Speaker 5: up to any of those sort of extremist agendas. There
Speaker 5: have already been numerous people here out here, Republicans running
Speaker 5: for office who have talked about, you know, wanting to
Speaker 5: be an abortion altogether. And you know, if you think
Speaker 5: about it, it makes sense. If Youngkin wants to run
Speaker 5: for president, he still has the issue of trying to
Speaker 5: win over all of those MAGA supporters and pulling them
Speaker 5: from Trump. There's one way to do that, and that's
Speaker 5: by running on a MAGA agenda. We expect that those
Speaker 5: bills and those things that haven't put forward, that have
Speaker 5: been stopped by the Senate will now would then proceed
Speaker 5: forward and that Virginia would become the next Florida.
Speaker 3: That would mean abortion access. What else would that mean?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean abortion access is huge because Virginia is
Speaker 5: the last state in the South that does not yet
Speaker 5: have a ban on abortions, and so we have seen
Speaker 5: an uptick across the state and folks who are coming
Speaker 5: here from states in the South relying of virgin as
Speaker 5: their access to abortions. So it would mean that and
Speaker 5: we've seen what that means for women who are separating miscarriages,
Speaker 5: doctors fleeing the state, women being sent out to their
Speaker 5: car to bleed out. It also will mean Democrats made
Speaker 5: great strides in extending ability to vote through early voting,
Speaker 5: through no fault apps and tee voting, so we would
Speaker 5: see a rollback. We expect to see a rollback on
Speaker 5: all of those things, which then, of course could have
Speaker 5: further impacts on the presidential election next year when people
Speaker 5: are unable to get to the ballot box and to vote.
Speaker 5: We expect to also see environmental impacts. Governor Youngcan has
Speaker 5: already tried to pull is trying to pull Virginia out
Speaker 5: of the Regional greenhouse Gas initiative that was a something
Speaker 5: put in place by Democrats whenever they had control to
Speaker 5: reduce carbon emissions here in Virginia, and so we expect
Speaker 5: that we will see it in a number of things. Certainly,
Speaker 5: book banning has been big here in Virginia, and of
Speaker 5: course in the schools, we expect that we will see
Speaker 5: funding diverted away from public schools through vouchers. You know,
Speaker 5: we've seen rewriting of history here in Virginia and a
Speaker 5: rollback of what kids learn in school.
Speaker 1: If young Kin is able to flip both the House
Speaker 1: of Delegates and keep the Senate, will he be able
Speaker 1: to turn Virginia into Florida.
Speaker 5: I think if he is able to flip the Senate
Speaker 5: and keep the House of Delegates, yeah, I don't there
Speaker 5: won't be anything left to stop him from turning Virginia
Speaker 5: into Florida. Democrats won a special election in January of
Speaker 5: this year that gives us one cushion seat, but because
Speaker 5: of redistricting. I should have mentioned that all of the
Speaker 5: seats here in Virginia were redistricted, and this is the
Speaker 5: first year after redistricting, and so really all of this
Speaker 5: comes down to what happens in my race in this
Speaker 5: seat this year what direction Virginia ends up taking. And
Speaker 5: Virginia is always a bellweather state.
Speaker 1: Right, if Democrats don't win, will be subjected to some
Speaker 1: of the worst pundentrary known to man.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that's right.
Speaker 1: Sorry, But also you guys will lose all your rights,
Speaker 1: so that's also bad. But I'm more importantly for us
Speaker 1: on the national level. No, I'm just kidding. No, there's
Speaker 1: nothing funny about losing all your rights. And it really
Speaker 1: is scary that Virginia, which is very much a purple state,
Speaker 1: could become Florida, which is very much now a complete cryptocracy.
Speaker 3: Talk to us about your opponent.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so my opponent moved into the district to run
Speaker 5: for this race. He is the son of a billionaire.
Speaker 5: He has no ties to this district and moved in
Speaker 5: here at the end of last year, right before the
Speaker 5: deadline to move in one week. He closed on his
Speaker 5: house one week before the deadline.
Speaker 3: Amazing, at least he bought a house.
Speaker 1: I mean, he is not to be flippant, but we've
Speaker 1: seen Republicans run with lass I'm looking at you, Josh Hawley.
Speaker 5: But yes, continue, well, I will say he has a
Speaker 5: little bit of a cashier uanity. He's the son of
Speaker 5: a billionaire his father to be, so he bought a
Speaker 5: house here to run for this seat. He is very
Speaker 5: much pursuing the Youngin model. When Youngkin ran in twenty
Speaker 5: twenty one, almost from day one, he bought house here.
Speaker 5: I guess I should say, I don't know where he
Speaker 5: stays at night, and immediately sued the school board and
Speaker 5: has been seen on you know, parents rights, parents rights
Speaker 5: much less like Youngkin has, even though he doesn't have
Speaker 5: any children in Latin cutting public schools.
Speaker 3: So your opponent is suing.
Speaker 1: The schools despite the fact that he does not have
Speaker 1: children in the schools.
Speaker 5: That's exactly right, first order of business. That's exactly what
Speaker 5: he did.
Speaker 3: Incredible stuff.
Speaker 1: Explain to me this parents rights thing, because it's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: It seems to me as if Republicans saw that parents
Speaker 1: were upset about COVID wanted to run on that.
Speaker 3: Then COVID.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for them, COVID restrictions ended, so they had to
Speaker 1: find something else to fill in this idea of parents' rights,
Speaker 1: and they picked books.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that's roughly accurate.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: It's interesting. There's been a lot of writing here lately
Speaker 5: about where this idea of parents rights, where it came from.
Speaker 5: And it actually came out of a very conservative evangelical
Speaker 5: movement that was originally intended to try to, you know,
Speaker 5: put forward this Christian agenda and to get funding out
Speaker 5: of public schools so that kids could be you know,
Speaker 5: get money at homeschool or in schools. You know, Republicans
Speaker 5: have been able to successfully use it with the COVID mandates,
Speaker 5: and of course, like with books and education and what's
Speaker 5: being taught. And of course parents matter. I am a parent.
Speaker 5: I'm a parent to two children who actually attend Lend
Speaker 5: County public schools and have for their My father was
Speaker 5: a public school teacher, my mother was as well. Parents matter,
Speaker 5: of course they do. I don't think anyone thinks parents
Speaker 5: don't matter. The question is in education. Really you're looking
Speaker 5: at a multi light stool. Parents matter, kids matter, teachers matter.
Speaker 5: To sort of use this to sort of come in
Speaker 5: here and stir the pot when you don't live here,
Speaker 5: and then sort of walk back after you've thrown that grenade,
Speaker 5: and I think is disingenuous at best. And our kids
Speaker 5: are depending on us, as the adults in the room,
Speaker 5: to do everything we can to make sure they get
Speaker 5: the best education and that they are protected at school.
Speaker 5: And I think that should be the focus, and it
Speaker 5: seems instead that we just are seeing politics injected here
Speaker 5: into Ladin County public schools in particular.
Speaker 1: Why do you think your district is such a hop
Speaker 1: ad here?
Speaker 5: I think that part of it is because it's a
Speaker 5: purple district. I think part of it is Louden is
Speaker 5: a suburb, right, and so my district includes Loudin and
Speaker 5: Fakier County. But Louden is a suburb, and we have
Speaker 5: a lot of educated parents, you know, who, of course,
Speaker 5: much like myself, care very deeply about their children. I
Speaker 5: think that what has happened here is a little bit
Speaker 5: politics of fear. Of course, parents want the best for
Speaker 5: their kids. I want the best for my kids, and
Speaker 5: I want them to have the best education, and so
Speaker 5: coming in and talking about and saying things that are true,
Speaker 5: and of course, you know, all of us get sort
Speaker 5: of that mama been air instinct to protect our kids.
Speaker 5: But I think they've been able to spin that in
Speaker 5: a way to make parents afraid of what's happening. And
Speaker 5: you know, there have been other mistakes that have been
Speaker 5: made right by a variety of entities. It's not totally unwarranted.
Speaker 5: But I think what's happening here is just continuing to
Speaker 5: stir the pot, as opposed to sitting down and having
Speaker 5: actual conversations about where mistakes were made, where things could
Speaker 5: be done better, and seeking to correct them, as opposed
Speaker 5: to sort of what's happening here, you know, which is
Speaker 5: just causing teachers to leave, you know, they're getting treated terribly,
Speaker 5: and just a variety of other things, as opposed to
Speaker 5: actually sitting down and trying to solve some problems.
Speaker 1: Okay, so early voting starts on September twenty second. If
Speaker 1: you're listening to this podcast, what do you need?
Speaker 5: The biggest thing I need right now is money. I'm
Speaker 5: running against the son of a billionaire and the force
Speaker 5: of the Virginia governor. The governor we're talking about my opponent.
Speaker 5: My opponent is heavily backed by Governor youngkin Es here
Speaker 5: in the district campaigning for him. Going back to the
Speaker 5: more extremist stuff, my opponent has given a lot of
Speaker 5: money to some of the abortion extremists that we have seen,
Speaker 5: who you know, say abortion is similar to the Holocaust
Speaker 5: and other just really egregious statements and has donated to
Speaker 5: Rixiyan Tum, who doesn't believe in contraception. But what I
Speaker 5: need is money to make sure that voters are informed
Speaker 5: this is an off off year election, no governor's race,
Speaker 5: no presidential race. To get people out to the ballot
Speaker 5: box to vote and make sure they know exactly what's
Speaker 5: on the line, to make sure that they know that
Speaker 5: this is not some sort of a moderate play at something,
Speaker 5: that they look at the actions of what people are
Speaker 5: doing and are aware of them. And so the DC
Speaker 5: media market is incredibly expensive. We're up on TV right now.
Speaker 5: We have been since Thursday with an ad. I'm a
Speaker 5: former prosecutor. I started out in domestic violence and sex
Speaker 5: crimes and was a prosecutor for about ten years here
Speaker 5: in this district and also served over the Central Intelligence
Speaker 5: agencies for several years. And it is just about making
Speaker 5: sure we can get our message out and making sure
Speaker 5: we have people hitting the doors and we have money
Speaker 5: to stay up on television and send mailers and get
Speaker 5: up on digital ads as well.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on this podcast. This
Speaker 1: is one of these races that is going to be
Speaker 1: incredibly important and meaningful. It could end up being a
Speaker 1: question of whether or not women in Virginia are able
Speaker 1: to get the medical care they need.
Speaker 3: And that's incredible stuff.
Speaker 5: Yeah, not just here, but there are women across the
Speaker 5: South who are depending on us as well. That's exactly right.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I hope you'll come back.
Speaker 5: No, thank you so much for having me. If I
Speaker 5: can just put my website out there for folks, it
Speaker 5: is Russet Harry are u s set just like the color,
Speaker 5: just like the potato, Perry p E R R Y
Speaker 5: all one word dot com and there is a tab
Speaker 5: on there you can click donate.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: We have folks who have contributed and dug deep in
Speaker 5: their pocketbooks from all over the country, and we're incredibly
Speaker 5: grateful as we try to preserve these rights, not just
Speaker 5: here in Virginia, but send a message to the country
Speaker 5: about how people feel about people coming after politicians coming
Speaker 5: after their rights.
Speaker 6: They're no, no.
Speaker 3: Jesse Cannon, my junk fast. You know what, I didn't
Speaker 3: have my big good card, Robney godwild Listen. We love it.
Speaker 3: We love it for the we love the quotes. We
Speaker 3: love it.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to read it to you because it's
Speaker 1: so good I had to highlight it twice. I don't
Speaker 1: know that I can disrespect someone more than Jady Vance,
Speaker 1: Romney said. In twenty twenty two. Romney said he imagined
Speaker 1: confronting Vance and telling him it's like, really, you're selling
Speaker 1: yourself so cheap, and for that, Jady Vance is cheaply
Speaker 1: selling of himself. That is our moment of fuck Ray.
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
Speaker 1: every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to hear the best minds
Speaker 1: in politics makes sense of all this chaos. If you
Speaker 1: enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to a friend
Speaker 1: and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks for listening.