Latest / Follow the Leighder / Why Two Montana Women Are Running for Office | Holland & Graham
Transcript
- Leigh/@followtheleighder: Howdy folks and welcome back to another episode of Follow the Leighder. I'm your host, Leigh Larson, I have two lovely ladies running for office today with me in the studio. Well, sort of, it's on podcast Zoom, but ⁓ know how it goes. ⁓ have Valynda Holland running for Montana Senate District 11 and Lela Graham running for House District 21. ⁓ and Lela welcome the studio. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: Yay! Thanks for having us. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Absolutely, this is exciting. ⁓ So one of you is running for Senate, the other is running for for State Senate, the other is running for House. Rep, talk to me. We'll start with you, Valinda. What motivates you to run for office? Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: actually been involved in politics since I was 18. I actually helped campaign for Ken Pentel for governor of Minnesota. He was actually running with the Ecology Democracy Party that he was starting at the time. So I got a lot of experience there. And then in 2016, I actually helped with the Bernie Sanders campaign down in Southern California. So I've been involved in politics for quite a long time now. And then also I'm actually... 10 weeks away from graduating with my bachelor's in political science. I've definitely had aspirations to run for office for a long time, but especially with everything going on now, that's just kind of, if not now, when? Then right now it needs to happen. So we need more people out there running for a real change. So, yeah. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Thank you for that and congratulations on the graduation next month. That's a huge accomplishment. And yes, we need more people that have an understanding of political science and running office because think too many people ⁓ how to run a capitalist business ⁓ and not really understand like how ⁓ in society and government ⁓ And ⁓ Lela, I know you know this, you have a union background ⁓ you're running for House District 21, talk to me about your journey and your call to run to office. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: So this is my third run. I've ran against a really powerful incumbent the last two cycles. this cycle is open. ⁓ I think ⁓ we get to run the way we always wanted to the last couple cycles as an open seat. I got into volunteer politics when I was a fourth year at UVA. I was at Take Back the Night March. And the gentleman who was running for Congress at the time, I was running. I against Iraq and he had been a tutor Vietnam vet Green Beret and I didn't really know a lot of like other anti-war Dems so I got involved in politics that way because I showed up early because I'm you know I'm also former military so I showed up early to his meeting he's like I go go talk to my campaign manager because he understands my concept of time and I just that after out of UVA got involved in politics managed campaigns for almost 15 years before I moved home to Montana. did the retiree, veteran thing and did activism on my own about three years ago. moved back to Mont Great Falls, used my VA loan to buy a house, ⁓ and then I've of been running ever since. ⁓ my degree is in Women's Studies from the University of Virginia. So, mean, kind of political, not poli-side, but it's an interdisciplinary major. But I did a lot of management of targeted races. statewide races. I did management, so now I'm managing my own campaign with Melinda, my co-manager. Well, she's my manager, but you know. I think we kind of co-manage We're co-managing each other. So we're running as a team. So I'm in 21 and she's in 11, and 11 is over. It represents 21 and 22 in Montana. So that's maybe why we're in there together, because we're running that kind of team. I will be focusing on 21 because obviously that's my district and she'll be in 22 and then I'll be carrying her lit when I'm not. So that's a way we can handle both districts and win that. Yeah, because we're definitely, we got this. Leigh/@followtheleighder: That's really inspiring and empowering to see y'all come together and I even love the red that y'all are wearing today. The blazer and the... You sure about that? Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: Thank That was not planned. That was not planned. And the purple name tags. That was not planned either. Leigh/@followtheleighder: That is too funny. Well, yeah, I love that though. I think purple is a different color too. ⁓ And ⁓ it'll definitely stand out against all the red, white and blues. Like someone came to me recently and asked me about political campaign stuff and I was like, it is so limiting. Like, you know, what you can do and set and just, you know, cause it's politics. So, but. Well, talk to me. Leela, you mentioned that you have a woman's studies degree and, Linda, you have your political science or about to receive it. ⁓ Why is it important that the humanities are in decision making positions? Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: I even just kind of starting out because I didn't immediately when I went to college say hey I'm going into political science. I actually started going through all of my like general ed requirements and I took you know anthropology which was like huge that was just such an eye-opener and then you know once I got into like the political science of things and had to take a couple of those courses I was like I'm gonna do this actually like I pivoted from theater arts, was originally what I was going for, to political science. ⁓ But I just think that it's so important because it honestly teaches you about the human race. Because at the end of the day, we're all on the same planet. We're all human beings. There's not really much difference other than people believe they have their own beliefs, the religious beliefs. ⁓ different areas that work differently. mean, obviously every country functions differently, but we're all the same. And I think that that just tying everybody together as one is just like huge, and having that education on that. So yeah. I think that humanity's, I was gonna say critical enables you to read, I mean we had to read so many things. It's critical thinking, it enables, it encourages compassion and empathy, which is something that there is, empathy is not a thing we want, empathy is a sin, or I don't know where that's coming from. But you learn compassion and understanding, critical thinking, because you're reading and you're discussing. Leigh/@followtheleighder: you. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: so much like different perspectives that I think having that foundation as an educational foundation in humanities across the board just enables you to resonate you know relate to everyone and think critically with compassion and empathy. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Well, tell me and ⁓ we'll go back to you. Tell me what are some of the challenges facing your district? Yes. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: me. ⁓ I think the district is a little bit, most of my district is economically well, upper middle class and half my district is the opposite, is working class or lower. class, so it's an interesting differentiation between, I have the whole west side, north side, whatever you want to call it, of Great Falls. So, you know, the old Black Eagle, which is where the smelter was, the working class, and then I Valley View, which is a lot of working class. in that review which just goes from like working class all the way to like McMansions and mansions so it's a very diverse, economically diverse area ⁓ and there's new development on there so I think it historically has been you know a very you know purple ⁓ district and ⁓ County's got a little bit red, but I think it is solidly purple. So there's a lot of work to be done to talk to people. And as somebody who's a community activist, involved in a lot of organizations that benefit our community and a veteran status. And I'm also a native Montanan, a generational Montanan. the door to people who may be concerned about voting for a Democrat and like you can just I I can I mean I just leave with veteran and I'm like I'm from here and you've seen me a lot of times and I'm persistent and just like I'm at it again to win so you know I'm determined to do whatever it takes to make it happen so but the purpleness for the deep almost red in Caskey County in general is a challenge. Leigh/@followtheleighder: of our youth, Linda, what are some of the challenges of Montana State Senate District 11? Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: Well, I think a lot of people are really feeling the brunt of the really bad policies that have been made and they're really struggling. ⁓ Even people who actually were better off are kind of finding themselves on a tighter budget these days. Because we're, at this point, like we're all kind of hurting. ⁓ And so really I think, you know, Obviously we need our taxpayer dollars to actually be going towards funding what it needs to be funding. ⁓ Education, affordable housing, healthcare, things like that. Especially because there is an Asian population that's coming up. And so with the cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, that's not good for anybody. So I know those are real issues. ⁓ So those are definitely issues that I am tackling. absolutely and then obviously with the working class because again we do have well in Senate 11 I actually also have moms from Air Force Base as well so there's a lot of you know military working class over in Black Eagle and then aging going up Riverview but yeah it's it's a mix Obviously with military, nobody is trying to go fight in this war in Iran. That is a huge issue. Obviously, that's not something that should even be happening right now, ⁓ in my opinion. And so there's a lot of various concerns that span all over the spectrum. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Well, and are you seeing that? Are you seeing Malmstrom people not speak out against this war? Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: I have spoken to a couple of individuals that are out at Maumstrom. Everyone is really concerned, especially because it really concerned us here because we have so many of the missiles. And with a statement being put out by the president that he's ready to annihilate an entire civilization, it's got everybody like. deeply concerned. I everybody's very scared because this, I mean, this really puts a target on us not only as a country, I, I feel like, you know, here in Great Falls, just because we really do house majority of the missiles for the country, I think. ⁓ It's a big concern. It reminded me of when I was growing up here. If there's a nuclear ⁓ war, it'll be like New York, DC, Great Falls. We're going to be part of First Strike. that was kind of embedded. I know growing up here was embedded that if there is a nuclear war, we're part of the First Strike. So just hold on. Yeah, we definitely. So yeah, so there's a lot to tackle with running for Senate for sure. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Yeah, well absolutely. ⁓ So let's talk about, ⁓ and we'll go back to Leela, what are some of your campaign policies? What are things, I know that you have a union background, ⁓ how does that impact your run? Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: think that definitely impacts our the run and make sure that we have, especially in the legislature, we make sure we don't have a right to work legislation coming through and getting past that and make sure that Montana stays a union state, one of the only union states out here in the West. And make sure that we have prevailing wages, we pay our education, pay our school teachers, and that's foundation. Working class, most of the outside of that, the main focus is I have is healthcare. So anything with mental health care, substance use, mean yesterday, yesterday was Ryan White's like, anniversary of his death and they announced that they're gonna cut all of the Ryan White Care Act funding with anyone who has HIV and anyone who grew up in the 80s like I did knows that, you know, that. I mean, I would say that that is one of the reasons why I'm involved in politics is growing up in the 80s and having a lot of people that I knew die in this horrible death. that thing, so definitely that's something that's a little obscure. Most people aren't talking about that, but I am. And then access to treatment, to mental health treatment, substance use treatment, and recovery houses, making sure we have. available for people, not just DLC related to get help with substance use and that kind of stuff. that's housing. I'm on the House Grade Falls Board, so we help people who experiencing homelessness and give them resources. We run a cold weather drop-in, so at least we get a hot meal a day when we're open. So the people that need... So I'm a person in long-term recovery and I'm very out vocal. That's the other thing that gets me, like my lived experience in these worlds, being a veteran, being a personal health care recovery is... You know? Thank God. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Yeah, absolutely. And what about you, Valinda? What are some of the policies that you feel the strongest about? Or some of your campaign values? Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: ⁓ Yeah, so I also have a lot of lived experience. ⁓ I definitely come from a pretty rough background. ⁓ And so basically what I am running on, obviously affordable housing, ⁓ obviously the community, the people here in Great Falls, as well as across the country have been priced out. ⁓ especially with property management companies, private equity firms and hedge funds, primarily buying up all of our housing markets. So I intend to fight that. We need affordable housing for everyone. So I'm looking at implementing rent caps, getting those private equity firms, hedge funds and property management companies actually fully out of the actual housing market so that we can get families and real people into those houses. ⁓ I'm also running on healthcare reform. ⁓ I do have a background in medical billing and claims and I have seen firsthand exactly how it just overwhelming the entire healthcare system is ⁓ from insurance to the healthcare costs. So I'm looking at implementing a single payer system for Montana so that every Montanan has health insurance as well as taking a look at the private insurance sector and implementing caps on their deductibles and premiums so that Should any Montana decide that they also would like to have their own private insurance, at least it's reasonable. ⁓ As well as looking at our hospitals and clinics and also putting caps on how much they're charging because I'm sorry but Tylenol and ibuprofen for $500 a pop is insane. those are ⁓ big issues to me. I'm also really largely running on criminal justice reform. I've seen almost every aspect of it from a failed justice system that has failed over and over to actually do anything. I I was just recently assaulted in my apartment in November by a man that I was seeing. He assaulted me and my two girlfriends actually, and the police did nothing. They actually sat there and told us, well, were you guys drinking? Well, maybe if you weren't drinking these bad things wouldn't happen to you. So things like that are a huge major issue because it's happened over and over again. On top of that, also, my brother is currently incarcerated. And so he is actually stuck in the privatized prison system of that is core civic because Montana has been contracting with them. And my brother along with, I think there's still over 600 inmates now were shipped out of state and He is currently in Arizona, but I think right now he may even be on transport all the way to Mississippi. He's born and raised here in Montana. He has family here and he's been completely separated from his family and the people that can help him. And so, and that is a huge issue. On top of that, the DOC, there are millions of dollars that really just don't make sense. They say that they've paid to improve the prison infrastructure. And there's not safe clean drinking water even at Montana State Prison. So there's a lot of money that's unaccounted for and that's taxpayer dollars. So there's a lot to be done with the criminal justice reform. So I'm very much ⁓ passionate about that one as well. So. Leigh/@followtheleighder: I really appreciate you explaining the corruption that goes on in our prison system and criminal reform ⁓ with private prisons is as a real concern. mean, ⁓ Montana taxpayers could not afford a prison on their own. So we don't have really any other options. And it gets us so entangled. And then, of course, as you just said, there are labor issues and people using prison labor. And that's a whole story in and of itself, because if there's a financial incentive to having prisoners for labor purposes, then now you've ensured that it's not justice. it's simply, that's... Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: They're keeping these prisoners. There's actually, it took months before we ever saw anybody actually get paroled out of Arizona for Montana. ⁓ They are keeping them in there and that's the huge issue with privatized prison systems is they have zero incentive to invest in rehabilitation or anything of the sort, any of the educational programming, nothing, because they continue to make money every day that they're in there. So you're seeing less and less individuals being paroled out who really have no business being in there and then they claim overcrowding. Well, if you're not releasing people and you just keep putting more people in there, of course there's going to be overcrowding. So we need to focus on rehabilitation and educational programming and getting these men out and women as well. But getting them out and making sure that they're set up so that we can lower that recidivism rate. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Well, you know, we've talked about veterans. We talked about this this war briefly. We also talked about Malmstrom. ⁓ Can you talk about the growth that Malmstrom is expected to make over the next few years and how that could impact Great Falls and y'all's districts around the area? Whoever feels. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: Yeah, I new Sentinel project is going to really affect all of, I think it affect the whole region, not just Cascade County, it's gonna affect Fergus County, it's gonna affect Shota County, mean, Teton County, all of the region, the growth that, ⁓ the long term growth, I mean, we're gonna have a very big, you know, like, they're planning, you know. small communities of men coming in and just building these sites. then, I mean, then there's gonna be people coming long-term stays. I mean, we're gonna have to do a lot of building right now. I mean, that's one thing with affordable, what I think is affordable housing in Great Falls is that it's not that prices are a lot of inventory because we haven't spent a lot of time, a lot of money building. know, and infrastructure at any rate falls. And so the prices are gonna be high because there's not a lot of inventory. There's not. And I know there's ⁓ a lot of discussion and growth in the city with the city plan and the county plan and how that looks. ⁓ But I think it's probably a decade, a little too late to have these things when the thing, the Sentinel is coming in in like. two years. know? Yeah. Yeah. They're really trying to really put a hurry on that one. Yeah. And it's going to, mean, I remember when Maelstrom lost the two air wings and we, I mean, we lost like 20,000 people like that. I I remember Great Falls used to be a lot bigger. It was like closer to 80 at one point. And then we lost two of the air wings at Maelstrom. And then obviously the periphery of stuff closed down around that. So it was. I think this is going to be an influx of people that I don't know if quite prepared for. I know there's a lot of discussions, there's a lot of people who are concerned, especially in our city management and city planning. So people are having the discussions, but I'm not sure if everything is catching. So I think there's a lot of questions ⁓ of what that looks like. Well, and I think that's a huge reason why I think if we can get these property management companies, private equity firms, hedge funds out of our housing market. Because right now, mean, how many of those are being utilized as Airbnbs by these companies? For sure. How many of these are being rented out at obscene pricing that people can't really afford. That would actually open up a good chunk of the housing market right there, as if we can tackle that. ⁓ Obviously, we do need to look at building new housing for the incoming individuals, but I just think that a big issue is getting those. ⁓ entities out of our housing market to really open that back up because I think that that would really help alleviate some of that stress. ⁓ because I look and sometimes I'm like, that's not the person. And it rotates, because I walk around a lot. Yeah. So that's something to be discussed. I know a lot of communities have made regulation on what that looks like and how, the rules were for air ring. But I don't know if Great Falls has, I don't think they have any rules on. Yeah, I think that's definitely something that needs to be looked at. That's a local, that's something we can discuss with the commission. Yeah. See. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Well, and the other thing that I'm concerned about with military in general, national security, headlines, all of this, is how they could very easily use national security to strong arm AI data centers. in a heart, like we're talking in the same way that the military has done massive ventures, infrastructure, mean, and you could see it becoming something. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: ⁓ yeah. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Leigh/@followtheleighder: I don't know, I'm a sex and weird AI new deal or something. I don't know. I've heard so many different talks, but the AI data centers and I don't want to pitch you all necessarily in a position to speak. can speak, say whatever you want about AI because it's a really AI itself. Super controversial. We're seeing incredible advancements in research, ⁓ women's medical research and data. There's all sorts of rural healthcare. There is like incredible things on the downside, privacy. military control, all the horrible things. ⁓ And then you've got AI data centers on top of it. And then you've got AI is ultimately coming for all of our jobs. Like, so at the end of the day, anything we say, anything we say, I'm like, I so it's, it's, it's like, I'm on the fence of being like, okay, I'll learn how to use it professionally so that I know how but how long am I even going to be employed? You know, but can we Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: Yeah. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Talk about AI. I want to hear what y'all have to say. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: Absolutely. So I didn't even think but there was a I guess it was a District court decision an un-legal thing of privacy with AI and like confidentiality take putting your your case into AI into It was Claude right and putting your case into Claude and that is no longer you don't have you know, attorney client privilege because it's a third party now. So all of that is discoverable. And it was like this, this case that I don't know, decided within the last like week on violation on like legal reoccupation of putting your stuff into a clod. And that is no long. as a third party so all of that is discoverable now. So you have no attorney client privilege if you are doing that. So it was especially for Claude AI. And I was listening to some lawyers doing that and how it was a decision. I'm like that, I had not even thought about that as a ramification. But just any technology of Obviously is a concern. I mean who has the who has the data like where's the data being used? I mean we have Palatir who's just like consuming everything and this guy is not a good character. He's he's a I mean he's explicitly not and has been very upfront that he's just going to use the data however he wants and ever pays him or wants and he I mean like unabashedly like I don't give a crap about like where this is and who I who pays for it or who I heard and like what we want to use it for Leigh/@followtheleighder: Uh-huh. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: And that's scary. And this is a huge corporation that no one outside of people who are kind of like in the know are talking about or like exists. I mean, they don't know. So there's so many variables. I mean, and there are, you know, I'm assuming positive things coming out of it, you know, but I think we need to be very aware of all of the ramifications, possibilities that can come on. has the data, who owns the data, how's it going to use privacy, privacy, privacy. Yeah, mean, and I do know that you know, that AI has been used. mean, it does have the really, you know, amazing, you know, things that have come out of it, like the medical research and things like that. ⁓ But then there is the flip side of it that is actually really, I mean, it's gotten really dark even. ⁓ But you've got AI deep fake voices that are coming out scamming people out of millions of dollars per year because they're deep fake voices that created by AI to sound like another individual's family member that they then are like, I'm in jail, all the way over here, can you send money to like... And then there's this one woman that I follow on... her videos on Facebook and stuff but she just the other day just had a random man a man who's come on and seen all of her stuff like that she posted whatever send her a naked photo of herself but it was created via AI So they took a photo of her that she had up on her, even on her private social media page, it was a normal photo, and then he sent it back to her, and it was her completely unclothed. And that's actually happening more and more. I've definitely been seeing more and more of those stories coming out. And primarily, mean, who are the targets in that? I mean, you're seeing a lot of women being targeted. So there are really a lot of things that need to be looked at with AI. that's just the usage of it. We're not even looking at the environmental impact, the impacts to our communities, the water resources, the electricity. mean, Northwestern Energy right now, they're completely redacting all of their... ⁓ all of their documentation and everything in accordance with anything that has to do with AI data centers. They're having conversations and they're redacting everything. So they're starting to look like the Epstein files over there with Northwestern Energy. yeah. Not a lot of transparency. There's a lack of transparency on some discussions and that needs to be... Leigh/@followtheleighder: Goodness. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: But the cool thing is that we've had discussions on data centers in our community and like 100 people show up in Great Falls. And so it is on the radar of a lot of people. And so that's one thing that we can say like people are aware that's going on and having conversations. mean, GFDA is doing, you know, like how we do the data centers pro and con and like what does this look like. data center task force. So I think there are people who are having conversations and good and bad and I think they're, I mean, it's gonna, I mean, think it's gonna, data centers are gonna happen. We're gonna have to see how we can control and how we can make it not, you we can make it better. And that's, I the community, at least in Green Bay Falls. is definitely pushing back on what that looks like and how we can make it better. mean, because there is a data center in Northwest Bypass right outside my district. Yeah, but I don't need vision that yeah, I a lot of people know that's there and I mean unless you know that it's there You might not know what it is. says vision that I mean when I first saw it I was like, what is that? And I look I thought it was like an eye care because you know, I think vision that makes sense, right? and then I'm like, what's that new business? Oh, okay Yeah, mean vision that yeah, they've been established in Montana for well over 30 years and they've primarily just been in the telecommunications business. However said that yes they've been like ⁓ you know operating in Montana for over 30 years the AI data centers and all of what those entail is vastly different than what they've done previously and they like data centers do take a lot more than what they've previously done but yeah vision that I mean they're they're very connected all of our cell towers and everything they make all of our cell phones run all of our internet run across Montana ⁓ they actually all of our like 911 ⁓ operations and everything like that is all tied through VisionNet. Like they run everything. ⁓ Yeah, I know that they're so I have one of my friends she actually is running just one Montana and she is definitely the person that's spearheading a lot of the AI data center talks and everything and just really getting out there and informing people and doing the research and making sure that everybody has all of the information so that they can really decide for themselves ⁓ and she's been doing fantastic work I mean it's been phenomenal and I mean, she's just, every day she's gotten more more stuff though. And it's like, it's actually pretty wild. ⁓ But I don't think that they're, like I'm very much in support of at least doing like a four year moratorium so that we can actually address all of these issues and do it smartly. Because right now, like if you look at Ohio for instance, are so, they are in so much trouble. mean, they are having mass water shortages and everything and it's just, it's a mess. And they've got, I think they've got, you know, ⁓ they have a huge amount of data centers out there that just like really, I mean, they've just been letting them set up shop left and right. And it's not good. I mean, there's a lot of really bad things coming out of Ohio right now. Yeah. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Yeah, and it doesn't surprise me either. Ohio and JD Vance and Palantir and then he's like out here writing hillbilly elegy and communion, stealing off of bell hooks and he's just he's like completely made up this whole like I'm a Catholic Appalachian folk boy and you're like what? Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: Yeah. I'm so I saw it's always something new with him. I honestly I'm I'm so confused by that man Also, like what's the deal with him and Erica Kirk? Are they like are they the new thing now? Like what happened to his wife? Yeah, well, you know, but like oh but apparently his wife doesn't own any mega merch whatsoever Leigh/@followtheleighder: ⁓ That doesn't surprise me, like, just in that... don't know. That doesn't surprise me. Like, she comes off as a very, like, put-together business, like, I don't know. That doesn't... She's... Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: Well, and from what I was reading about her, guess she was actually, like, she comes from, like, a line of Democrats. So how she ended up with JD Vance and now she's like, Vice, you know, the Vice President's, you know, First Lady, Second Lady of the White House, you know, and she, you know. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Yeah, a bunch of them are. I'm Princeton. I mean, Hegseth went to Princeton and Harvard. There's another one. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: That guy's a huge news. What is the other texting ⁓ stuff? There's the signal chat, right? Hex that was the one that did that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Yeah. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: So, ⁓ my gosh, she's so bad. Leigh/@followtheleighder: Yes, it was. I apologize to my listeners for deteriorating, like going off into national news. it's, I wanted to make sure that y'all were, that y'all are highlighted. then I do have a question. And then watch this and we'll get to wrap up. Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: you Leigh/@followtheleighder: Tell me, what does your previous campaign experience, what has that taught you? Both of you have had a campaign experience and then you've also worked on Bernie Sanders, Velinda, ⁓ whoever feels has the answer first, but how has that shaped your campaign? Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: think the essence of ⁓ victorious campaign is to have an authentic candidate who's running in like is authentic. think in this lower level. ⁓ And I actually do think that because I obviously worked in Virginia for a long time and the governor, Spanneberger, also a UVA grad, graduated a couple years before I did at UVA. ⁓ ran, I believe, an authentic approach. It was very like down to earth. And I think that resonates with people, even if they don't necessarily agree with you, if you come up and you talk to them on the doors or everything and you say, is where I'm at, and then you listen and just holding, if people can sense your passion and your just like... Energy there they might agree with you, but they they respect that you that you're doing that and I think that's the The essence of we're instead of being like this cookie cutter like personality to win that people want you know authentic Messaging they love to hear people's stories because they have stories of their own You want to people who have lived experience that's like their own. And I think that's the one. I I always say just be yourself and everything will fall because that's just the way it is and people like that. I you have issues that are gonna more than likely resonate with people in Caspian County. And then know what they are and be able to talk to people about that. ⁓ disagree. I think that's the essence of the campaign. I'm just going to talk to people and run the campaign that I wanted to run. My previous opponent is very established and very high named so it's hard to run against him. I don't say he's a pleasant person and I don't really have anything opposed to a lot of his politics. mean people like him and now we can run a campaign without that candidate and run it little bit differently. authentic and approach with lived experience and just unabashedly persistent. Yeah, no, I definitely, I highly agree with that. ⁓ You know, the two campaigns that I worked on, well obviously, Bernie Sanders, that was a really big one. And that one definitely showed me that even though he didn't win that primary against Hillary Clinton, was still like, that didn't mean that the work that we put in was off or not. That just meant just keep pressing on with the work that we were already doing. the campaign that I worked on with Ken Pantel. mean that was my ⁓ intro into politics and campaigns and everything. Honestly, I think that was like the best first experience I could have gotten was because he broke away from the two party system. He wanted to create his own party and run. his campaign his way and that's what we did and it was honestly like very eye opening especially for like a first timer that I was at the time and yeah and I definitely took away from both of those that you know just run your campaign the way that you want to I mean My colors that I've chosen, mean, they're pink, purple and teal. I love all three of those colors. That's just me in a nutshell. I had people try to tell me previously, like, but you want to stay away from pink. da, da, da, da, da. I'm like, no, I just want to run the campaign that I'm going to run. just be authentically myself and go out there and you know because I'm I mean basically this is like the longest interview that you could possibly ever have is with the with the people so ⁓ I'm just trying to hopefully get get their votes and get them to know then and see that I'm you know genuinely there to listen and to actually fight for every single person so that's the that's the campaign and that's that's what I took so Leigh/@followtheleighder: That is all. It's really exciting. I'm glad to see both of you all together supporting one another, running in different races, completely different areas of government, but... You're showing up and you're doing it. It's really inspiring. Thank you, you both, answering the call to run for office. Leela, can you do... No, sorry. We've done... We started with Leela quite a bit. Volenda, will you... I didn't mean to do that. Volenda, will you... It just happened that way. ⁓ Volenda, will you tell folks how they can volunteer, donate, or otherwise learn more about you? Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: Yeah. you Yes, so actually I have my website up. ⁓ have everything on there. It's www.velinda4mt.com. ⁓ looking for volunteers, definitely doing the door knocking. My signs should hopefully be coming in this week. I'm fingers crossed if not early next week. so I'm gonna, know, anybody who would be willing to post up a sign in their yards or their businesses, definitely gonna start phone banking and getting out those calls, ⁓ especially because ⁓ I did get primaried by a Republican. who filed as a Democrat. I'm very much trying to make sure that everybody is aware that I am the only Democrat on the ticket for the primary and then I will be off to the generals because I know I'm gonna win this. So but yeah but if you guys and then I have my act blew up as well so you can donate through that or if you want to a check or however you want to do it I mean there's multiple ways but I have every way imaginable to contact me on my website. Yeah, and you can look on my website, it's lelagram.com. And then my Facebook page is just lelagram for HD21. And then that's gonna be a lot of my, that's where a lot of the posts are gonna be is coming from our Facebook, our campaign Facebook page. And then that will have the ActBlue link that you can donate. There'll be a donation page on the website as well through ActBlue. I forgot about socials. We you know one thing that we're also doing for every public event that we have we're doing it we're gonna be doing a mutual aid ask specifically for things that we know we the community needs I mean we did toothbrushes we did like deodorant so hygiene products so every public event we're doing we're gonna make a mutual aid ask that our community that we hear on the ground that people need so just be you know of that so they'll be like that ask because we that's something we know that people need stuff in our community ⁓ and that's something that we that we are going to make a big part of the campaigns as we move forward because if there if you know of anything that needs you know in a community that people might need just let us know and then we'll make that ask at any public event yeah because that's what we do here we help people yeah Leigh/@followtheleighder: Wow. Again, thank you so much for being willing to run. I appreciate you both. Folks, what did you think of this episode? Let me know in the comments. ⁓ This was a ⁓ really unique kind of opportunity to interview two different candidates running in different offices that are friends and have a similar vision. ⁓ Really looking forward to your feedback, listeners. Don't forget to like, follow, subscribe, you know the drill. ⁓ Otherwise, I'm your host, Leigh Larson. This has been another episode of Follow the Leighder. next time, see ya. ⁓ Valynda Holland/Lela Graham: Thank you.