Latest / Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela] / Nicole Lopez for Congress

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Nicole Lopez for Congress · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Radio radio radio. He's a Myth and Bullshit, a radiophonic
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  Speaker 1: novella local radio hosted by Malamoola Locomotives. Welcome to season
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  Speaker 1: P four P for a percentage off. So today we
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: are continuing our Latinas in Politics series. This is the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: second episode, the second installment of season six. Last time
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  Speaker 1: we talked to onsas at nan this running for a
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  Speaker 1: council District one one CD one c D one UM
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  Speaker 1: for the l A City council race. And today we
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  Speaker 1: will be talking to Nicole Lopez who's running for Congress.
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  Speaker 1: She's running for District forty two and so we're going
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: to be hearing from her today. However, we also had
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: some observations, you know, as we like continue our Latinas
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: in Politics series, and we notice that Latinos are running
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: at like high rates for elected office. Right simultaneously, we're
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  Speaker 1: also seeing another pattern and so we wanted to discuss
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: that for a little bit before we bring on our guests.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, one of the reasons why we do this series,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: and it's been a while because you know, we have
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: to wait until the next election cycle, and when folks
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: start campaigning, we noticed a that a lot of the
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  Speaker 1: Latinas running for public office, including Nicole Lopez, are not
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: getting tons and tons of coverage, are not getting um
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  Speaker 1: lots of interviews or lots of press. The stories are
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: not being covered. And we think it's important to hear
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  Speaker 1: from these candidates because so many of our listeners are
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  Speaker 1: Latin X people who live in the city and County
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  Speaker 1: of Los Angeles, in the districts that these women seek
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  Speaker 1: to represent, and nowhere else are we seeing like their
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  Speaker 1: stories really being banked. Are we really seeing like a
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  Speaker 1: place where we can hear from all of them and
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  Speaker 1: like at length. So the other thing is that there's
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  Speaker 1: a lot of old guard Latino politicians that we're we're
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: cleaning house right now. We're sending them to prison, we're
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: voting them out, we're launching investigations, they're getting subpoenas, and
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  Speaker 1: we're trying to bring in some fresh blood, some new faces.
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  Speaker 1: And these women have never are held elected office before.
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  Speaker 1: You know, these are fresh faces, fresh platforms in politics
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: in l a and even at the national level. So
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  Speaker 1: we hope that you learned something and it helps to
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: inform your voting process. I'm screaming to be clear, we
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: are not sending anybody to prison. Um, not a specific
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  Speaker 1: We do not support the Carsonal state. However, the royalty
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  Speaker 1: there are there is a trend right now where Latino
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  Speaker 1: formerly elected officials are also Latino are being you know,
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  Speaker 1: investigated by the FBI, um sent to prison, all those things.
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  Speaker 1: That's happening. It's happening. Let's give me clear. We are
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: not doing that. However, that is a trend and we
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: did talk about that last season when we interviewed Mariah
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  Speaker 1: cas that for the Sellout where she dived does a
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: deep dive into Jose We s are um a former
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  Speaker 1: city council person as well for l A City. So yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there's definitely a trend, which is also why we want
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  Speaker 1: to put our energy behind the Latinos that are running,
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  Speaker 1: the fresh faces, the folks that have values that are
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  Speaker 1: aligned with ours and that we want to support and
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  Speaker 1: make sure that they're getting the reach that they deserve
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  Speaker 1: because a lot of the mainstream media, mainstream press doesn't
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  Speaker 1: always give support to you know, smaller candidates, fresh candidates,
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  Speaker 1: more progressive candidates. Obviously, they call it politics for a reason,
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  Speaker 1: like there's a lot of politics behind who gets interviewed,
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  Speaker 1: who gets endorsed, right, and so we're excited to support
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  Speaker 1: another fresh young face. Um and so a little bit
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  Speaker 1: more about Nicole Lopez. She was born and raised all
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: over District forty two, which we'll get into the details
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  Speaker 1: of that district in a bit um. And she's got
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  Speaker 1: at least one story from her childhood attached to almost
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  Speaker 1: every city in the district. If you live in l A,
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  Speaker 1: you know what it's like to move around city to city.
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  Speaker 1: Nicole constantly saw her family, friends, and community struggle with
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  Speaker 1: lack of access to quality healthcare, fear of deportation, rising
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  Speaker 1: student loan depth, and during the pandemic in particular, minimal
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  Speaker 1: support for workers rights. These are the platforms that she
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  Speaker 1: is getting behind. These are what her platforms are, platforms
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  Speaker 1: and values are based on. She's for the people, and
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  Speaker 1: so we're excited to introduce her and bring her on
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  Speaker 1: so you can learn more about Nicole Lopez running for
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  Speaker 1: the forty two district and friends, and and and and
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  Speaker 1: and and and and and and um from it and
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  Speaker 1: all right, everyone, we have the immense honor and privilege
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  Speaker 1: to welcome our next guest Nicole Lopez. She was born
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  Speaker 1: and raised all Over District forty two, and today she's
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  Speaker 1: going to be talking about her campaign. Welcome Nicole, Thank
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: you so much. It's like it's such an honor to
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: be here. I've been a huge fan of this podcast
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: for a very long time. Um, I've been following you
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: all for a while. And yeah, I love what you
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: all are doing and I think this platform is so important.
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  Speaker 1: So thank you all for doing this. Thank you Nicole
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: for being back on Look a thought our radio. This
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: is actually our second crack at recording. We had a
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: couple of little technical difficulties with our zoom cloud. It happens.
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  Speaker 1: But actually we're very happy to be talking with you today. Uh. Um,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: it is May, so we are all sort of just
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: checking in and kind of recovering from the school shooting
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: that took place this week, and we will probably talk
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  Speaker 1: about that later in the episode. Um, but first we
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  Speaker 1: want to give you a chance to introduce yourselves to
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: our listeners. UM, A lot of whom live in the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: l A area and could potentially be future constituents of yours. Right,
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  Speaker 1: and yes, it is a really heavy day today, um,
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  Speaker 1: and it's been a heavy past few weeks. You know,
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  Speaker 1: this is one of many mass shootings that has has
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: happened UM recently. So UM, yeah, it's a very heavy day,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, we're all checking in ourselves and talking
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: about our mental health as a huge priority during this time.
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  Speaker 1: But UM, yes, I'm running for Congress. I'm running for
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  Speaker 1: Congress and District forty two, which include roots cities in
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  Speaker 1: southeast l A and Um, the city of Long Beach, Lakewood,
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  Speaker 1: Signal Hill, um Downey, Bell Bell Gardens, um Cuta, hay
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  Speaker 1: Hindon Park, so a lot of these cities I grew
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: up in. UM. I've traveled through all these other cities
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: throughout the campaign, but it kind of just feels like
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I'm taking my you know, weekly drives as I do
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: because I've lived here my whole life. My family has
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: been here for many generations. My grandmother lives in the
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: same house that she raised my dad in Um, which
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: is also in the district. So that's gonna be really
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: cool to have my Awadita vote for me in the election. UM.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm running for Congress to represent the community
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  Speaker 1: that raised me, the community that taught me the importance
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  Speaker 1: of giving back. UM, and I would be honored to
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  Speaker 1: represent these cities that have so much personal history and
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  Speaker 1: meaning to me. But also there are commune to ease.
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  Speaker 1: They are communities that really are often forgotten about and
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  Speaker 1: marginalized by elected officials. Um And it would be an
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  Speaker 1: honor of mine to be able to change that for
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  Speaker 1: for this community. Thank you so much, Nicole again for
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: being here. So one thing that I love about your campaign,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: your visuals, your website, your Instagram also is the aesthetic
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: of it. Right It's it feels like you're targeting us
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: like gen Z, well not me, but gen Z millennials,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: you know, like our demographic, and um, can you tell
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: me why that's important for you to Perhaps I don't
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: know if this is the case, but at least for me,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: I feel like you're centering this pop this demographic in
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  Speaker 1: your campaign practices. UM. So can you tell me why
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  Speaker 1: that's important to you? Right? Well, there's so many reasons,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: UM as to why I decided to, like you said,
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  Speaker 1: pursue that aesthetic and make it a huge priority of
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: mine in my social media especially. Um And at first,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to lie like I wanted to do,
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  Speaker 1: like the typical you know, red, white and blue, politician
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  Speaker 1: graphics that a lot of candidates do, because I thought
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  Speaker 1: that's what I had to do right to be taken
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  Speaker 1: seriously or something like that. And then I realized, well, one,
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  Speaker 1: this is kind of boring to me, and if it's
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: boring to me, then it must be boring to other
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  Speaker 1: people too. UM to kind of see the same kind
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: of graphics or UM text or whatever copy for social
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  Speaker 1: media UM over and over again. And I think a
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  Speaker 1: lot of that comes from the belief that we don't know,
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  Speaker 1: you know, how to run a campaign. I've never run
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  Speaker 1: a campaign before. This is my first time even you know,
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  Speaker 1: working in a campaign, let alone running for office UM.
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  Speaker 1: And I thought about, you know, why has have I
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: been so turned off from participating in campaigns? And it's
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: often because I don't feel like I speak the language.
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  Speaker 1: I don't feel like I understand you know, all these
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: political terms or what have you. But I think that
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  Speaker 1: it's really important for me, especially because yes, my campaign
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: is really focused on targeting voters and UM community members
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  Speaker 1: who are often not brought into the campaign world or
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: into the politics world. So I do create content for
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  Speaker 1: my sister who's gen z UM. I do create content
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  Speaker 1: for even my mom and my Aualita who have never
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  Speaker 1: voted for congressional candidate before UM and having to be
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: accessible to them and have them feel like they can
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: engage with the content UM and find it interesting. You know,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: that's kind of the bare minimum that I think a
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: lot of candidates should be doing. So it is a
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: huge priority for me to have content that is UM
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: relevant to what's going on in the news and what
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the issues that are affecting my community members. But it's
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: also just plainly accessible, whether it's through the language or
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: the graphics UM. And that's a huge party for me
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: across the board. So I might not talk like a
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: politician or how politicians are encouraged by their fancy consultants
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: to talk UM, which is often very distances like the
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: politician from the voters. But it's been working out. People
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: you know, are like, I can finally understand what politicians
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: are talking about or what UM what bills are being introduced.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I understand it because you explain it in a way
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  Speaker 1: that doesn't intimidate or push people off and make them
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: feel like if you don't have a policy major you
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: can engage in this campaign. And that's the exact opposite
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: of what we want to do. We want to make
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  Speaker 1: sure that anyone UM from any background feels like they
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: can engage with our campaign. Nicole, what would you say
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: are the I guess core pillars of your campaign? What
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: are the issues and the needs of your community that
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: you're really honing in on and focusing on in your
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: messaging and in getting your mess in getting a word
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: out there about who you are and why you're running. Right, So,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I have often been asked this question in different forms
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: of you know what it? What are the top three
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: issues that you're fighting for? And it's really hard to
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: just choose a few, because, to be honest, even if
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: I did choose a few, there are other issues that
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: are just as important that are affecting our community members
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: and they're all interest inter connected. Right. So we can
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: talk about UM climate change, but then if we talk
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: about climate change, we also have to talk about UM
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: environmental racism. And if we talk about the minimum wage,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: we also have to talk about how people are barely
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: making it with being under insured or not being insured
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: at all. UM. So there there are so many issues
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: that are affecting my community UM, and so that it's
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: hard for me to choose just a couple, But I
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: think that the main focus for me is to bring
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: to light the stories of the community members that UM
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: are really living and trying to survive in a country
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: and a city and a district that often neglects even
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: their most basic needs like meeting affordable housing, meeting access
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: to grocery stores with healthy food options, UM, having access
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: to a hospital, UM, and having even just the right
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: to walk around their block and have UM fresh air.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: You know, there are communities in Southeast l A that
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: you walk outside and there's this horrendous smell from the
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: factories that puts you off from even taking a daily walk.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: So there are so many issues, but it really comes
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: down to the fact that our elected officials have often
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: taken our community for granted UM and refused to engage
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: with community members and really asked them, what do you
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: need from us? What do you need for us to
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: be fighting for on Capitol Hill? UM. You know, I've
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I've talked to you a few local leaders, and a
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: lot of them say I've never even spoken to my
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: congress person. I've never even had them come and knock
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: on my door. So that's something that we're trying to
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: change and ensure that folks feel that we're not only
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: here to ask for their vocal more importantly, we're here
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to listen to them and take those concerns seriously and
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: bring them to to Capitol Hill. Thank you so much
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: for giving some background on that. UM. I know that
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: one of your UM one of your pillars is also
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: for supporting small businesses and you know, creating quality education.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Can you expand on that a little bit please? Yeah,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: of course. So, my family has owned a small business
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: in the district for decades since one UM and during
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: the pandemic, we almost lost our small business. And you know,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: our whole family, not just my immediate family, but our
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: extended family or theas are pretty most everyone eats from there.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Everyone works for the small business, for our family business,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: and so we would if we would have lost that business,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: it would have been catastrophic for our family. UM. And
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: what we saw happen was that we didn't know who
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: to reach out to to ask for help. You know,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of small businesses didn't even know that they
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: could qualify for p PP loans when those are being offered,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: and as a result, a lot of UM Latina businesses,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: black owned businesses, women owned businesses had to close down,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and as I spoke to more and more business owners
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: in the area, they were like, I just didn't know
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: what to do. You know, we were in the middle
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: of um A pandemic and we were scared to go
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: to work, so we had to lessen our hours UM
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: And then also we just didn't have customers coming in,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: so we didn't we weren't able to make the money
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: we needed to pay rent or pay for our utilities
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: UM or pay for employees. So it really demonstrated to
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: me how the federal government failed these small businesses. It
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: failed making making an effort to contact them and let
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: them know what opportunities they had to keep their businesses afloat.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: And also the elected officials in the area weren't doing
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: their job of doing community outreach to these businesses to
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: help them out. So that's a huge pillar of mine
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: helping small businesses because not only at a personal level,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: my family was impacted by the lack of federal support
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: UM for small businesses, but also I think it's unfair
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: that people lost their livelihood just because they didn't have
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: a contact in Washington, d C. That they could reach
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: out to for help. And then when it comes to
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: quality education, Shan, I think that has it's multifaceted, So
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: that includes being able to afford to go to college
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: if that's something that you would like to do. Not
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: having student debt um pin you down and drown you
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: after you do graduate from college. I have student loan
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: debt that I don't know how I'm going to repay.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: And I know there's people who have even more student
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: loan debt that keeps them up at night. And I
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: think it's long overdue that we cancel all student loan debt.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I don't think that five thousand dollars ten thousand dollars
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: is enough. I think at this point, year three into
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: the pandemic, we really should be looking at canceling all
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: student loan debt. And then in addition to that, you know,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: at just the beginning levels of UM education, we should
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: have univeral universal pre K. We should have UM better
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: funding for our public schools, and that's across the board,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: not just in the wealthiest of communities or the widest
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: of communities. We should have quality public schools where children
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: feel safe, where they feel that they can learn, and
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: that they can thrive UM in an environment that is
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: well resourced, and that also includes providing fair pay to
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: our teachers. So, like I said before, we can talk
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: about one issue, but it really just expands to a
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: whole array of other issues that need to be addressed
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: in order to even get this one issue over the
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: finish line. So speaking of which, right, we start talking
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: about one issue and it opens up into every other
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: possible issue. So now we're talking about schools, we're talking
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: about teachers, we're talking about resources and funding in the
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: federal government. At the top of our interview we mentioned, um,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: you know, like I have on my TV on right now,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: it's on silent, and there's still coverage of the shooting
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: in Texas, and though the shooting took place in an
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: elementary school, very young children, teachers, federal government, gun control, Uh,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: there was a shooting in Buffalo last week, and you know,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: you sort of mentioned at the top of our interview
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: before we started recording that you have some thoughts right
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: on the things that the federal government can be doing,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: um about gun control, about school shootings and mass shootings
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: in general. So I love it if you could share
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: some of your perspective on what we're dealing with today
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: and the past couple of weeks and how you like
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: plan on enacting those ideas UM if and when you know,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: when your election. Yeah, I mean it's absolutely horrendous right
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: that young children UM are in danger in their schools
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: now And this has been going on for a while.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: You know, we had Columbine decades ago, we had Sandy Hook,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: and now we have the UM Texas and it's it's
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: unacceptable that even after Columbine, even after Sandy Hook, even
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: after UM Florida, we have not done anything as a country,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: let alone UM are elected officials have done anything to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: ensure that these tragedies are not happening as frequently or
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: at all. And I think that you know, step one
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: is creating more restrictions on who can access firearms. Why
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: does an eighteen year old have access to an A
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: R fifteen? They can't. They can't even get a drink
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: at a bar or rent a car, but they can
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: buy an assault rifle. That makes no sense to me,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and it's completely unacceptable, and to be frank, it is
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: a big part the fault of elected officials who are
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: being bought out by the n r A. You know,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: they get millions of dollars of donations to not pass
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: legislation that would keep us and keep our children safe.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: And so we need to hold this elected officials accountable
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: by not re electing them, um, and ensuring that when
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: folks are in office, that they are passing legislation that
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: ensures these types of tragedies don't happen. So I know
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: that the House of Representatives has passed some form of
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: gun reform legislation and now it's up to the Senate
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: to vote on it. So putting pressure on your senators
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: for California, that Senator Padilla and Senator Diane Feinstein calling
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: them up and letting them know that this is a
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: priority and that this bill needs to be called to
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: a vote immediately. Um. But also, like I said, playing
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: restrict putting the restrictions on who can access weapons. I
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: don't think that, like I said, an eighteen year old
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: should be able to access an assault rifle, let alone
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: any kind of handgun. So why are we letting that happen.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: That should be a federal regulation. Um. But also holding
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: these manufacturers manufacturers accountable for producing these weapons. So I
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: think it's long overdo that our federal government has a
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: response to this. I'm really tired of the thoughts and prayers,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: especially coming from the Republican Party, because thoughts and prayers
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: don't keep our kids safe. I'm sorry to say, they
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: just don't. So it is time that take they take
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: real action, which means passing legislation UM at the state
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: level at the federal level to ensure people who have
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: horrible intentions don't have access to these types of weapons.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Nicole. I second that, UM. I think it's
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: like a very heavy day for everyone, especially if you're
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: UM and on social media. You know, this is definitely
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: the conversation and it can be very well overwhelming. So
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: just reminder to our listeners to take care of themselves,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: you know, and do what you need to do to
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: feel feel better, UM and be grounded in community. UM. Nicole,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: My last question for you is how can folks support
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: your campaign? How can folks be connected with you as well? Right?
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: And I second what you just set up. Taking care
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: of ourselves. If you need to check out today or
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: for the rest of the week, whatever it may be, UM,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: please do that and reach out to your network and
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: your community for support, because that's, to be honest, the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: only way we're going to get through any of this,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: whether it's the pandemic, the global health crisis and a
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: global climate change, or um what we're seeing right now
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: with gun violence. So yes, I think that that's essential.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: That's priority number one is that we're all taking care
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: of ourselves. But also we are also electing folks um
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: who will do their job, and so I hope to
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: be able to do that for my community. And if
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: folks want to support our Camp Pain, we would appreciate
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: all the help. We need volunteers to help us go canvassing,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: to do phone banks, to do text banks, so folks
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: can learn more about the campaign on social media um
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: on at Lopez for Congress and that's Lopez with the
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: number four Congress and we're posting all the time about
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: any volunteer opportunities. But also if folks want to check
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: out our website, Nicole Opus for Congress dot com, there's
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: more information there. But you know, top priority for me
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: is that folks are taking care of themselves, and if
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: they have the time and um the capacity to help
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: out with our campaign, I would really appreciate that the
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: election is coming up very soon, so we need folks
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: out on the field to help us UM engage with voters,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: so any help would be appreciated, but please take care
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: of yourself before anything else. Nicole Lopez running for Congress,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you once again for stopping by. Go out and
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: register to listeners and get your ballots in.