Speaker 1: Look already, Ola La, I'm Viosa and I'm Mala. Today
Speaker 1: we have an interview with Senator Sasha Renee Betiz of
Speaker 1: Ahambra Enjoy.
Speaker 2: Just got sworn in. This is your first year in office.
Speaker 2: Yeah as a senator. You were the mayor of Alhambra previously,
Speaker 2: But as a California State Senator, where is your drive
Speaker 2: to work? At one hundred and fifty percent coming from?
Speaker 3: I feel this deep sense of responsibility I think to
Speaker 3: my community, right. I mean, you know, I've been in
Speaker 3: the SGV my whole life, right, and I think being
Speaker 3: a kid that's that's from my community. And seeing the
Speaker 3: pain that we just went through with the fires, and
Speaker 3: seeing the pain that folks are going through now with
Speaker 3: this new federal administration, and having people approach me and
Speaker 3: say I'm depending on you and I'm scared about what
Speaker 3: this moment presents, really drives me to want to do more,
Speaker 3: to do every thing I can. I work seven days
Speaker 3: a week, NonStop, and I also love what I do,
Speaker 3: like very deeply, so it doesn't feel like work. Today
Speaker 3: is supposed to be my day off. I worked all
Speaker 3: day and I feel a real deep sense of commitment
Speaker 3: to the work.
Speaker 1: And tell us about the district you represent, the San
Speaker 1: Gabriel Valley and tell us about who your constituents are
Speaker 1: for anyone not familiar with that area.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So the SGV is a place that is so
Speaker 3: special to my heart, right outside of the City of
Speaker 3: Los Angeles. That includes communities like al hambram Honree Parks,
Speaker 3: and Gabriel, Rosemead Temple City that are predominantly API. You'll
Speaker 3: hear researchers sometimes refer to it as an Ethno burb
Speaker 3: because you have API folks that have basically created a
Speaker 3: suburb that is almost entirely you know, diverse, right, rather
Speaker 3: than kind of when you think about these suburbs, I
Speaker 3: think people tend to think of white folks, and this
Speaker 3: is a predominantly Asian American Pacific Islander community. And then
Speaker 3: you have the northern part of my district, right Altadena, Pasadena,
Speaker 3: which has recently gained a lot of tension, that has
Speaker 3: this huge historically black community. You have Latino communities all
Speaker 3: throughout parts of Pasadena, parts of Glendale, even parts of Alhambra,
Speaker 3: and in Glendale a huge Armenian community, one of the
Speaker 3: largest actually in the entire nation. So my district is
Speaker 3: one of the most diverse in the state. It's also
Speaker 3: one of the only districts that does not have one
Speaker 3: single racial majority. We're made up of a lot of
Speaker 3: different folks and I think that's what makes you know
Speaker 3: the area, the San Gabriel Valley so unique.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I want to remind our listeners that we
Speaker 1: had a guest Bianca maboute Luis who talked about Ethno
Speaker 1: Burbs and this is maybe during season nine, So I
Speaker 1: just want to kind of call back to that because
Speaker 1: you mentioned.
Speaker 2: It per book Unassimilable. Yes, yes, and very much writing
Speaker 2: about the retention of culture and language in the San
Speaker 2: Gabriel Valley.
Speaker 3: Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and how assimilation has not been the goal or
Speaker 2: the driving life force for those communities there. So I'm wondering,
Speaker 2: let's go back recap for our listeners. We did an
Speaker 2: interview with you during the pandemic when you became the
Speaker 2: mayor pro tem of al Hambra. Tell us about becoming
Speaker 2: mayor of Alhambra and then how that led you in
Speaker 2: one way or another to now you're holding office as
Speaker 2: California State Senator. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's crazy because that feels like eons ago
Speaker 3: now first running for office. You know, when I ran
Speaker 3: for the City of Alhambra to run for council, it
Speaker 3: was really at a point in my life when I
Speaker 3: think I felt really fed up and really angry. To
Speaker 3: be perfectly honest, I had just lost, you know, my
Speaker 3: cousin who had passed away after being chronically homeless for
Speaker 3: most of his life and the year before, and I think,
Speaker 3: through going to therapy and really reflecting on what that
Speaker 3: meant and the frustration I felt with the system, I
Speaker 3: came out of that saying, you know, I'd want to
Speaker 3: step out from being behind the scenes. I had worked
Speaker 3: in policy my whole life, and I want to start
Speaker 3: being the decision maker because I felt like those voices
Speaker 3: weren't represented at the table. And I saw the homelessness crisis,
Speaker 3: and I felt like it was so clear to me
Speaker 3: what was coming now. I could have never predicted that
Speaker 3: a pandemic was on its way that was certainly going
Speaker 3: to exacerbate the situation, and that's exactly what ended up happening.
Speaker 3: And so I started running in twenty twenty, and we'd
Speaker 3: go into shutdown mode, and all of a sudden, I
Speaker 3: have hundreds of people contacting me through my website saying
Speaker 3: I don't know how I'm going to pay my rent,
Speaker 3: I don't know how I'm going to pay for food.
Speaker 3: And it was like this shocking moment. I think I
Speaker 3: had prepared myself for people attacking me and calling me
Speaker 3: like me names, and I realized that that doesn't bug
Speaker 3: me at all. But when somebody looks you in the
Speaker 3: eye and says I'm depending on you because I don't
Speaker 3: know what's going to happen next, and I'm scared who
Speaker 3: that hits in a different way, and I suddenly felt
Speaker 3: I think that sense of responsibility I was talking about earlier,
Speaker 3: of like I don't just want to do this, I
Speaker 3: need to do this, and it just really kind of changed.
Speaker 3: I think everything for me and my campaign just became
Speaker 3: about mailers and other things, but answering people's questions that
Speaker 3: they had about tenant protections and learning all these different
Speaker 3: county and city and state laws that were getting passed
Speaker 3: so that I could better interpret to people the law.
Speaker 3: So i've and then I and I defeated the incumbent
Speaker 3: by sixty points. I mean, it was crazy, so to
Speaker 3: come out on the other side of that, and you know,
Speaker 3: and then to be in office and to be delivering
Speaker 3: for my community. And then all of a sudden we
Speaker 3: had the redistricting process happen and All Hambra got moved
Speaker 3: into the Senate district and people started talking with me
Speaker 3: about running for Senate. And I will be honest with you,
Speaker 3: I was like, these folks are not going to vote
Speaker 3: for me. I was like some you know, little brown
Speaker 3: renter girl from all Hambra, Like this is not They're
Speaker 3: not going to want to elect someone like me. And
Speaker 3: this group called Close the Gap, who's dedicated to electing
Speaker 3: women to office. They just kept on trying to convince
Speaker 3: me for almost a year, and they sat down and
Speaker 3: they'd show me data, and they'd bring me and sit
Speaker 3: me down to lunch and have me talk to consultants.
Speaker 3: And I was just like, I don't think that this
Speaker 3: is viable. And then I left to Chile and was
Speaker 3: in South America for a month and I just sat
Speaker 3: down and I thought about it, and I thought, if
Speaker 3: I don't try to do it, I'm going to wonder
Speaker 3: for the rest of my life what would have happened.
Speaker 1: Well, that's amazing. So what would you say, was like
Speaker 1: the deciding factor for you? Was it the months of
Speaker 1: like being courted, having this moment of like what if,
Speaker 1: Like was there more to it?
Speaker 3: I think I knew that there was still a lot
Speaker 3: of work to do at the state level. My background
Speaker 3: is actually in state policy, Like that's where I started
Speaker 3: doing a lot of my policy work, and there were
Speaker 3: so many things that I saw coming. I think the
Speaker 3: homelessness crisis was still something that I saw that there
Speaker 3: needed to be work done at the state level. But
Speaker 3: then you know, all of a sudden, from two point
Speaker 3: zero started to come right and what was that going
Speaker 3: to mean? You know, for the state of California to
Speaker 3: need to act as the resistance once again. And I
Speaker 3: think I really kind of felt like, Okay, I wanted
Speaker 3: to be a part of that no matter what happened,
Speaker 3: especially with the threats to education. I've worked in the
Speaker 3: education space for so long. Into immigration, there was so
Speaker 3: much that they wanted to do.
Speaker 1: There, don't go anywhere, lookomotives, We'll be right back.
Speaker 4: And we're back with more of our episode.
Speaker 1: I'd love to take advantage of having you here and
Speaker 1: have you like debunk things we see online about the
Speaker 1: homelessness crisis in California, specifically in La County.
Speaker 3: Look, I think the homelessness crisis has really been something
Speaker 3: that's been created over time with a multitude of kind
Speaker 3: of bad policy decisions. Right, we slowed down on building housing.
Speaker 3: I mean that is really I think the crux of it.
Speaker 3: And when we slowed down on building housing and suddenly
Speaker 3: we had a housing shortage issue, but so many people
Speaker 3: still wanting to move to California, it drove up rent
Speaker 3: prices drastically. And the challenge that we're now facing is
Speaker 3: we've invested so much money into resolving homelessness, but we
Speaker 3: have a constant stream of folks that are falling into homelessness,
Speaker 3: and we really have no safety net to protect those
Speaker 3: folks that are right on the edge of poverty. You know,
Speaker 3: I was reading a study the other day and something
Speaker 3: like ninety two percent of folks that are homeless said
Speaker 3: that if they had just been given a housing voucher
Speaker 3: for one month's rent, that that would have prevented them
Speaker 3: from falling into homelessness. And so we have more and
Speaker 3: more people that are right there at the line because
Speaker 3: California's frankly become unaffordable and it's difficult for anybody to
Speaker 3: live here. So it is a constant challenge that we're
Speaker 3: in that as we're trying to house the current folks
Speaker 3: that are currently facing homelessness, we have this new stream
Speaker 3: of folks that are constantly falling into this situation. And
Speaker 3: now you know, the state is trying to rush to
Speaker 3: build more housing, is trying to rush to make sure
Speaker 3: that that process is streamlined. At the l local level,
Speaker 3: you have a lot of local cities that have refused
Speaker 3: to build new housing, refuse to build permanent supportive housing,
Speaker 3: and this has now become a crisis of multiple proportions.
Speaker 3: So it is it is going to take time. And
Speaker 3: I think that that's also the hard part. And even
Speaker 3: when we do start to make a measurable difference, because
Speaker 3: we're not doing anything to fix this pocket of folks
Speaker 3: that are constantly living on the edges, it's like an
Speaker 3: unresolvable issues. So you have to have a multifaceted approach.
Speaker 3: And you know, that's what I've been really focused on,
Speaker 3: is us trying to address just that. I think when
Speaker 3: we see on TV visually, the folks that are most
Speaker 3: interface and we see on news cycles about this is
Speaker 3: people that have addiction issues, right a mental health issues.
Speaker 3: Those folks need a whole different set of supports, whether
Speaker 3: it's through you know, Ala County DMH or you know
Speaker 3: Dragon Alcohol rehabilitation services. But most people who we don't
Speaker 3: often see on the streets, they're often living in their cars,
Speaker 3: they're sleeping on people's couches, and are families that are
Speaker 3: doing this. Those are the folks that you know, with
Speaker 3: a little bit of economic support, we could go and
Speaker 3: get them back into housing and make sure that they're
Speaker 3: not falling deeper into homelessness.
Speaker 2: It's the classic putting a band aid on a leak, right,
Speaker 2: it's just not stopping the leak. Yeah, And it's just
Speaker 2: such a multi layered issue. And I think in LA,
Speaker 2: especially if you're out and about, you can see when
Speaker 2: someone is like newly homeless, like they just you know,
Speaker 2: lost their housing. And I'm curious too about the folks
Speaker 2: that maybe you heard from back when you were starting
Speaker 2: to campaign.
Speaker 4: If you ever hear follow ups.
Speaker 2: From those folks, like folks who are struggling, folks who
Speaker 2: are looking looking for help and support with housing, with rent,
Speaker 2: what have you, What is that feedback loop, like do
Speaker 2: you hear from them again?
Speaker 4: Do you follow up with them?
Speaker 3: Like? What does that look like, yeah, a lot of folks,
Speaker 3: I'll run into them again, or I'll go check on them.
Speaker 3: There was one family in particular that I got very
Speaker 3: involved with when I was running for city council, and
Speaker 3: they were in a situation where their landlord had intentionally
Speaker 3: shut off the power and shut off the water in
Speaker 3: their building in order to try to force them out.
Speaker 3: Because if you remember, at the time, we had very
Speaker 3: heavy protections in place, right, so if you weren't able
Speaker 3: to pay your rent, you were basically held harmless. You
Speaker 3: couldn't be evicted. And so this landlord was essentially doing
Speaker 3: these illegal practices to try to force out the tenant.
Speaker 3: And the tenant that was there was a mother and
Speaker 3: her husband. Her husband was struggling with some major health
Speaker 3: issues along with her children when was in high school
Speaker 3: and another was in elementary school, and it was I mean,
Speaker 3: it was just shocking and unacceptable what was happening. So
Speaker 3: we reported the landlord to the Department of Public Health
Speaker 3: because it's a public health violation to do that. And
Speaker 3: I saw them, gosh, not too long ago, I want
Speaker 3: to say, like five or six months ago, and they
Speaker 3: had shared with me that they weren't living there anymore
Speaker 3: that they moved into another location. They obviously got tired
Speaker 3: of dealing with this person that was being very antagonistic
Speaker 3: towards them. But one of the things I think that's
Speaker 3: really important to me is when I go through that
Speaker 3: process with somebody, is to really educate them around their rights,
Speaker 3: right and empowering her as the mother as well as
Speaker 3: her as her two children to understand that they have
Speaker 3: rights and protections in that moment, and you know, in
Speaker 3: talking with her, that's what she was sharing with me.
Speaker 3: You know, I really appreciated you just empowering me to
Speaker 3: know that I have rights. I can fight back, right,
Speaker 3: I don't have to just accept what they're telling me.
Speaker 3: I have protections too. So it's you know, it's tough.
Speaker 3: I think we tried to do our best to help
Speaker 3: folks out. But you know, even in that situation, they've
Speaker 3: moved to a place that's now smaller, and maybe it's
Speaker 3: it might be tighter quarters, but you know, when when
Speaker 3: you're dealing with the landlord that's that aggressive and antagonistic,
Speaker 3: it's just it's not a healthy place for someone to live.
Speaker 2: So before we stepped into the studio, we were talking
Speaker 2: about the fact that almost immediately after you got sworn
Speaker 2: into office, the wildfires.
Speaker 4: The fires took place here.
Speaker 2: In LA and you were on the ground immediately and
Speaker 2: working in the community. And I'm wondering what that introduction
Speaker 2: was like for you, you know, to this office and
Speaker 2: having this huge disaster take place right away and just
Speaker 2: hitting the ground running.
Speaker 4: What was that experience like for you?
Speaker 3: It was so overwhelming. Oh my gosh, January was one
Speaker 3: of the hardest months of my life. I don't think
Speaker 3: I've ever experienced anything more more challenging. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3: I started on January sixth, and the legislature and Sacramento
Speaker 3: and the fires happened on the evening of January seventh,
Speaker 3: and so you know, when I got that phone call,
Speaker 3: I didn't sleep that night. I was up until four
Speaker 3: in the morning in the office, and then I went
Speaker 3: back to my apartment. I napped for twenty minutes, and
Speaker 3: then I took the first flight back to LA And
Speaker 3: it was just like not knowing what I was walking
Speaker 3: into the bizarre nature of seeing a community that I
Speaker 3: know in love on fire. And then when I got
Speaker 3: back here on January eighth, we went to go and
Speaker 3: see the area and much of it was still on fire,
Speaker 3: so that was also bizarre too, because we couldn't get planes,
Speaker 3: you know, up into into the sky of helicopters rather
Speaker 3: to put out the flames because the winds were still
Speaker 3: very high at that point. But it was it was
Speaker 3: just so overwhelming and bizarre, and I think I just
Speaker 3: didn't really have a moment to process it, because if
Speaker 3: I think I would have processed it, I would have
Speaker 3: freaked out. So I just had to do it, and
Speaker 3: that was just it. I just had to jump right
Speaker 3: in and not think about it and be like, I'm
Speaker 3: this is work, I'm working, and let me just focus
Speaker 3: on on delivering for folks.
Speaker 2: Don't go anywhere, Lokamotis.
Speaker 1: We'll be right.
Speaker 4: Back, and we're back with more of our episode.
Speaker 1: That raises me to my really basic question that I
Speaker 1: have for you, because I think, like, as I go
Speaker 1: deeper into my career here with look at Dora and
Speaker 1: just being somewhat someone that's online and like very politically
Speaker 1: informed and tries to be really informed, there is a
Speaker 1: basic misunderstanding of like civic engagement and what elected officials
Speaker 1: can do and what they should do. So I want
Speaker 1: to ask you just a really basic question like what
Speaker 1: does a state senator do? Cause I feel like people
Speaker 1: might not even know what that is. You know, what
Speaker 1: does she What does the state center actually do?
Speaker 3: So we write laws for the state of California. To
Speaker 3: put it very simply, So anything that happens at the
Speaker 3: federal level, you know, I am not a US senator,
Speaker 3: so I have no jurisdiction over that. You know people
Speaker 3: have messaged me about like impeaching the president. That is
Speaker 3: not something that I have any jurisdiction over. So when
Speaker 3: we write laws, it is specifically for California and impacting
Speaker 3: all of California. So like a local city council member
Speaker 3: or a local mayor would be writing laws specifically for
Speaker 3: their city or their town, and for us, we have
Speaker 3: to think statewide whenever we're working on something and doing something.
Speaker 2: No, I think that's really important basic explainer for anybody, right,
Speaker 2: for anybody, so that you know where to go. Yeah,
Speaker 2: when you do have an issue, you save yourself the
Speaker 2: run around and go directly to the person, the office,
Speaker 2: the department that can do something for you, right, that
Speaker 2: can handle.
Speaker 4: What you need.
Speaker 2: Before we came into the studio, you were talking about
Speaker 2: a bill that you recently presented. Can you tell us
Speaker 2: more about that for our listeners.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, as you know, you know, Elon Musk, Trump
Speaker 3: Doge have been just on this craze cycle of cutting
Speaker 3: everything and so many of the life saving services that
Speaker 3: we depend on, whether it's been Medicaid, you know, social Security.
Speaker 3: They're now talking about eliminating the Department of Education, They're
Speaker 3: talking about eliminating FEMA. And you know, I have heard
Speaker 3: from so many of my constituents that they want for
Speaker 3: me to fight back. You know, we're the state of California.
Speaker 3: We're the most powerful state in the nation. We can't
Speaker 3: allow this to happen. We give more of our federal
Speaker 3: tax dollars to the federal government than we receive back.
Speaker 3: So I've introduced a bill to withhold federal funding should
Speaker 3: the administration continue to cut life saving services. And part
Speaker 3: of the reason why I'm suggesting that we go that
Speaker 3: route is because at some point we're going to need
Speaker 3: to backfill those services, whether it's Medicaid, whether it's Social Security.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is presenting real policy and budget questions
Speaker 3: that we're now having to deal with, and it is
Speaker 3: about time for us to say no more. If you
Speaker 3: want to continue doing this, then we're going to have
Speaker 3: to hold on to our dollars because we have to
Speaker 3: continue to provide those services to our constituents to make
Speaker 3: sure that people are staying alive. And you know, this
Speaker 3: is my form of saying enough is enough. And what
Speaker 3: I've heard from my constituents is they're like, we don't
Speaker 3: know what we want you to do, but please just
Speaker 3: do something.
Speaker 1: So yeah, And I have a follow up question to that,
Speaker 1: because my lingering question, as all of the cuts have
Speaker 1: been made at the federal level, is how does that
Speaker 1: not affect like unemployment at the state level, And is
Speaker 1: that something that you're also seeing and maybe like with
Speaker 1: one of the implications of like then the budget constraints,
Speaker 1: or then how does this fill out into or spill
Speaker 1: over into the state of California.
Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh, absolutely, I mean that is part of
Speaker 3: what is driving If you've seen some of the news recently,
Speaker 3: the County of La is facing a budget crisis, the
Speaker 3: City of La is facing a budget crisis. If you
Speaker 3: saw you know, headlines just a couple of months ago,
Speaker 3: right after the fires happen, the state government invested two
Speaker 3: point five billion dollars into the La wildfires, both Palisades
Speaker 3: and Eton. And what that helps to cover is all
Speaker 3: of those fire trucks you saw coming from all over
Speaker 3: the state of California and even outside of the state.
Speaker 3: Those firefighters need to get paid for their time, all
Speaker 3: the resources that were used, whether it was city or
Speaker 3: county resources. That's to help cover and foot the bill
Speaker 3: for that. We're depending on FEMA to reimburse us for that.
Speaker 3: So if you were to eliminate that department, if we're
Speaker 3: not to not receive those dollars, that has huge impact
Speaker 3: on the state budget. So many of our local communities
Speaker 3: depend on Medicaid for example, you know, cutting that that
Speaker 3: cuts those folks out of health care. These are huge, huge,
Speaker 3: huge items, and you know, we have multiple lawsuits moving forward.
Speaker 3: The attorney generals joined together with other states to sue
Speaker 3: the federal government. But if any of these things were
Speaker 3: to go through and continue moving forward, we are going
Speaker 3: to be in a real, real crisis. And I really
Speaker 3: want to emphasize that. My hope is that you'll have
Speaker 3: other states begin to speak up and say we can't
Speaker 3: do this. I mean, if they're to eliminate FEMA, it's
Speaker 3: not just California that takes the hit. Kentucky just went
Speaker 3: through one of the biggest floods that they've seen in
Speaker 3: the last twenty five thirty years. Their folks are relying
Speaker 3: on FEMA too, So it's not just a California issue.
Speaker 3: It is all of us.
Speaker 1: Right. And then with the changes of the climate crisis
Speaker 1: that we're in, we can only expect more natural disasters
Speaker 1: in across the nation.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, absolutely, We're in March. Well, we're now about
Speaker 3: to enter into April. Think about that. I mean, we
Speaker 3: still have several months of the year left. And that
Speaker 3: is the scary part is we could be in for
Speaker 3: more climate disasters, more natural disasters that we don't know
Speaker 3: that are coming, and it might not be California. It
Speaker 3: could be another state.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The bill that you've presented about withholding federal funding
Speaker 2: and to be clear, this is funding that California pays
Speaker 2: to the federal government. Yes, it's not the other way around. Yes.
Speaker 2: Have you gotten good feedback on this bill? Have you
Speaker 2: gotten pushed back on this bill? What has the response
Speaker 2: been after you presented it?
Speaker 3: So we introduced this four days ago, so it's still
Speaker 3: relatively new. But I have talked with some constituents about it,
Speaker 3: because I've spoken to a couple of groups over the
Speaker 3: last several days, and the response that I've gotten from
Speaker 3: constituents is overwhelmingly, this is the exact direction and that
Speaker 3: we want to see are elected officials going, We want
Speaker 3: to know that these critical services are going to be covered,
Speaker 3: if not for me, then for my friend, my neighbor,
Speaker 3: my family member. And this is a kind of response
Speaker 3: that I think folks need in this moment.
Speaker 1: So earlier you shared that there is not necessarily a
Speaker 1: consensus between the Democratic Party and maybe a certain stance
Speaker 1: that Democrats should be taking right now, but you're taking
Speaker 1: a clear stance right and it's a pretty big one.
Speaker 1: You're saying, like, we're going to withhold our federal dollars
Speaker 1: that we pay to the federal government. Is that something
Speaker 1: that you think could be a model? And also like
Speaker 1: what could like if you could waive a magic wand
Speaker 1: what do you think the Democrats should be doing or
Speaker 1: could be doing differently?
Speaker 3: So, oh, my goodness, so many things. And let me
Speaker 3: also say too, I think one of the things that's
Speaker 3: really interesting about this moment is Democrats have suffered one
Speaker 3: of the biggest losses that we've seen in some time
Speaker 3: right in this election, and so you see the party
Speaker 3: kind of struggling to figure out, like where do we
Speaker 3: go in this moment? And so, you know, my ideas
Speaker 3: and the thoughts that I have could be very different
Speaker 3: than any single one of my colleagues. But I'm of
Speaker 3: the perspective that, you know, this moment is calling upon
Speaker 3: us to fight back. I really love seeing what AOC
Speaker 3: and Bernie Sanders are doing, traveling across the country, going
Speaker 3: to red states, rallying folks and calling out what is happening.
Speaker 3: I think that's something that's so critical for us to
Speaker 3: do in this moment as Democrats, is for us to
Speaker 3: be truth tellers and to say that you have billionaires
Speaker 3: that are coming in and trying to buy and purchase
Speaker 3: our government. That's what this is about at the end
Speaker 3: of the day. And these cuts are being made to
Speaker 3: give them bigger tax cuts. You had FAA employees be fired,
Speaker 3: and now Starlink is being considered. Elon Musk's own company
Speaker 3: is being considered to backfill that, like he basically set
Speaker 3: it up so that he could sign another contract with
Speaker 3: the federal government. That's insane. We're watching these things happen
Speaker 3: in real time. You have the President of the United
Speaker 3: States doing a car show for Tesla on the White
Speaker 3: House lawn. This is unacceptable. These folks are treating our government,
Speaker 3: our federal government, like their own personal piggy bank, and
Speaker 3: as somebody that's a renter, as someone that's working class
Speaker 3: that grew up in a union household. How I feel
Speaker 3: about it is hell no. We have to fight back
Speaker 3: and call it out and push back on them. Why
Speaker 3: would we allow for democracy to unravel before our very eyes?
Speaker 3: I mean, it is absurd to me. And when I
Speaker 3: talk to my voters that is how they feel. They
Speaker 3: feel just as infuriated as I do. And I'll be honest,
Speaker 3: even folks that are independent and even some Republicans. So
Speaker 3: that is my perspective. I think we need to get
Speaker 3: out there. We need to go to conservative areas, and
Speaker 3: we need to be who we've always been. The Democratic
Speaker 3: Party seems to be trying to find its sole. We
Speaker 3: know who we are. We are the party of the
Speaker 3: working class. We are a diverse party who invites everyone
Speaker 3: in and when somebody doesn't fit at our table, we
Speaker 3: make it longer and we bring another seat. We do
Speaker 3: not cut people out and demonize people in order to
Speaker 3: get results. We can get results without demonizing people. So,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm so frustrated and enraged in this moment,
Speaker 3: and I think that that's what folks want us to capture.
Speaker 3: They want to meet us, to meet that energy and
Speaker 3: to fight back for them.
Speaker 2: Beautiful and all that note, Right, Like, let's talk about immigration,
Speaker 2: because talk about demonizing people and blaming people for problems
Speaker 2: and misplacing blame. Right, Let's talk about immigration and what
Speaker 2: you're seeing on that side of things in office.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's oh my goodness, it is a scary time.
Speaker 3: I think the thing that's been so frustrating to me too,
Speaker 3: is this immigration issue intersects so much with what the
Speaker 3: fires did in Alta, Dina, right, because you had this
Speaker 3: huge Latino population that was an Altadena. Many of those
Speaker 3: folks were undocumented. And so I've lost my home, I've
Speaker 3: lost everything, I've lost my job. And then January twentieth
Speaker 3: comes and Trump is sworn into office and is trying
Speaker 3: to make good on all of his promises to deliver
Speaker 3: mass deportations, and so you have folks that are scared
Speaker 3: to even ask for help. You know, what we've been
Speaker 3: doing FEMA workshops on a regular basis over the last
Speaker 3: seven eight weeks now, and we will regularly connect with
Speaker 3: folks that are living out of their cars because they're
Speaker 3: too scared to get help, even if they are documented,
Speaker 3: because maybe they have a family member who's undocumented and
Speaker 3: they think that putting themselves on a list might put
Speaker 3: their other family member at who doesn't have papers. That
Speaker 3: is so heartbreaking to me. And you know, we've seen
Speaker 3: just whether it's at our schools. You know, we're seeing
Speaker 3: Adya loss, students not coming to school because their parents
Speaker 3: are scared to send them. They're scared that their kids
Speaker 3: will be taken. They're scared that they might be taken
Speaker 3: and their kids might be left at school by themselves.
Speaker 3: So it is impacting every fabric of our society, and
Speaker 3: even with work as well. You know, I've heard from
Speaker 3: folks that work in the ad business. After January twentieth,
Speaker 3: they had like half of their workforce just completely disappear.
Speaker 3: So we're going to start seeing the ripple effects of this.
Speaker 3: We already are. But you know, for the folks that
Speaker 3: are not moved by the argument that this is inhumane,
Speaker 3: this is also bad economic policy, and it will take
Speaker 3: some time, but we're going to start to see the
Speaker 3: results of that.
Speaker 1: Thank you for providing some of that background in that
Speaker 1: context as to how the fires fascerrated this immigration policy
Speaker 1: that we're seeing at the federal level. The city of
Speaker 1: la is also a sanctuary city, but there's also you
Speaker 1: know a lot of back and forth with the federal
Speaker 1: government right and wanting to go after sanctuary cities. I
Speaker 1: saw that you've also been leading workshops like how is
Speaker 1: your office also providing that information for your constituents about
Speaker 1: their legal rights, whether they're undocumented or not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we have been having regular Our workshops are
Speaker 3: really centered more around the fireed but we do workshops
Speaker 3: in Spanish so that we're able to answer questions that
Speaker 3: folks have, you know, around immigration as well. We partner
Speaker 3: with Cheerleve really heavily on this, so Cheerless President at
Speaker 3: all of the workshops that we've been hosting, and that's
Speaker 3: it's you know, been very helpful for folks. I think
Speaker 3: we've serviced something like almost a thousand residents over that
Speaker 3: time period. We're going to start doing virtual workshops as well,
Speaker 3: because we know that's a big need. There's some folks
Speaker 3: that have questions around their immigration status or what to
Speaker 3: do if ICE does approach. But they feel most comfortable
Speaker 3: participating in a virtual format rather than coming in person.
Speaker 3: So we'll be doing that as well with the Attorney General.
Speaker 2: So yeah, to kind of shift the tone a little
Speaker 2: bit as we are, you know, walking through this interview
Speaker 2: with you, have.
Speaker 4: They been nice to you at the State Senate?
Speaker 2: Like newly sworn in, young, Latina, et cetera, et cetera,
Speaker 2: et cetera. Let's have that conversation now, let's have the
Speaker 2: representation conversation. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you are the youngest senator in California
Speaker 1: and the youngest woman serving in California legislator. So do
Speaker 1: you like, do you feel that you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 1: is that something that you're feeling when you're walking through
Speaker 1: the state capital the halls?
Speaker 4: What's tea?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it is definitely something I feel. I would
Speaker 3: say that my colleagues have all been in credit supportive, right.
Speaker 3: I think even if they didn't know who I was,
Speaker 3: they kind of had a crash course and figuring out
Speaker 3: who I was because I was suddenly ultra ultra present
Speaker 3: because of the fires. Right, So they've all been wonderful
Speaker 3: and just making sure that I'm doing okay and checking
Speaker 3: in and trying to give me the supports that I need.
Speaker 3: And our leadership in particular, the President pro Tem of
Speaker 3: the Senate, Mike Maguire, has been incredible. I mean I
Speaker 3: think he called me almost every day in January and
Speaker 3: the evenings, would even just sit on the phone with
Speaker 3: me as I cried, and you know, that was just
Speaker 3: like really really powerful, and I think I just so
Speaker 3: needed that in those moments. And he's been through three fires,
Speaker 3: so he really has He represents the North Coast, really
Speaker 3: has a strong understanding of what it is like to
Speaker 3: go through something like this. But I will say I
Speaker 3: think for other folks, right, so as the fires were happening,
Speaker 3: I did so many press conferences I lost count because
Speaker 3: there was such this desire for information. But I'd show
Speaker 3: up sometimes to a press conference or you know, to
Speaker 3: a meeting, and then people look at me and they're like,
Speaker 3: it's so great you're here. Where's the Senator, you know,
Speaker 3: And I'm like, I'm actually the Senator, And then the
Speaker 3: look of like shock and horror on their face, right,
Speaker 3: because I'm I'm not an old white guy in a suit,
Speaker 3: so it catches people off guard, but I'm so used
Speaker 3: to it. I got the same reactions when I was
Speaker 3: in Alhambra too, so and it's always it's always kind
Speaker 3: of funny to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, if I may, you're like a very beautiful,
Speaker 1: petite senator with fabulous.
Speaker 4: Hair, so.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, I would also be like, wait, this
Speaker 1: is our senator. Wait a second, I'm sorry, if I.
Speaker 4: May senate, it's time.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 2: I mean, have you had young women ask you for
Speaker 2: count soul, for advice about running for office?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, all the time, all the time.
Speaker 2: What kind of questions do do women have for you?
Speaker 2: And what do you tell them?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. I mean, I everything everything from dating
Speaker 3: to balancing, like work life balance to you know, what
Speaker 3: do I do when I'm sitting in a room and
Speaker 3: I'm feeling intimidated? How do I go about fundraising? How
Speaker 3: do I go about endorsements? What do I do when
Speaker 3: someone's man'splaining? I mean, literally everything that you could imagine.
Speaker 3: I've been asked, and I'll be honest, I don't always
Speaker 3: have like a super great specific answer for all of
Speaker 3: those questions. I sometimes I think you just kind of
Speaker 3: have to figure it out on your own. But it's
Speaker 3: just this crazy process of kind of like trusting your
Speaker 3: gut and going through it and faking it till you
Speaker 3: make it and you know and and and then you
Speaker 3: just if I if I spent I try not to
Speaker 3: spend too much time thinking about the position I'm in
Speaker 3: because it kind of freaks me out a little bit.
Speaker 3: When I first got elected, you know, I remember I
Speaker 3: was sitting in my office and I was typing on
Speaker 3: my computer and I heard one of my staff answer
Speaker 3: the phone and she went Senator Soshohony Perez's office, speaking
Speaker 3: and I heard her do that, and I was like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, oh my god, like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: so hard. I'm like freaked me with you know, It's
Speaker 3: like it just trips you out a little bit. So
Speaker 3: I just try to do the work. Sometimes I tell
Speaker 3: my chief, like on days when I'm feeling very like
Speaker 3: insecure and kind of questioning, you know, just feeling that
Speaker 3: sense of and forgetting the word for it. Is it
Speaker 3: imposter I'm feeling imposter syndrome. I like joking me tell
Speaker 3: my chief. I'm like in my head, I just tell myself,
Speaker 3: like I work for you, like I'm not, you know,
Speaker 3: I work for you, and I'm just like I'm not
Speaker 3: actually the senator because like it can it's just a
Speaker 3: little bit trippy sometimes. I bet, I bet.
Speaker 1: And there's two questions that you said you've been asked
Speaker 1: that I want to go back to. And the first
Speaker 1: one is about do you ever walk into a room
Speaker 1: or have like a bill that you're gonna present and
Speaker 1: feel intimidated? And if you do, you know, is there
Speaker 1: maybe like an inner dialogue or like affirmations? What do
Speaker 1: you do when you do you talk to yourself?
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh my gosh. And I feel I feel intimidated
Speaker 3: all the time. I feel insecure all the time. I
Speaker 3: mean human, you know the folks I talk to that
Speaker 3: are like I never feel a friend. I'm like, that
Speaker 3: is so good for you, that's amazing. I don't I
Speaker 3: don't know what that's like, but great, you know. I
Speaker 3: I just try to hype myself up. My staff laughs,
Speaker 3: but to hype myself up for things. I'll like play
Speaker 3: Doughci or Grilla and love it and we'll just like
Speaker 3: sing at the top of my lungs. I also try
Speaker 3: to prep as much as possibly. I think prepping helps
Speaker 3: me feel really good, and you know, reading through like
Speaker 3: research and you know, thinking about what I want to
Speaker 3: say and kind of like taking notes and giving myself
Speaker 3: like a moment to reflect, and that always helps me
Speaker 3: feel like prepared, which I think helps me to also
Speaker 3: feel confident. But oh my gosh, I question myself, you know,
Speaker 3: all the time, So I think that that's just normal.
Speaker 1: Batties have bad days too, Yeah, yes, of course, of
Speaker 1: course we've all been there.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, it's really affirming to hear that, because you know,
Speaker 1: I think there's like our senators, our representatives are like
Speaker 1: not superhuman, you know, and I do think there's a
Speaker 1: lot I mean rightfully, so there's pressure, right because they're
Speaker 1: representing a lot of people, but at the same time
Speaker 1: they're also only human. But you know, also to keep
Speaker 1: with this light tone, I want to ask you now
Speaker 1: about dating, and in the sense like can you date
Speaker 1: when you're a state senator? Right, Like the time constraints
Speaker 1: and also the privacy, right, Like, yeah, we don't have
Speaker 1: to get into the weeds of like if you're dating,
Speaker 1: but like, is it even possible to date right now?
Speaker 3: It's really really difficult, and the schedule makes it so
Speaker 3: that it's like just super super challenging. And in addition
Speaker 3: to that, I've there are so many guys that get
Speaker 3: very intimidated. I met someone just recently that my friend
Speaker 3: had introduced me to and we're having a like conversation
Speaker 3: and he was like, oh, so you work for a
Speaker 3: senator and Sacramento. That's so cool. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm like looking at him, like am I going to
Speaker 3: say this? And I was like, I'm I'm I'm the senator.
Speaker 3: I don't work for the senator, And like the look
Speaker 3: on his face was just like like, you know, just
Speaker 3: totally stunned. And that happens a lot. And then you
Speaker 3: get like fans as well, which is like a strange
Speaker 3: thing to navigate. So I don't know. I've joked with
Speaker 3: others elected officials that are women who I've met from
Speaker 3: all across the country and we're like, we almost need
Speaker 3: like a self help group for this because it is
Speaker 3: really really difficult.
Speaker 2: So when AOC was first elected and on the scene,
Speaker 2: and you saw the way that the public treated her,
Speaker 2: the criticism, the cartoons, you know, the way that she
Speaker 2: was I mean, the racism, all of that, did that
Speaker 2: come into your mind at all when you thought about
Speaker 2: yourself and this journey.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh, absolutely talk about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was so nervous about that and what that would
Speaker 3: be like. And now that I'm here, I could tell
Speaker 3: you that that doesn't really bug me at all. I've
Speaker 3: been called every name in the book. When I was
Speaker 3: first selected to council, there was one individual wh used
Speaker 3: to harass me a lot, who's now a supporter, I
Speaker 3: might say, which is also very funny, but used to
Speaker 3: call me a little girl all the time. I've had
Speaker 3: people call me a communist and all the curse words
Speaker 3: that you can think of, and I don't know, it
Speaker 3: just didn't I don't want to say it didn't phaze me,
Speaker 3: but it didn't affect me the way that I thought
Speaker 3: it that it was going to. But you know, as
Speaker 3: I mentioned before, just having folks tell me like I'm
Speaker 3: depending on you, like I don't know how I'm gonna
Speaker 3: feed my kids, and like I really need you to
Speaker 3: help me, and I think that you can help me.
Speaker 3: I think that you have the answer. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 3: that like that weighed on me in a way that
Speaker 3: I didn't anticipate it would. But the hateful comments are
Speaker 3: kind of like, okay, whatever, you.
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, yeah, they come with the territory. It sounds
Speaker 2: like it's part of the job. You almost expect expect
Speaker 2: for it to happen. I'm wondering if there's an issue
Speaker 2: that you really want to work on during your term
Speaker 2: that is just like really important to you at your core,
Speaker 2: or maybe something that we don't really think about a
Speaker 2: lot or talk about a lot.
Speaker 3: Before the fires happened. I think the two things that
Speaker 3: I was really excited about was working on policy around education,
Speaker 3: so making sure that we're improving, you know, literacy rates
Speaker 3: for black and brown kids, and we're seeing more in
Speaker 3: black and brown kids go on to college and to
Speaker 3: university and you know, realize whatever their dream career may be,
Speaker 3: and that that was something that was really important and
Speaker 3: special to me. I chair the I'm the Chair of
Speaker 3: Senate Education for the Senate, and so it's a huge
Speaker 3: committee and I'm really honored to be in that leadership role.
Speaker 3: But that decision was made to appoint me there in December,
Speaker 3: so it was right before the fires happened, So that
Speaker 3: was really I think a big focus of mine. And
Speaker 3: then obviously, you know, life throws curve balls, so this
Speaker 3: has now taken precedent, but that's definitely at the forefront
Speaker 3: of my mind as well as the homelessness crisis. I
Speaker 3: think the housing and homelessness is going to continue to
Speaker 3: be a huge issue. The rent here in California is
Speaker 3: too damn high and it is near impossible for any
Speaker 3: one of us to survive.
Speaker 1: So well, thank you so much, Senator for joining us today.
Speaker 1: This has been such an incredible conversation, and yeah, thank
Speaker 1: you for your time.
Speaker 2: Any parting words for constituents that might be listening.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if anybody needs assistance, if they're looking for help
Speaker 3: or resources, if they have questions, please reach out to
Speaker 3: my office. You can head to our website and there's
Speaker 3: a request form directly there. Reach out to me anytime.
Speaker 3: I'm available on social media. All of my social media
Speaker 3: Sacherine Perez and if you send me a message reach out,
Speaker 3: I will do my best to get back to you.
Speaker 3: The official pages are Senator SRP. My team manages those,
Speaker 3: so I'm happy to have folks submit anything that they need.
Speaker 4: There as well.
Speaker 3: We're here to help them serve and that's what we
Speaker 3: do all day long.
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