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The Wilderness Chapter 5: Working-Class Latinos in Las Vegas · Pod Save America

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Melanie Arizmendi started canvassing when she was 18, before the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: 2018 Nevada primaries. She went with her mom, a proud
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: member of Culinary 226, the biggest union in Las Vegas,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: one that deployed 500 canvassers to knock on more than
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: half a million doors for Joe Biden.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: She likes to teach me. She's like, no, Melanie, you
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: got to do it this way. She's very loud. I
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: don't know if you've seen a Mexican mom trying to
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: push a point.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Melanie's family hasn't had it easy. No matter how hard
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: they've worked, it's never been enough to keep up with
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the cost of housing. Starting with the crash that led
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to the Great Recession of 2008.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Now it's official, we are in a recession.
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  Speaker 4: A report out today says nearly 213,000 homeowners got foreclosure
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  Speaker 4: notices just in July. Nevada is ground zero for the
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: housing crisis.
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  Speaker 2: I was born in California, in Los Angeles. Moved to
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  Speaker 2: Vegas when I was three because my parents thought it
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: was too expensive in California.
• 0:59
  Speaker 5: Moved to Vegas.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: We lived here until 2008. We moved to San Diego
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  Speaker 2: because we lost the house in 2008. It's very tough
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: moving all the time. I think I went to like
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: 10 different schools. It was pretty lonely, but it's okay.
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  Speaker 2: I got used to it. If you are able to
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: stay in the same house from the time you were
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  Speaker 2: like a kid, it's very fortunate.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Housing is way too expensive almost everywhere right now, but
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  Speaker 1: Las Vegas is one of the worst markets in the country.
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  Speaker 1: Melanie's also a full-time nursing student, and when the pandemic hit,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: She couldn't afford her own place, so she and her
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: boyfriend moved back home to live with their parents, just
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: like millions of other young people did during COVID, which
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: is one reason she's out knocking on doors in another
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: midterm election.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Hello, my name is Melania Arizmendi. I'm with the Culinary Union.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: I just want to.
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  Speaker 1: The culinary workers have proposed a ballot initiative for the
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  Speaker 1: 2022 midterms that would institute rent control in the predominantly Latino,
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  Speaker 1: working-class neighborhood of North Las Vegas.
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  Speaker 2: The union asked us, what do you think is the
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  Speaker 2: most concerning right now. Most of us said housing. For
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  Speaker 2: the whole entire paycheck to go to housing, how is
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  Speaker 2: that attainable? You need a down payment. You need to
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: be able to live, you know, like to eat.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Rent control would be life-changing for people like Melanie and
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: her family, which is why she spent her summer collecting
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: signatures in 100-degree heat. Because housing's an issue that too
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: many politicians aren't doing anything about or even talking about.
• 2:28
  Speaker 6: I have such a story about this.
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  Speaker 7: Remember Congresswoman Katie Porter from our last episode?
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  Speaker 6: When I met with my first political consultant and he said, well,
• 2:40
  Speaker 6: you know, what do you see as the issues that
• 2:43
  Speaker 6: you want to run on? Like, who's Katie Porter going
• 2:45
  Speaker 6: to be? And I said, housing. And the political consultant,
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  Speaker 6: who's no longer my consultant, by the way, said, well,
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  Speaker 6: that's not really like a thing.
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  Speaker 7: And I said, no, no, no.
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  Speaker 6: Listen to me, this is the crisis that people are facing,
• 3:02
  Speaker 6: and this is the crisis that we're coming into as
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  Speaker 6: a country. But generally, this is thought about as a
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  Speaker 6: private problem, right, not a public one. There's sort of
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: this category, public housing, and we know what that conjures
• 3:14
  Speaker 6: up and what that typically means. And the rest of
• 3:16
  Speaker 6: it is sort of thought about as, like, not really
• 3:18
  Speaker 6: the government's problem. That's completely untrue.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Melanie and the Culinary Union are fighting to make sure
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: housing is the government's problem. And that's why they're also
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: focused on November.
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  Speaker 2: Now we're going to go tell people to go vote
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  Speaker 2: because that's the most important thing.
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  Speaker 7: It is indeed.
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  Speaker 1: Nevada is one of the most important battlefields of the
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: 2022 midterms. When organizers like Melanie are knocking on doors
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: about rent control, they're also trying to convince voters to
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: re-elect Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak, who's facing off against the
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: big-lie-believing sheriff of Clark County, Joe Lombardo. But the biggest
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  Speaker 1: race in Nevada is also one of the closest in
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  Speaker 1: the country. The campaign between Adam Laxalt, a Trump-endorsed son
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: of a political dynasty, who my Pod Save America co-host
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Dan Pfeiffer calls the Conor Roy of Nevada, and Democratic
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, the first Latina senator in U.S. history,
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  Speaker 1: and one of the few candidates who's made affordable housing
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  Speaker 1: central to her campaign.
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  Speaker 3: I have been working with so many in my state
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  Speaker 3: to figure out what is it that we need to
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  Speaker 3: do to address affordable housing.
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  Speaker 1: Like Pennsylvania, control of the US Senate may come down
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  Speaker 1: to Nevada. Unlike Pennsylvania, Nevada is the only Biden state
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: where the president didn't improve on Hillary Clinton's 2016 performance,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: even though the electorate became more diverse.
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  Speaker 7: So what happened?
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  Speaker 1: For years, political experts have predicted that a diversifying America
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: would favor the Democratic Party, particularly as a growing number
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: of Latino immigrants and their children have become voting citizens.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: making up a larger share of the electorate with each
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  Speaker 1: passing year. That prediction seemed like an especially good one
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: in 2016, when the Republican Party nominated someone who announced
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  Speaker 1: his candidacy like this.
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  Speaker 4: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best.
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  Speaker 7: They're bringing drugs.
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  Speaker 5: They're bringing crime.
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  Speaker 7: They're rapists.
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  Speaker 1: Sure enough, Trump lost Latino voters in 2016 by 40 points.
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  Speaker 1: In 2018, when he made the final months of the
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: midterms about invading caravans full of immigrants, Republicans lost Latino
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: voters by a similar margin. But in 2020, something unexpected happened.
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump still lost the Latino vote, but he did
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  Speaker 1: a lot better than he did in 2016. And Republicans
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  Speaker 1: didn't just do better with any kind of Latino voter.
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  Speaker 1: They made their biggest gains with working-class Latinos who don't
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  Speaker 1: have a four-year college degree, which is about 85% of
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  Speaker 1: all Latinos. In a state like Nevada, where Latinos make
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  Speaker 1: up nearly 20% of the electorate, one of the highest
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  Speaker 1: shares of any state in the country, the Democrats simply
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  Speaker 1: can't win if they keep losing working-class Latino voters. The
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: same is true in other states with big Latino populations
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  Speaker 1: like Arizona, Texas, Colorado, and Florida. But it's also true
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  Speaker 1: in very competitive states with smaller Latino populations, like Georgia, Wisconsin,
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  Speaker 1: and Pennsylvania.
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  Speaker 7: So what can we do?
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  Speaker 1: How can Latino organizers like Melanie and her mother win
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: over enough of their neighbors and coworkers to make sure
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  Speaker 1: that housing's more affordable, Nevada stays blue, and we re-elect
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  Speaker 1: the country's first Latina senator? A few miles from the
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  Speaker 1: Vegas Strip, where a lot of the culinary members work,
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  Speaker 1: I sat down with seven working-class Latino voters. Everyone in
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: this group identified themselves as an independent, but some were
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  Speaker 1: certainly more conservative than others, and it was the only
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  Speaker 1: group where two voters had supported Donald Trump in 2020.
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  Speaker 1: Two others voted for Biden, one voted third party, and
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  Speaker 1: the last two didn't say who they voted for. As usual,
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  Speaker 1: I gathered together a team of experts to help unpack
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  Speaker 1: this conversation.
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  Speaker 5: Hey, Carlos Odio.
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  Speaker 8: I am co-founder of Equis Research and Equis Labs.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm Rui Teixeira.
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  Speaker 9: I'm currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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  Speaker 5: Faz Shakir.
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  Speaker 3: I was Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign manager and still retain
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: essentially a title of chief advisor to Bernie. And I
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: have started a media organization called More Perfect Union that
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: is focused on telling the stories of working people by
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: and for working people.
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  Speaker 7: We'll hear from Carlos, Rui, Faz, and seven Nevada voters
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  Speaker 7: after the break.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know.
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  Speaker 9: I stay away from Twitter. I figured it'd be bad
• 7:41
  Speaker 9: for my mental health.
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  Speaker 7: You were correct.
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  Speaker 9: Carlos is out there somewhere, right?
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  Speaker 7: Yeah, Carlos Odio is here. I went to Vegas because, well,
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  Speaker 7: it's Vegas.
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  Speaker 1: But I also wanted to sit down with some of
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  Speaker 1: the working class Latino voters who've been drifting away from
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  Speaker 1: the Democratic Party in recent elections. There's been a big
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: heated debate among political pundits and strategists about why this
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  Speaker 1: is happening. So I wanted to make sure I brought
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  Speaker 1: together some experts who could represent the different sides of
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  Speaker 1: this debate and actually bring some data and experience to
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  Speaker 1: the conversation. Carlos is a brilliant strategist and former Obama
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  Speaker 1: campaign colleague who runs one of the best Latino polling
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  Speaker 1: firms in the country. Roy was one of the leading
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  Speaker 1: proponents of the demographics or destiny theory, who since changed
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  Speaker 1: his mind and now has views on the subject that
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: are a bit more controversial within the party. And Faz
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  Speaker 1: didn't just run Bernie Sanders' winning Nevada caucus campaign. He
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: was a top advisor to Nevada's most successful political leader,
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  Speaker 1: Harry Reid, and now runs a group that's focused on
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  Speaker 1: organizing workers. I sat down with the three of them
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  Speaker 1: a few weeks after I came back from Vegas to
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  Speaker 1: share what I'd heard, and I asked them to help
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  Speaker 1: us break it all down.
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  Speaker 7: I want to start by getting some opening thoughts from
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  Speaker 7: each of.
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  Speaker 1: You on the long-running debate you've all been part of
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  Speaker 1: about the Democratic Party's relationship with Latino voters. Where does
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  Speaker 1: it stand? What are some common misconceptions? What are campaigns
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  Speaker 1: and candidates getting wrong? Carlos, you've been closest to the
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  Speaker 1: data and you've probably seen countless focus groups like the
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: one that we're about to hear from.
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  Speaker 7: What do you think?
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  Speaker 8: I think what we know is that there's a lot
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  Speaker 8: of swing in the Latino vote. And I think for
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  Speaker 8: a period of time, we took for granted that they
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  Speaker 8: were part of the Democratic coalition. And I would say,
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  Speaker 8: you know, you have different waves, but really after the
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  Speaker 8: immigration debates of 2006, 2007, you had this period where
• 9:24
  Speaker 8: where there was a vision of the Republican Party formed
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  Speaker 8: within those immigration debates that created a group norm among
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  Speaker 8: many Latinos that was, we can't vote for them. They're anti-Latino.
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  Speaker 3: They're racist.
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  Speaker 7: They're anti-immigrant. It's the whole package.
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  Speaker 8: And that helped create an inflated Democratic coalition, right? And
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  Speaker 8: gave a sense of a two-third majority that almost seemed permanent.
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  Speaker 8: And as younger Latinos age into the electorate at a
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  Speaker 8: very fast rate, would only persist, if not grow. What
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  Speaker 8: we saw after 2016 during the Trump tenure is some
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  Speaker 8: erosion of that group norm, right? Where it stopped being
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  Speaker 8: so socially unacceptable to vote for Republicans, in particular for Trump.
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  Speaker 8: And there was a shift, right? And where we are
• 10:07
  Speaker 8: right now is a great deal of uncertainty, right? It
• 10:10
  Speaker 8: could fall either way. There's a lot that can happen
• 10:12
  Speaker 8: between now and the end of the election because a
• 10:14
  Speaker 8: lot of Latino voters are still in that undecided column.
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  Speaker 1: Roy, I know you've written quite a bit about this.
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  Speaker 7: Your thoughts?
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  Speaker 9: I think the Democrats have become increasingly identified with a
• 10:25
  Speaker 9: set of positions on sociocultural issues. They really don't sit
• 10:29
  Speaker 9: that well with a lot of Hispanic working people who
• 10:32
  Speaker 9: tend to be conservative to moderate in their social views.
• 10:36
  Speaker 9: And then you combine that with people's views. Initially, at
• 10:39
  Speaker 9: least the Trump economy worked quite well until the COVID
• 10:42
  Speaker 9: epidemic hit. After that, you had A lot of Hispanics
• 10:45
  Speaker 9: being worried about, well, are the Democrats really serious about
• 10:48
  Speaker 9: reopening the economy? Many of these people work in law enforcement.
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  Speaker 9: Many of these people work in resource extraction industries, oil
• 10:54
  Speaker 9: and gas. There's a sense in which Democrats are seen
• 10:57
  Speaker 9: as being hostile to those industries. And to some extent
• 10:59
  Speaker 9: with the Democrats, it comes down to what have you
• 11:01
  Speaker 9: done for me lately? That's a question that they can't
• 11:04
  Speaker 9: answer satisfactorily.
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  Speaker 1: As you know, Nevada politics very well ran a campaign
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: there that won over quite a few of the voters
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  Speaker 1: we're about to hear from.
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  Speaker 7: What do you think?
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  Speaker 3: You're talking about communities that have a recent immigrant past
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: or a not-too-distant immigrant past. They at least can remember
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: the immigration story by which they came here. And so
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: when you think about why they came to America and
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: what they're trying to do in America is a reflection
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: on a story of America that they can remember, that
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: this is a story of opportunity. And for some who
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: come and try to make their own life here, they see, whoa.
• 11:41
  Speaker 7: A lot harder work.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: A lot more challenging, a lot more corrupt. And so
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: what type of politics that I think appeal to them
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  Speaker 3: are values oriented around the original ambition of America is that, hey,
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: this is a land of opportunity, a land of freedom,
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: and it's values oriented.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I think you will all find echoes of everything that
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the three of you just said and some of the
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: clips that we're going to be hearing. I wanted to
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: start by finding out what issues were most important to
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: these voters.
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  Speaker 7: Let's take a listen.
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  Speaker 1: What are some of the biggest issues that you think
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: are affecting Las Vegas and and Nevada overall?
• 12:15
  Speaker 10: Housing.
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  Speaker 5: Housing.
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  Speaker 2: Housing.
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  Speaker 5: Housing.
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  Speaker 11: I've lived in and out of Vegas for 32 years.
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  Speaker 11: Every sign used to have 99 and move in special, everything.
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  Speaker 11: You can't find that no more. And then they want
• 12:26
  Speaker 11: the credit to match. Like we were one of those
• 12:28
  Speaker 11: people where the owner sold right from under us. And
• 12:32
  Speaker 11: I had, there was no weeklies for us to go to.
• 12:34
  Speaker 11: We were hotel hopping. And that's 70 to a hundred
• 12:38
  Speaker 11: and something dollars for us to go to a decent hotel.
• 12:42
  Speaker 11: And I had to do that for three months before
• 12:44
  Speaker 11: we got our house.
• 12:46
  Speaker 12: Rent has gone up a few hundred dollars within the
• 12:48
  Speaker 12: last couple of years. That's a pretty big amount for
• 12:50
  Speaker 12: a family to have to incur.
• 12:52
  Speaker 13: I don't understand why there's no rent control in the state.
• 12:55
  Speaker 13: I really don't. I was a renter for so long.
• 12:56
  Speaker 13: And if I had a rent right now, it'd be
• 12:59
  Speaker 13: hard because, you know, wages aren't going up, but yet
• 13:01
  Speaker 13: housing is.
• 13:02
  Speaker 14: I can't think of somebody like graduating college let's say
• 13:06
  Speaker 14: 20 or 30-year-old, how they can buy a house now
• 13:09
  Speaker 14: at $ 60, 000 a year income because the prices have gone
• 13:11
  Speaker 14: up so much.
• 13:12
  Speaker 15: Well, gas prices and groceries going up.
• 13:15
  Speaker 16: It's just furious because the way they use this pandemic
• 13:18
  Speaker 16: to take advantage of the situation.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: Inflation makes millionaire more millionaire.
• 13:25
  Speaker 13: Climate change, people think it's hypothetical or it's not real, but...
• 13:29
  Speaker 13: Being in Vegas, we don't see any rain. We see
• 13:31
  Speaker 13: extreme weather. I think about that because my kids, what's
• 13:33
  Speaker 13: going to happen in 30 years, 40 years? What are
• 13:35
  Speaker 13: they going to inherit when I'm gone?
• 13:37
  Speaker 10: Is anyone else concerned about climate change?
• 13:39
  Speaker 15: The decline in water and just the fact that we
• 13:42
  Speaker 15: share water from like four different states.
• 13:45
  Speaker 11: I mean, and I know it's probably upset, but the
• 13:48
  Speaker 11: abortion and the gun thing, I have a big issue
• 13:50
  Speaker 11: with that. How dare you tell me what to do
• 13:53
  Speaker 11: with my body, but I can't tell you if you
• 13:54
  Speaker 11: own a gun? And then the fact that your gun
• 13:56
  Speaker 11: might kill my.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: Kid that goes to school?
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  Speaker 11: That's a big issue for me because you can tell
• 14:01
  Speaker 11: me I got to have a kid, but I can't
• 14:03
  Speaker 11: tell you you can.
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: Own a gun.
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  Speaker 1: So I asked this question in every focus group and
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: in every focus group. I would say that the cost
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: of living issue that I heard about the most that
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: politicians talk about the least is housing. And it was here. Obviously,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: there have been housing issues in Nevada for a long time.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I heard it in Orange County from all the young voters.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: That was their top issue. I heard it a little
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: bit in Pittsburgh as well. and yet we don't hear
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: that as much in the national political debate.
• 14:32
  Speaker 7: Faz, why do you think that is?
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: Well, first of all, some of the policy measures that
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: would be required have been deemed to be so offensive
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: to the wealthy and the rich landlords. So if you
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: think about the words that were mentioned, rent control, I mean,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: it's become almost toxic in many political conversations. The idea
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: of government coming in and imposing a market condition on
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: the economy is just so foreign. So I think it's
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: become an issue that particularly among wealthier folks have decided
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: it's politically toxic, shouldn't talk about it. But I think
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: what sometimes Democrats forget and is important here is the
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: working class emotions around the issue. Because when you talk
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: about housing, you're also talking about people who feel a
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: sense of shame. It's a big part of narrative that
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: goes through is like, if I can't provide for my family,
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: I feel a sense of shame for myself. I feel
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: a sense of shame about my children. I feel worried.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: I feel anxious all the time. That condition is really
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: important to also access when you're thinking about policy. So
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: not not only just say, hey, it's a policy. Here's
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: an emotion where people are on the edge. They're struggling
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: and we got to connect with it.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Carlos, do these answers that you just heard track with
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: the data that you've been looking at?
• 15:36
  Speaker 8: You could take a transcript of this focus group and
• 15:40
  Speaker 8: copy and paste it in any state and with any
• 15:42
  Speaker 8: demographic and people would buy that it's that that it's legit.
• 15:46
  Speaker 8: We're a divided country, but I would say that the
• 15:49
  Speaker 8: voters are united among a set of concerns at this point.
• 15:52
  Speaker 8: It is the perverse thing about something like rising prices
• 15:55
  Speaker 8: and inflation is that everybody feels it. Everybody sees it
• 15:58
  Speaker 8: in some way or another, some people more than others.
• 16:01
  Speaker 8: But it's consistent at their dinner table. It demonstrates that
• 16:05
  Speaker 8: there is this disconnect between the D.C. discourse and what
• 16:09
  Speaker 8: people are talking about. And the question is, how does
• 16:11
  Speaker 8: our politics become more responsive to those needs? People feel
• 16:16
  Speaker 8: a lot of anxiety. They don't know what's going to
• 16:18
  Speaker 8: happen next. Then you have crisis upon crisis upon crisis.
• 16:21
  Speaker 8: And the challenge for Democrats in this moment is that
• 16:23
  Speaker 8: fairly or not fairly, they're blaming the people in charge
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: and they perceive Joe Biden to be the person in charge.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Roy, one thing I noticed in this group is that
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: while economic issues came up quite a bit, you also
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: heard people become animated about issues like abortion, guns, climate,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and these aren't liberal Democrats.
• 16:43
  Speaker 7: What do you think about that?
• 16:43
  Speaker 10: Mm-hmm.
• 16:45
  Speaker 9: Well, I mean, I think if you look at the
• 16:47
  Speaker 9: survey data, it's pretty clear that Hispanic voters overall are
• 16:53
  Speaker 9: supportive of a moderate position on abortion rights, moderate position
• 16:56
  Speaker 9: on gun control, and generally are in favor of doing
• 16:59
  Speaker 9: something about climate change. The problem is relative salience, in
• 17:02
  Speaker 9: my view. I think, generally speaking, the issues that are
• 17:06
  Speaker 9: driving them tend to be different. They're mostly concerned about housing,
• 17:10
  Speaker 9: the cost of living, jobs, health care, their kids, their community.
• 17:15
  Speaker 9: Other issues are important. And to the extent the Democrats
• 17:18
  Speaker 9: are viewed as being on their side on those kinds
• 17:20
  Speaker 9: of issues, that's fine. But if the Democrats aren't viewed
• 17:23
  Speaker 9: as being effective on core issues about housing, about the
• 17:27
  Speaker 9: cost of living, about the way the economy is working,
• 17:30
  Speaker 9: what's happening with real wages. I mean, one way I
• 17:32
  Speaker 9: always think about it, or a phrase I like to use,
• 17:34
  Speaker 9: Hispanic voters are normie voters, right? They just want a
• 17:38
  Speaker 9: better life. They want to move up. They're patriotic. They're
• 17:42
  Speaker 9: here for opportunity, as Faz has been emphasizing. And sort
• 17:45
  Speaker 9: of that's what they want to take advantage of.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Although one thing I've been wondering as I listen to
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: more voters in these groups is, you know, we tend
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: to like separate the issues and there's economic issues and
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: then there's sort of cultural issues that are discussed a
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: lot in the media and by elites and people tend
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: to care more about economic issues. But what I'm hearing
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: from people on some of these issues now, especially post-Dobbs
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: with abortion, is people become animated by issues that really,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds simple, but but affect their own
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: lives and people who know them. And the way that
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: people have talked about climate is not the way that
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: a lot of politicians talk about climate, but like.
• 18:23
  Speaker 7: Hey, we're seeing a drought in our state, right?
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: The way people talk about abortion is, I'm now concerned
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: that someone I know couldn't get an abortion and had
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: to drive to another state, or I knew someone who
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: was involved in a mass shooting. I don't know if
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Carlos or Faz, you guys have any thoughts on that too?
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: With any urgent issue and the issues that any voter
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: might indicate are high salience of them, they want to
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: know that you are going to fight on them. And
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: there's this question of how emotionally resonant and credible you
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: are in that fight. And I think on the right,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: what we're dealing with as people, particularly in this Trump
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: Republican Party, is that they embrace friction. They're often fighting.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: They're always yelling. They're always angry about something. And That's
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: what Trump has brought them to. And if I asked
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: you today, like, hey, what does Joe Biden and what
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: do Democrats really get emotionally fired up about? Just ponder
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: and reflect on it. Honestly, I say that with all
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: due respect to him and to the whole party, honestly.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: What do you think people would think you get fired
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: up about? And just answer that question for yourself for
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: a moment and see where you're at.
• 19:28
  Speaker 8: I think there's a narrative sometimes that Latinos... are moving
• 19:31
  Speaker 8: toward Republicans because there's values alignment there of some sort, right?
• 19:35
  Speaker 8: And they reject where Democrats are on some of these
• 19:37
  Speaker 8: cultural issues and they're more aligned with Republicans. Where I
• 19:39
  Speaker 8: think it's actually closer to what Faz was just saying
• 19:41
  Speaker 8: in terms of priorities, that they perceive that Democrats are
• 19:45
  Speaker 8: not talking about their priorities. Less I would think about
• 19:48
  Speaker 8: rejection on the particular thing Democrats are talking about and
• 19:51
  Speaker 8: more just saying the things I care about the most,
• 19:53
  Speaker 8: the things that I'm intense about, you don't seem to
• 19:56
  Speaker 8: be talking about. Meanwhile, these Republicans, well, they don't seem
• 19:59
  Speaker 8: to give a shit about me, but they are ruthless
• 20:02
  Speaker 8: in prioritizing the economy. And so if I'm going to
• 20:04
  Speaker 8: vote on that issue, that's the way I'm going. What
• 20:07
  Speaker 8: I think Democrats miss in these moments is what keeps
• 20:10
  Speaker 8: a majority of Latinos with Democrats above and beyond their
• 20:13
  Speaker 8: demographics is a sense that Democrats care more. The question is,
• 20:16
  Speaker 8: can Democrats deliver? But it was wild to me while
• 20:19
  Speaker 8: I'm talking in the context of the economy that after Uvalde,
• 20:22
  Speaker 8: you had some arguing that Democrats should just say nothing
• 20:26
  Speaker 8: about guns because on guns, Democrats don't have a natural advantage.
• 20:30
  Speaker 8: They're not trusted more. Well, listen, The advantage is the
• 20:34
  Speaker 8: Democrats care more. You got to lean into the caring.
• 20:36
  Speaker 8: In a moment like that, like Uvalde, when you had
• 20:39
  Speaker 8: these kids being gunned down, if you can't show care,
• 20:41
  Speaker 8: then you're undermining the one brand strength you have that
• 20:45
  Speaker 8: is still carrying you forward.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: So when I asked about most important issues, one person
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: in the group raised immigration, which I know is an
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: issue that some pundits just assume is Latino voters' top priority.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: But it did set off a discussion about the issue.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Let's take a listen.
• 20:59
  Speaker 10: Are there.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Big issues that are debated even either in Nevada or
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: nationally that are affecting you personally.
• 21:06
  Speaker 10: That you think about?
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: Well, the immigration issue.
• 21:09
  Speaker 10: Immigration?
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:11
  Speaker 16: Every person of those that are going to come here,
• 21:13
  Speaker 16: they're going to qualify for welfare, food stamps, housing, and
• 21:19
  Speaker 16: who's going to pay for that?
• 21:20
  Speaker 10: Okay.
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: It seems like chaos.
• 21:22
  Speaker 11: Chaos.
• 21:23
  Speaker 12: The Texas border, when you see those big lines under
• 21:25
  Speaker 12: that bridge, it seems like chaos. Maybe in the past
• 21:29
  Speaker 12: there was times where immigration policy was kind of heartless,
• 21:33
  Speaker 12: where they were purposely doing things that they knew were
• 21:36
  Speaker 12: going to kill people to deter them from trying to
• 21:38
  Speaker 12: come over. That's pretty heartless, but I think now it's
• 21:41
  Speaker 12: way too.
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: Just careless.
• 21:43
  Speaker 13: They need to get a policy in stick with it,
• 21:46
  Speaker 13: no matter which party's in charge. I mean, you've got
• 21:49
  Speaker 13: kids that are down there. They're the ones who have
• 21:51
  Speaker 13: to suffer. You know, they're just trying to get a
• 21:53
  Speaker 13: better life.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: How many people think it should be easier to immigrate
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: to the United States? And how many people do you
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: think it should be harder to immigrate to the United States?
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: It should be allowed. It should be controlled. It's not easy.
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: It's not easy.
• 22:05
  Speaker 16: I mean, you've got people here with 30 years. They're
• 22:08
  Speaker 16: not criminals, they pay taxes every year. They don't do drugs.
• 22:12
  Speaker 16: And then these people, they haven't paid a tax in
• 22:14
  Speaker 16: their life here. They just come over, except Mexico, because
• 22:18
  Speaker 16: if you're Mexican, you don't qualify. But if you're from
• 22:20
  Speaker 16: any other country, You just come here, put your foot here, oh,
• 22:24
  Speaker 16: you qualify for everything.
• 22:25
  Speaker 11: How sad it is that all those people died in
• 22:27
  Speaker 11: a truck to come to a country, and we sit
• 22:29
  Speaker 11: up here in this country and talk shit about our
• 22:31
  Speaker 11: own country, how shitty we are, and these people died
• 22:33
  Speaker 11: in a truck to get here so they can have
• 22:35
  Speaker 11: a little bit of what we have.
• 22:37
  Speaker 10: That's sad to me as an American.
• 22:39
  Speaker 11: That all those people lost that, and we let it happen.
• 22:42
  Speaker 13: You know, my buddy's married to his wife for 20 years.
• 22:45
  Speaker 7: She's not a U.S.
• 22:46
  Speaker 13: Citizen, and they've been trying to do it for six
• 22:47
  Speaker 13: years now. Immigration lawyers aren't cheap, you know, and the
• 22:50
  Speaker 13: paperwork to get it, they make it harder in that way, too.
• 22:53
  Speaker 13: There should be some kind of way to at least
• 22:55
  Speaker 13: help and assist so it can be a smoother process, and.
• 22:58
  Speaker 7: That's not happening.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: So it certainly seemed to me that, at least in
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: this group, views about immigration are are a bit more
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: nuanced and complicated than the political debate we've heard over
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: the last few years.
• 23:09
  Speaker 7: Carlos, what do you think?
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: John, there is so much there.
• 23:12
  Speaker 8: There's the border, and there is this idea of a
• 23:14
  Speaker 8: pathway to citizenship. And we try to conflate all of
• 23:18
  Speaker 8: these things as being one thing. But the border is
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: really a different issue in voters' minds, especially in Latino
• 23:23
  Speaker 8: voters' minds, where it's more, as you heard and they
• 23:25
  Speaker 8: talked about in the group, a concern about public safety,
• 23:28
  Speaker 8: a concern about order, a concern about resources. At the
• 23:31
  Speaker 8: same time, and I would say this is a category
• 23:32
  Speaker 8: that's the plurality of Latino voters in our polling, both
• 23:35
  Speaker 8: believe in increased border security and a pathway to citizenship.
• 23:39
  Speaker 7: You heard it.
• 23:40
  Speaker 8: They're separating between do something about the border, but also
• 23:42
  Speaker 8: take care of the people who are already here. And
• 23:44
  Speaker 8: so it is a both-and. Now, what Democrats have done
• 23:47
  Speaker 8: of late is none of the above. And so among
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: Latino voters, the president's worst numbers across all of our
• 23:54
  Speaker 8: states on issue areas is immigration because the border crowd,
• 23:58
  Speaker 8: the pathway to citizenship crowd, and the both crowd all disapprove.
• 24:02
  Speaker 8: Inaction has led to disapproval. And so this thing that
• 24:06
  Speaker 8: helped differentiate between the parties among Latino voters no longer
• 24:10
  Speaker 8: has that power. The key swing voters don't see a
• 24:13
  Speaker 8: meaningful difference between the parties on this issue, at least
• 24:16
  Speaker 8: in believing that Democrats would actually do anything about it.
• 24:19
  Speaker 9: But I think we have a problem in the Democratic
• 24:22
  Speaker 9: Party where not only obviously not much progress is being
• 24:26
  Speaker 9: made on a path to citizenship, but There's a real
• 24:30
  Speaker 9: resistance to trying to do anything that smacks of border security.
• 24:35
  Speaker 9: This is a big loser for the Democrats in general,
• 24:38
  Speaker 9: and I think even among Hispanic voters, because that's not
• 24:43
  Speaker 9: their preference structure. They want to see order at the border.
• 24:46
  Speaker 9: They think there should be a fair and humane system
• 24:48
  Speaker 9: for people to come to this country and then work
• 24:51
  Speaker 9: their way up. This is a nation of immigrants, and
• 24:53
  Speaker 9: we need to have a functioning democracy. rule-based immigration system
• 24:57
  Speaker 9: that gives people a fair chance to come here.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: What I hear now is like a desperation in those voices.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: You see people yearning and hungry for somebody to own
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: the political struggle that is required to try to solve
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: the problem and to grapple with the difficulties of governing
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: it and to tell each side like, hey, you can't
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: all get what you want. Especially when you get into
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: South Texas and you talk to some of those communities,
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: they live with it as a crisis and they live
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: with it as a sense of public safety. You know,
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: I remember who've gone down there for Jessica Cisneros and
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: we're working on the campaign. Bernie and I were meeting
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: with so many people and they were expressing just generally
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: concerned about the crops and the animals and, you know, break-ins.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: And it was very much a sense of, I don't
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: feel safe. And if they don't feel like you're even
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: addressing their safety, right, then you're not accessing their emotion,
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: their feeling about the issue.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: After the break, the voters tell us how they really
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: feel about politics, parties, and politicians.
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: Welcome back.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: After talking with the Las Vegas group about the issues
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: that mattered most to them, we got into politics. I
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: started by asking these voters how they felt about politics
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: and the state of the country.
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: I mean, I guess I'm just confused.
• 26:39
  Speaker 15: There's a lot of open sides to everything.
• 26:42
  Speaker 13: I look back when Reagan and Tip O'Neill, polar opposites,
• 26:44
  Speaker 13: but yet they always came to a way to come
• 26:47
  Speaker 13: together and make policy work. We don't do that anymore.
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: It's not America anymore.
• 26:52
  Speaker 13: It's two separate parties that are basically saying, we're not
• 26:55
  Speaker 13: going to make you look good, even if it suffers
• 26:57
  Speaker 13: the American people.
• 26:58
  Speaker 10: Why do you think both parties are so divided?
• 27:00
  Speaker 13: I think it's a power trip. I really think that
• 27:02
  Speaker 13: they want to control. Like Nancy Pelosi, she should have
• 27:06
  Speaker 13: been gone a while back. And then you've got McConnell.
• 27:10
  Speaker 10: Why are they still there?
• 27:11
  Speaker 13: There should be term limits. It's like, how many times
• 27:14
  Speaker 13: can you play an album on a stereo turntable until
• 27:17
  Speaker 13: it's not as good as it once sounded and still
• 27:19
  Speaker 13: starts fading off the quality? And that's what it's like
• 27:21
  Speaker 13: with those guys.
• 27:22
  Speaker 10: Bring in some new blood.
• 27:23
  Speaker 14: Politicians, they promise you a lot of things, but then
• 27:26
  Speaker 14: when they get in there, I don't see the results.
• 27:28
  Speaker 7: A lot of times.
• 27:30
  Speaker 15: Yeah, so... Because it gets... way too confusing, way too quick.
• 27:36
  Speaker 15: And there's a lot of perspectives of how I'm supposed
• 27:39
  Speaker 15: to live my life and different policies that are going
• 27:41
  Speaker 15: out that I just feel is way too stressful. I'm
• 27:44
  Speaker 15: not about to go and put that into my mind
• 27:47
  Speaker 15: and then have these household chores and tasks and work
• 27:52
  Speaker 15: that I have to focus on.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Faz, do you think that the surprising flurry of activity
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: in Washington of late might have some kind of effect
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: on these voters' views about politics or the state of
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: the country.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: Well, yes, it's nice to pass bills and it's nice
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: to show government working. But then, you know, you go
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: out there and you start talking to regular working class
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: people and you say, hey, we passed a historic thing
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: to reduce prescription drug prices in America. So if you're
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: somebody in the suburbs, you've got a nice six-figure income,
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: not really worried about prescription drug costs in your life,
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: and you hear.
• 28:25
  Speaker 7: That, you're happy.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: Hey, my team, the Democrats, we did something good for
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: the world. Now, what if you're a person living on
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: the edge who really needs prescription drug costs to go down?
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: It's eating away at your life.
• 28:36
  Speaker 7: You stress about it.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: And you go and tell that person, we reduce prescription
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: drug costs in America. And they look at every penny
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: on that prescription drug cost that they have. and they
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: don't see anything happen. Nothing has happened and nothing will happen, right,
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: for another few years. The gap between a Democrat and
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: a working person will just grow. They will hear you saying,
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: I did something for your life. Meanwhile, they're looking at
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: their prescription drug costs staying the same or going higher.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: It is fine to be honest and direct about saying
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: we passed these important measures and in 2025, this will happen.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: 2026 will happen. It was historic.
• 29:10
  Speaker 7: It was hard. We fought big pharma.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: But there's like, how's you got to conclude that sentence?
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: And if you put us back in office, here's what
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: I want to do next. And I'm going to continue
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: to take those guys on. And I'm going to advocate
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: for these next two, three reforms that will have even
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: more impact in reducing your prescription drug costs. And the
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: reason I have credibility about that is because I did it.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: I just did it in the last two years when
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: you put us into office, but my work is not
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: yet done. You got to put me back so I
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: can keep taking on these bastards and keep delivering for you.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Carlos, I was struck by that last comment from a
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: young woman named Daisy about how politics feels confusing and
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: stressful and she's just too busy working to pay attention.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: It seems like she's exactly the kind of person Democrats
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: need to reach. but how do we reach her if
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: she's not paying attention to politics or it's too confusing?
• 30:04
  Speaker 7: That's a great question.
• 30:04
  Speaker 8: It's, you know, it's typical in focus groups to hear
• 30:07
  Speaker 8: people say, well, you know, I don't know what to believe.
• 30:09
  Speaker 8: They have a hard time seeing through the news fog
• 30:11
  Speaker 8: until they turn off the news. And I think in
• 30:14
  Speaker 8: that case, there's a small number of things that are
• 30:17
  Speaker 8: really going to break through. Going into the geographies where
• 30:20
  Speaker 8: our voters live, a lot of the organizing ends up
• 30:22
  Speaker 8: getting clustered in very urban areas. We aren't going into
• 30:26
  Speaker 8: the spots where voters actually live. And then similarly, we're
• 30:28
  Speaker 8: not going where they communicate online. So YouTube is a
• 30:31
  Speaker 8: major source of news and information for Latino voters. Latinos
• 30:36
  Speaker 8: actually spend twice as much time as non-Latinos on YouTube.
• 30:39
  Speaker 8: But on some circles, YouTube is seen as like beneath us, right?
• 30:43
  Speaker 8: From an organizing standpoint, it's not like the cool place
• 30:45
  Speaker 8: to organize and it takes a very big investment. And
• 30:48
  Speaker 8: so when people want to know about an issue, what
• 30:50
  Speaker 8: is going on with gas prices? If they're going on YouTube,
• 30:54
  Speaker 8: The information that is helping them make sense of the
• 30:56
  Speaker 8: world is largely coming from the right wing or is
• 30:59
  Speaker 8: just not there.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: I asked about people's views of both political parties and
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: which party was better for working people.
• 31:06
  Speaker 7: Here's what they said.
• 31:07
  Speaker 16: I used to vote Democrat all the time. But in
• 31:11
  Speaker 16: the second term of Obama, I just went to the Republicans.
• 31:15
  Speaker 10: What made you change?
• 31:17
  Speaker 16: Because for the workers, for me, it's my opinion, the
• 31:21
  Speaker 16: Republicans is better. But if you own welfare and food
• 31:24
  Speaker 16: stamps and government health, if you qualify for that, you're
• 31:28
  Speaker 16: good with Obama. And you held insurance, you went out
• 31:32
  Speaker 16: with Obama.
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: It's too expensive. So to me, the Republicans, they're better
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: for the people that work, if you work.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: That's a great question that I was about to ask.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Which party do you think is a better party for
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: working people?
• 31:50
  Speaker 10: Sergio, you think Republican. Robert, what do you think?
• 31:53
  Speaker 13: It depends on your income bracket, unless you're in a
• 31:55
  Speaker 13: corporate position. So I'd say Democrats.
• 31:58
  Speaker 10: Democrats.
• 31:58
  Speaker 12: I would say Republicans now, but I'd say it used
• 32:01
  Speaker 12: to be Democrats.
• 32:02
  Speaker 10: Okay. Vince?
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: Democrat.
• 32:04
  Speaker 10: Democrats. Democrats. Eric?
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: Republican.
• 32:06
  Speaker 15: I mean, I don't really know the difference, to be honest.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Roy, why do you think people like Sergio and Cesar
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: have changed their views on which party is better for
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: working people?
• 32:20
  Speaker 14: So.
• 32:20
  Speaker 9: I think a lot of the way people vote between
• 32:22
  Speaker 9: political parties depends on sort of a long-term weighted assessment
• 32:27
  Speaker 9: of who's been better for you and your family and
• 32:30
  Speaker 9: the kind of people you know. And when that starts
• 32:32
  Speaker 9: to decay under the press of circumstance, the picture becomes
• 32:36
  Speaker 9: cloudy and you can sort of move away from your
• 32:39
  Speaker 9: traditional loyalties. As I've mentioned before, Democrats seem to be
• 32:44
  Speaker 9: getting sort of more preoccupied with issues in the sociocultural realm,
• 32:48
  Speaker 9: and they seem to be less interested or less focused
• 32:51
  Speaker 9: on the problems of working people. So I think frequently
• 32:55
  Speaker 9: that just leads to a sense of frustration where even
• 32:58
  Speaker 9: if they like the Democrats a bit better than the Republicans,
• 33:01
  Speaker 9: it's not like they have a great deal of faith
• 33:03
  Speaker 9: in them. And then there are some people who are
• 33:04
  Speaker 9: just going to conclude the opposite. The Republicans are better.
• 33:07
  Speaker 9: And there are some people who throw up their hands
• 33:08
  Speaker 9: and say, you know.
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 33:10
  Speaker 9: I mean, things don't seem to change that much no
• 33:12
  Speaker 9: matter who's in charge.
• 33:14
  Speaker 7: Faz, what do you think?
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: I feel like these are some of the very same
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: voters who Bernie was trying to reach You know, obviously the.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: Democrats, less of a labor party now than probably it's
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: kind of historic and storied past.
• 33:26
  Speaker 7: And that's part of the problem.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: In the first six months of this administration, coming in
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: the midst of the pandemic, we had progressive economics, John.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: You remember it really well. We had the stimulus, we
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: had unemployment insurance, expansion, child tax credits, pandemic, food relief
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: for people. It was a whole bunch of things to
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: lift folks. And then inflation hit. And inflation hit pretty
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: hard in August. And I think we lost the narrative
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: around What did you cause inflation?
• 33:52
  Speaker 14: Right?
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, that was the more natural question that everyone's got.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: How did inflation come about? And was it your fault
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: that you did all these nice things for working class people?
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: You know, Donald Trump, if you go back and look
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: at his rhetoric, just not policy, just look at his rhetoric.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: That guy talked about corporations, named them by name, blasted
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: them on Twitter, blasted them in public speeches more than
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: probably any modern president in history. And so if you're
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: a worker at any of those companies and you take
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: all those companies by name, what do you hear? That
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: president is taking on my boss. Holy moly, that guy's
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: taking on my boss.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Carlos, obviously there's a lot of data that shows Republican
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: gains among Latino voters are concentrated among specifically working class
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: and also folks without a college degree. Do you think
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: This is economic in nature. And do you think a
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: message like Faz just delivered would help sort of bring
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: these voters back into the fold?
• 34:47
  Speaker 8: I mean, at most, you're talking about 25% of Latino
• 34:51
  Speaker 8: voters being college educated. So when we say that the
• 34:53
  Speaker 8: trends happen mostly among non-college, like, I think it obscures
• 34:57
  Speaker 8: sometimes more than elucidates because we're talking about an overwhelming
• 35:00
  Speaker 8: majority here of the vote. I think the challenge is
• 35:02
  Speaker 8: we ask ourselves, well, what's moving people toward Trump? And
• 35:05
  Speaker 8: I think the better question is to start with the
• 35:07
  Speaker 8: first half of it, which is what constrained them in
• 35:09
  Speaker 8: the past because Joe Biden still won a majority of
• 35:11
  Speaker 8: non-college Latinos. So there's still something that's holding this all together.
• 35:15
  Speaker 8: What has held back other more conservative looking Latinos, people
• 35:19
  Speaker 8: who by demographics, you'd say, these look like they might
• 35:21
  Speaker 8: be Republicans. And that's where I think there's a challenge
• 35:24
  Speaker 8: in thinking that the argument should be entirely economic, right? Obviously,
• 35:28
  Speaker 8: I think Latinos care about the same things everybody else
• 35:30
  Speaker 8: cares about. But this idea that we should go colorblind,
• 35:33
  Speaker 8: the Democrats should erase racial and ethnic identity from the question,
• 35:37
  Speaker 8: even though that has been central to what kept Latinos
• 35:40
  Speaker 8: in those large numbers voting for Democrats. I think part
• 35:43
  Speaker 8: of the narrative about the working class is part of
• 35:45
  Speaker 8: a global trend that we're talking about, right? The right-wing
• 35:48
  Speaker 8: parties have kind of taken over the working class, and
• 35:51
  Speaker 8: what is left is kind of liberal elites plus, and
• 35:53
  Speaker 8: this is the part that kind of gets left out,
• 35:55
  Speaker 8: minority parties and the children of immigrants. So there's still
• 35:58
  Speaker 8: something about being a minority and feeling othered within a
• 36:02
  Speaker 8: country that that is still very potent. And so we
• 36:05
  Speaker 8: can't just reduce this to materialist concerns in this moment.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: We finally get to the midterms, and I asked about
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: one of the most competitive Senate races in the country
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: between Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Adam Laxalt.
• 36:17
  Speaker 7: Here's what these voters are thinking.
• 36:20
  Speaker 13: Laxalt's got too much baggage.
• 36:21
  Speaker 10: What kind of baggage?
• 36:22
  Speaker 13: Well, when he was in office here, there was some investigations,
• 36:26
  Speaker 13: but I think for him, he's just more inclined to
• 36:30
  Speaker 13: take more PAC money. I think he's going to go
• 36:32
  Speaker 13: ahead and take money from the corporate more than she will,
• 36:35
  Speaker 13: and I think he'd be more influenced by them. And also,
• 36:37
  Speaker 13: the big lie. I know people think that, but facts
• 36:42
  Speaker 13: are facts. But you've got all these people endorsing this
• 36:45
  Speaker 13: big lie. It turns me off big time.
• 36:47
  Speaker 10: Cesar, have you made up your mind on Laxalt, Masto?
• 36:51
  Speaker 12: I don't think I know enough yet, but probably Laxalt.
• 36:56
  Speaker 12: Masto doesn't seem... sincere and genuine to me. She seems
• 36:59
  Speaker 12: like a new Democrat team player. And she just, whatever
• 37:03
  Speaker 12: the party line is, that's what she's gonna do. And
• 37:06
  Speaker 12: I don't respect that as a politician.
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: I haven't picked one out yet.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: You haven't picked one out yet? What would make you decide?
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: What are you looking for in a candidate? Or are
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: there issues that would help you decide?
• 37:19
  Speaker 16: I guess keep their word and do what they're gonna
• 37:22
  Speaker 16: do instead of the big lie.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Carlos, after hearing them say that the media covered January
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: 6th too much, I was also surprised to hear a
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: couple of them say the embrace of the big lie
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: was disqualifying. What do you make of that and sort
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: of this race? Is there advice you'd give to the
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Masto campaign? Would you highlight Laxalt's extremism?
• 37:44
  Speaker 7: What would you do?
• 37:45
  Speaker 8: Yeah, Cortez Masto is an interesting case, right? Because even
• 37:47
  Speaker 8: though she herself is Latina, she wasn't particularly well-known in
• 37:51
  Speaker 8: the Latino community previous to this cycle. And so she's
• 37:53
  Speaker 8: kind of had to reintroduce herself.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 37:56
  Speaker 8: And she does have some attributes that seem to appeal
• 37:59
  Speaker 8: to Hispanic voters that kind of set her apart from
• 38:02
  Speaker 8: a generic Democrat. Even things she's done around, for example,
• 38:05
  Speaker 8: human trafficking that kind of take her out of the
• 38:09
  Speaker 8: realm of just DC talking points and your typical MSNBC
• 38:13
  Speaker 8: issue agenda and differentiate her and show her as a
• 38:15
  Speaker 8: person of action. And then Laxalt, in some ways, Democrats
• 38:19
  Speaker 8: drew the best person they could in Laxalt. I mean,
• 38:21
  Speaker 8: what you hear in focus groups that we've done in
• 38:23
  Speaker 8: the state is just Guy is seen as something of
• 38:26
  Speaker 8: a zero, right? Somewhat boring. And the attributes about him
• 38:29
  Speaker 8: that are more exciting are the fact that he's very
• 38:31
  Speaker 8: much a Trump guy. And so in some ways, this
• 38:34
  Speaker 8: is one of the hardest races Democrats have right now.
• 38:38
  Speaker 8: But so far, things have fallen slightly better configuration, at
• 38:42
  Speaker 8: least as it concerns the Latino electorate.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Faz, in addition to having run a campaign that won
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: a Nevada caucus, you're also a Harry Reid staffer.
• 38:51
  Speaker 7: So you know the state well.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Two thoughts that come to the top of my mind
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: is that Nevada is a strong labor state. Culinary is
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: strong there. It's baffling to me that more Democrats aren't
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: talking about the Starbucks and Amazon organizers and others. It's
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: like one of the most generationally important things that's happened.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: I don't think any Democrat ever really talks about it.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: But you can imagine for a strong labor orientation in Nevada,
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: it would be very persuasive. Number two is like housing.
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: You're going back to the first comment that you raised.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: How do you get attention? How do you break through
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: in a narrative? Sometimes it's just start talking about things
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: that other people aren't talking about. But if you look
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: actually in Nevada, there are housing ordinance and ballot measures
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: that are trying to be pushed through in various parts
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: of that state. So all you got to do is
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: try to keep your base engaged, get your message out,
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: get Democrats understanding your credibility, your desires, your fight, your empathy,
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: your goals. And I think she should do all right,
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: but she's got some work to do.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: So I usually end by asking the group to talk
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: about their dream candidate, someone they'd be excited to vote for.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: This crew gave one of the more interesting sets of
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: responses I've heard.
• 39:53
  Speaker 7: Let's listen.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: If you could assemble your dream candidate, what qualities would
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: that candidate have that you'd be excited to vote for
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: that person for president of the United States?
• 40:05
  Speaker 13: When Trump first ran, I liked him because he would
• 40:08
  Speaker 13: always tell he had no influence. He liked being in
• 40:10
  Speaker 13: the middle. Nobody had any say what he would do,
• 40:12
  Speaker 13: any decision making. So I'd want an independent candidate that's
• 40:16
  Speaker 13: not going to have influence from outside the Parties, resources,
• 40:19
  Speaker 13: but it's not going to ever happen. But I want
• 40:21
  Speaker 13: someone who's going to be able to make a decision
• 40:23
  Speaker 13: on what he thinks is best for the country, not
• 40:24
  Speaker 13: best for his party or her party.
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 40:28
  Speaker 10: Eric, what about you?
• 40:30
  Speaker 14: Yeah, I'd take Trump as a younger guy if he was.
• 40:33
  Speaker 14: Let's say his kids would go around or something. I'd
• 40:35
  Speaker 14: go around.
• 40:36
  Speaker 10: Younger Trump.
• 40:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 40:37
  Speaker 10: Anis, what about you?
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: Integrity.
• 40:39
  Speaker 10: Integrity.
• 40:40
  Speaker 11: And personal integrity, not just integrity for their party, but
• 40:43
  Speaker 11: to really have, because if you have personal integrity, you'll
• 40:46
  Speaker 11: do what's best. instead of going with your party.
• 40:49
  Speaker 10: Daisy, what about you?
• 40:51
  Speaker 15: I like what you said about how Trump was, like,
• 40:53
  Speaker 15: talking about not being influenced. I like that, just going
• 40:56
  Speaker 15: off for, like, surprise, not really going, I don't know, like,
• 41:01
  Speaker 15: according to, like, everyone else's opinions or just, like, pressured.
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: A strong character like Trump.
• 41:08
  Speaker 7: Strong character.
• 41:08
  Speaker 16: I mean, I don't like half of his things, but
• 41:12
  Speaker 16: the other ones.
• 41:13
  Speaker 7: Some of the stuff. Here's the truly weird part.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: Just so everyone listening knows how complicated voters can be,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: the first man you heard, Robert, said he liked Trump
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: because he seemed like he was in the middle and
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: he wasn't being influenced by anyone. Robert later said that
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: he couldn't vote for Trump again and that he's leaning
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: toward Ron DeSantis in 2024. But then he said that
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: he loves, quote, loves AOC and thinks she'd be a
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: great speaker. And he said that because she has stood
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: up to Nancy Pelosi and her party and he respects
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: that kind of integrity. Can anyone make sense of a
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: voter saying, who's leaning towards Ron DeSantis, but loves AOC
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: and hopes she'll be speaker.
• 41:51
  Speaker 7: Anyone want to take that?
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: I feel like we should start with the diagnosis of Trump.
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: I think what sometimes is missed about the original intent
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: of Trump is that the sales pitch is not that
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: I was a disruptor who was going to revolutionarily bring
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: down this government. The aspirational pitch of Trump for many
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: of these voters that worked is, I'm a businessman. I
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: did well in life. I don't need this job. I
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: game this system for myself. I know how this system
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: is corrupt. I know how it works. And now I'm
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: going to game it for you. People are looking for,
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, trust in an elected
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: official to do the things that they don't have the time, patience,
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: or inclination to give a damn about. Like, hey, I
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: elected you. You go figure this shit out. Give me
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: somebody who wants to come in here, tell me that
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: they're going to take on some powerful people, be a disruptor,
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: but do it for me. They're basically giving you the
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: pulse of of populism, of their lived condition of real lives.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: And if you tap that, that's good populism that you
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: can marshal for good politics. Otherwise, people are going to
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: move towards the authoritarian autocrats who want to disrupt this
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: stuff because the whole government ain't worth shit.
• 42:59
  Speaker 7: That's the argument. Roy, what do you think about that?
• 43:02
  Speaker 9: People are thirsty for someone who basically hates and will
• 43:08
  Speaker 9: bash and is different from the elites who they believe
• 43:11
  Speaker 9: are running the country. and running it into the ground
• 43:13
  Speaker 9: and don't really care about them. Why would someone simultaneously
• 43:17
  Speaker 9: like DeSantis and AOC? Well, AOC's out there bashing people too.
• 43:20
  Speaker 9: They like the fact that she seems sort of unleashed.
• 43:24
  Speaker 9: She just tells it like it is. She's not afraid
• 43:27
  Speaker 9: of saying stuff that's really unpopular. So does it hang
• 43:30
  Speaker 9: together coherently as an ideology?
• 43:32
  Speaker 7: No, not at all.
• 43:32
  Speaker 9: But let's never forget, people like us whose ideologies hang
• 43:36
  Speaker 9: together are really weird. Most people have a lot of
• 43:39
  Speaker 9: views that are contradictory all over the place. But we
• 43:43
  Speaker 9: have to realize that if they don't hear someone who's
• 43:46
  Speaker 9: making that kind of pitch, who convinces them they're not
• 43:49
  Speaker 9: just another one of the elites, they can go in
• 43:51
  Speaker 9: a bad direction.
• 43:52
  Speaker 7: Carlos, we'll end with you.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: You know, you said earlier Democrats sort of need to
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: show that they care across not just economic issues, but
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: a whole host of issues. Can showing that you care,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: can that exist alongside some of the populism that both
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: Faz and Roy were talking about, where you are bashing
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: some powerful people?
• 44:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.
• 44:12
  Speaker 7: Because, you know, it's care and it's deliver.
• 44:14
  Speaker 8: And what Republicans have for them is the ruthlessness. And
• 44:17
  Speaker 8: so in general, I think someone has equated in the
• 44:20
  Speaker 8: past as trying to stand on a plank or a seesaw,
• 44:22
  Speaker 8: which is you need to have a strong stance on
• 44:24
  Speaker 8: both sides. You need to take strong positions, but on
• 44:27
  Speaker 8: both sides in a way that kind of balances you out.
• 44:30
  Speaker 8: And I think people are looking for people who subvert
• 44:32
  Speaker 8: their expectations, who aren't just saying what they would expect
• 44:35
  Speaker 8: to come out of the mouth of an average Democrat
• 44:38
  Speaker 8: or an average Republican. And so what Democrats, the challenge
• 44:41
  Speaker 8: for them right now is showing that they have the care,
• 44:43
  Speaker 8: but show they got a little of that ruthlessness in them, too.
• 44:46
  Speaker 9: Message, I care, but I'm ruthless.
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: Muscularity matters.
• 44:52
  Speaker 7: I care ruthlessly.
• 44:53
  Speaker 9: All right.
• 44:53
  Speaker 7: We figured it out here.
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: We figured it out.
• 44:56
  Speaker 7: Faz, Rui, Carlos, thank you so much.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: It was fun.
• 44:59
  Speaker 9: Thanks for having us.
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: See you guys.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Latino political strategists will often make the point that the
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Latino community is not a monolith. In fact, all 50
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: states have seen growth in their Latino populations in the
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: last decade, and these communities stem from over 20 countries.
• 45:15
  Speaker 7: It's precisely because this.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: Growing demographic is so diverse that it's foolish and even
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: insulting to make assumptions about Latinos' partisan loyalties or policy priorities.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Roy argues that Latino voters, especially working-class Latinos like the
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: people I spoke to in Vegas, are quote-unquote normie voters.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: which he defines as voters who aren't very partisan and
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: care mostly about their jobs, the cost of living, the
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: quality of their schools, and the safety of their communities.
• 45:42
  Speaker 7: And certainly, that's a lot of what we heard from
• 45:44
  Speaker 7: these voters.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: And it's the same thing we heard from other struggling
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: voters who don't follow politics that closely. None of these
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: voters have much faith in the political system because they
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: don't feel like the system has made life better for
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: people like them.
• 45:58
  Speaker 7: People who aren't rich.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: But Carlos makes a persuasive argument that it would also
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: be a mistake for the Democratic Party to just ignore
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: the racial and ethnic identities of Latino voters, especially when
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: so many right-wing xenophobes are using those identities to marginalize
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: and exclude Latino Americans from the country they love and
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: call home. It is true that views about immigration among
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Latino voters may be more complicated than some pundits and
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: activists assume, especially around border issues. and especially among Latinos
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: who live in border communities. We certainly heard concerns about
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: public safety and fairness from these voters. But we also
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: heard empathy and compassion for immigrants who have risked everything
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: to come here in search of a better life. These
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: voters may not have much faith in American politics right now,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: but they still believe in the American dream. Not just
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: because it holds the promise of opportunity, but because it
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: does so regardless of what you look like or where
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: you come from or what language you speak. And what
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: they really want are leaders who are actually willing to
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: fight for that promise, who are relentlessly focused on the
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: issues we heard about in Vegas. If Democratic candidates don't
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: show that kind of fight, there's a real danger that
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: these voters could either give Republicans a chance or give
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: up on politics altogether, a trend we've seen in the
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: last few elections. People like Melanie are doing their best
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: to make sure that doesn't happen. In August, the North
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas City Council actually struck down the rent control initiative.
• 47:27
  Speaker 7: So despite all their hard.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Work and the overwhelming support from the community, it won't
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: be on the ballot this fall.
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: That's very frustrating because we put a lot of work
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: towards that. It's like a slap in the face.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: But Melanie and the other organizers aren't giving up that easily.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: The Culinary Union says that they're going to keep talking
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: to voters and that they plan to run what they're
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: calling the largest field program in Nevada history.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: We're going to strike harder. You know, we're going to
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: take this to Clark County. We're not going to just
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: give up here. We're going to.
• 47:56
  Speaker 5: Make it bigger.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: So the Culinary Union is now going door-to-door collecting signatures
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: for a county-wide version of their rent control proposal. But,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: as Melanie learned, none of that matters if they can't
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: elect leaders who will support these types of policies. So
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: they'll also be working to elect candidates up and down
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: the ballot who will finally do something about the cost
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: of housing. From Catherine Cortez Masto and Steve Sisolak to
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: their local city council members.
• 48:20
  Speaker 7: It's not just about making history.
• 48:22
  Speaker 11: It is about ensuring we have a seat at the
• 48:25
  Speaker 11: table to get something.
• 48:28
  Speaker 9: Done, right?
• 48:30
  Speaker 7: Because I'll tell you what, don't you think it is.
• 48:32
  Speaker 11: About time that we had diversity in the United States Senate?
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: Every day matters. There's so little time. We have to
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: make sure we talk to everyone that we can. As
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: far as I see on the doors, a lot of people,
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: they've given up. They don't think it's going to help
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: people vote. We have to tell them why it's so
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: important to go vote, why we're out here in the heat.
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: You know, we're not out here for no reason.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: They're out there because of what voting can do, because
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: of what it can change. It's the reason that so
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: many people have fought so long and so hard for
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: access to the ballot.
• 49:04
  Speaker 7: It's why they're still fighting.
• 49:06
  Speaker 17: When we say things like our democracy is under attack,
• 49:09
  Speaker 17: when we say things like we are living in a
• 49:10
  Speaker 17: climate crisis, People of color, particularly Black people in America,
• 49:14
  Speaker 17: are hit first and worst by all of those things.
• 49:16
  Speaker 17: So we also know that we can't afford not to vote.
• 49:19
  Speaker 17: I think the question on the table is, you've told
• 49:21
  Speaker 17: them to vote, they've been voting, and what have we
• 49:23
  Speaker 17: gotten for our vote?
• 49:24
  Speaker 7: That's what you hear from folks.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Next week, for our final episode, we talk to Black
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: voters in Atlanta, Georgia, where organizers are battling cynicism and
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: suppression in a place that's become central in the struggle
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: to save our democracy.
• 49:37
  Speaker 7: See you then.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: The Wilderness is an original podcast from Crooked Media. Season
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: 3 is produced by Dust Light Productions. I'm your host,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: Jon Favreau. From Crooked Media, our executive producers are Sarah Geismar,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: Katie Long, and me. Special thanks to Allison Falsetta and
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: Andy Taft for production support. And to Mike Kulishek from
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Benenson Strategy Group, who helped us with our focus groups.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: From Dusklight, our executive producer is Misha Youssef. Arwen Nix
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: is our executive editor. Stephanie Cohn is the senior producer.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: Tamika Adams is the producer and Francesca Diaz is the
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: assistant producer. This episode was sound designed by Stephanie Cohn.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: Valentino Rivera is our senior engineer. Martin Fowler is the composer.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: Thanks to our development and operations coordinator at Dusklight, Rachel Garcia,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: and to Chrissy Marin for archival legal review. If you
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: want to learn more about how you can take action
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: in the fight for our democracy, head over to votesaveamerica.com
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: slash midterms.