Latest / Breaking The Meta / Ruwa Romman on Running for Georgia Governor | Housing, Wages, Data Centers & ICE
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: And I remember I told them, now is the time to be bold, and now is the time to show people what bravery looks like. And if I'm not willing to do it myself, how can I look anybody in the eye and ask them to do the same? Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Wintz and today we are sitting down with Ruah Roman who is running for governor of the great state of Georgia. Hello Ruah, how are you doing today? Hi, I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm excited to learn about you and what you hope to do for the state that is right above, right below where I am. or pretty close to right below where I am. So, Why don't you start off by letting us get to know you a little bit. So if you wouldn't mind giving us a little background on who you are and why you decided to run for governor of Georgia. Yeah, so I am state representative and now candidate for governor Rua Roman. I actually grew up here. My dad is a farmer here. My grandfather is buried here. And I deeply love our state. In fact, I graduated from same high school as Marjorie Taylor Green. So oftentimes when people sort of think that I am naive about our state, I often share that little fact because I learned a lot growing up in Forsyth County. I learned, of course, our history, but I also saw our potential. it was that upbringing that also taught me how to build bridges with those very different than I am, those who would sort of normally never talk to somebody like me. And it was an incredibly formative part of my life. And in 2014, Michelle Nunn ran for Senate, Jason Carter ran for governor. And they had a great outreach program to students. asked if we wanted to be politically engaged and we got really excited about it. And that was the first time I ever knocked a door. And I remember going back to headquarters and thinking, wow, I think we can flip the state blue if we can expand this kind of work. And it was the first time in my life that anybody ever said, bless your heart to me. And yeah, exactly. ⁓ But it became an obsession, right? It became a deep obsession of mine because I looked around the room. There weren't a lot of young people. I looked around the room, there weren't actually very diverse people. And then in 2018, Stacey came within a point. And I often like to remind them of that because before Stacey, we were losing by like 10 to 20 points, right? It wasn't as if, you know, she was somehow a weak candidate, like some people purport her to be. And in 2022, she was running against an incumbent, unlike many people in the country. And so, you know, I think our state has way more than meets the eye. I'm often... angry at the way people talk about Georgia because we ended up missing out on a lot of important investment in our state as a result, particularly political investment. so that sort of deep love for my state is how I ended up running for governor. I was actually bullied into running for office, not even technically. was in 2022. But remember, I remember watching your stuff. when you were running for office in 2022. It wasn't even a thing that was on my radar. It was more, I was the person who knocked the doors. I was the person that helped campaigns. I was the person that sitting in the back, when your name is on the lid, it's a completely different experience. yeah, so now I remember last year thinking we need something different. If we're serious about winning this year, this is a once in a generation election cycle. We cannot lose this moment to the same old milk toast type of politics. And it just kind of became a fire in my belly. And so I couldn't shake it. I really wanted to, I really, really couldn't. And so we launched this campaign for governor and we're not taking any corporate PAC money. We're not taking any pro-Israel money here in the state. And in spite of that, we've raised over $300,000. We've built a statewide field program. Over 3000 people have filled out the form. themselves to volunteer for our campaign. That's not sort of pre-existing list that we added in somewhere. And that tells me a lot. And so now for us, it's, just got to keep building it. That's amazing. As you have walked around, obviously you live there, so you at least understand some of it anyways, but as you are going around Georgia, just to give everyone who's listening an idea, what are the things, what are those common pain points, those things that most of the people talk to you about that care about that live in Georgia right now? You know, affordability has become a buzzword, but it's actually something we've been talking about for years on my campaign, whether for state house or now governor. And I remember very clearly talking to folks and they're always surprised when we show them our literature because on it, it says we want to raise the minimum wage. It hasn't gone up since 1997. In fact, if you open Georgia law, it says that our minimum wage is five, 15 an hour. And so people are really struggling because yeah, I know costs are going up and, and, but wages aren't right. data centers have been the most prevalent topic of conversation that we have heard at the doors to the point that we actually updated our lit and immediately sort of made that a priority because we had policies on it. But I remember thinking we have heard this in rural and urban and suburban areas. It didn't matter if they were Democrats or Republicans. And as a result of that, actually, this legislative session, I introduced the first statewide moratorium on data centers in the country. literally just to give us some time to study the issue and get it right. the Georgia Chamber of Commerce lost their mind. ⁓ But you know, it's true. The other thing is reopening hospitals. So yes, every candidate in this race is going to say they want to expand Medicaid 100%. But also what comes after that we want to ⁓ essentially invest 10 % of our surplus in a first of its kind in the Southeast Cancer Research Center that would not only bring jobs when you build it, but also really serve as a resource because our cancer rates are higher than most other states. And then, you know, we've got like a whole six plank specific policy platform. But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that the first bill I ever co-authored was to close a tax bill loophole that corporations get for buying homes. And so I want to take homes back from corporate landlords and return them to people where they belong. That's awesome. As. A Georgia is obviously considered a purple state, but there are Republicans in that purple state that means ⁓ I'm just interested in knowing what your experience has been like going around the state and interacting with Republicans as someone who is running as a Democrat, but also someone. I wish I didn't have to mention this. fine, I promise. I know, but it's... It's my favorite question. Honest to God, go ahead, please. But also as someone who was born in Jordan and we live in a country, unfortunately, that is still dealing with that. So what has that experience been like? Yeah, you know, this is actually the thing about Georgia that people miss. I want to be clear, I'm not here to dismiss... racism or the sexism or any of that, but there is something to be said about how Georgians are a very proud people and they want you to treat them with respect and give them the life of dignity that they all deserve. And I know that because I grew up here. And in fact, I always joke the difference between Arabs and Southerners is the way each drinks their tea, right? One drinks it hot and one drinks it cold. Both of them are sweet, you know, it's the same values, the same. Oftentimes when people try to otherize, especially me from the South, intrinsically, I am not me without being a Southerner. That is the reality of situation. And when I go talk to folks, right, there is always a beat, but it's so funny watching them immediately change when they find out things like I have their back on data centers, how when all the Republicans passed a pesticide bill, that literally protects pesticide corporations when they poison us from any kind of liability, I was one of the people leading the charge against that bill. And even though we weren't successful, I am on the record, both speaking out against the bill, fighting the bill. They're often surprised that I know about these issues. They're often surprised that I know, for example, the challenges farmers are facing when it comes to the USDA, how black farmers are getting rejections more than their counterparts, but also how farmers across the board. are suffering right now because the policies of this administration, because my dad is a farmer. And so I understand people's hesitation. Part of it is they don't know our state. The other thing they don't know about our state is there's over 100,000 registered Muslim voters with the lowest voter turnout of any population in our state. And so when you have somebody who's young and of that community, it can go a very, very long way in terms of turning voters out. And I want to be clear, I'm not naive here. I know how politics works. We're not saying we're going to change the electorate entirely. But all we got to do is just shift it. Wouldn't it be nice, though? Exactly. But we got to do is shift it a couple of points and show me another candidate that's doing that right now. By the way, our state has one of the youngest populations in the country. Our median age is 37 years old. You really want me to believe that someone who's talking about both our present and our future is going to have a harder time than all the other candidates kind of doing the same old same old. I don't I don't I have a hard time believing that. think so either. ⁓ Again, I've actually watched your stuff for many years and seen at least via social media the stuff that you've done. And it's been really cool to see how far you've come ⁓ throughout these years. ⁓ One of the problems that we as a country, I think, have that there are obviously the the more physical things like affordability. But I think another problem that we as a country have, regardless of the side of the aisle you're on, regardless of the party ⁓ you associate with, is the idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to everybody in office right now, in political office. So my question to you is, what does accountability mean to you? What does being accountable to the people of the state of Georgia look like in your eyes? Yeah, so we are campaigning the way we want to govern. There's a reason that we have so heavily leaned into a field program because our hope is that when we build this volunteer army, we can bring them into government with us, right? They are the ones that will reach out to their state reps, their state senators, but also me, and insist on us upholding our promises. They shouldn't have to. I want to be clear. I'm going to do all that I can to fight for them. And also, we need everybody in this fight. When it comes to accountability, one of things we've talked a lot about is we need redundancies in our system. So much of our system right now relies on norms, meaning we just expect people to do the right thing. And obviously that doesn't work. When you are speeding, you get a ticket. When you commit a crime, you're thrown in jail. In fact, now what we're seeing is that you're just guilty by association. They'll throw you in a detention facility anyway and disappear you. If you look or talk differently. But when it comes to, as Senator Ossoff has now called them the Epstein class, why are those people not being thrown in jail right now? Why are they not being dragged before a court? Why has there been not any form of accountability that has destroyed trust, not just in government, but frankly in society as a whole? And it is up to us to insist on that. And I think that that is sort of where we ⁓ come differently, I think, as a coalition is that Nobody should be above the law. Nobody should be above reproach. It doesn't matter if you're the president or just a person driving your car. That is the power of the rule of law. And to me, that's what accountability is going to look like. And by the way, I introduced a bill to bring back the Consumer Utility Council whose job was if you got a crazy high utility bill, you go to them and they could fight on your behalf. We defunded that in 2008. We should be bringing those kinds of consumer protection offices back because then it would literally be their job to hold everybody else accountable. Yeah. At the time of this recording, ⁓ Pam Bondi was in a hearing and ⁓ I haven't been as this angry in a long time ⁓ over all of that. I accountability is a big deal for me right now when it comes to our politicians. So. And for her to have the audacity to tell people to be quiet, to stop overreacting after what we are seeing come out of these files, again, the fact that nobody was held accountable, the fact that many of these tips were never even investigated is just beyond abhorrent, right? We are talking about saving people's lives. And the emails that we've seen from these people is just complete and total disregard for the rest of us. Again, the Epstein class does not care about us. And this is the hard part about politics is that there's so much money in it that it's become a self-fulfilling prophecy of people going, this sucks. I don't care. You know, I don't want be involved. But the reality is that it's a numbers game. And if more of us wise enough to the game, we can actually beat them. Yes, I 100 % agree with that. ⁓ So I want to do a little future casting, if you wouldn't mind. ⁓ So November 2nd comes around, RUA wins in a landslide victory in Georgia. ⁓ January comes around and you get sworn in as the governor of Georgia. What is the first thing that you do? Yeah, so quickly, it's November 3rd is election day, Tuesday. November 3rd. You're fine. you know, it's, I, you know, this is always so hard for me because It's like one of those, like, I don't want to jinx it, right? But truly for us, governors get what's called floor leaders. So we're able to introduce legislation on day one. And we want to make sure that we have our package of legislation ready to go on day one for every single one of our policy planks, because that's what we're to spend all of our political capital on, right? The current governor spent his political capital protecting corporations from liability. The governor has capital and we're going to use it. And the other thing that I really, really want to do is take the governor's office on the road. We don't really see that from this governor, but I would love to do sort of town halls all around the state as governor and just people want to come and yell at me, come yell at me. People want to talk about something. Let's talk about something. But the reality is the governor does have a very powerful office. How cool would it be if we spent some of that power on constituent services instead of middle management to make corporations take more of our money and resources? I think that would go a really, really long way. And then last but not least, I think one thing I really want to do on day one is just. be with people, right? Oftentimes inauguration, these events are very exclusive. You know, you can only get in if you're rich or know somebody. And it would be just really cool to go, again, like I said, around the state in addition to those town halls and just celebrate around the state, right? Go to those historic landmarks that might be in rural Georgia or somewhere far off, but people deserve to be seen and heard. And I would love to see and hear from as many of them as possible. And we already are doing that, by the way, but. It would just, I think it would just really, really change people's idea of politics if they saw the person representing them at the highest level actually show up for them. Yeah. You actually aren't the first person I know that has said that one of the first things they want to do is have just invite everyone around and have one big party ⁓ if, when, when they win kind of a thing. So ⁓ it really does bring that idea of a, of a, you know, representative of the people. kind of ⁓ a thing, which is really cool. ⁓ I did have one question that I forgot to ask. I was thinking about it before. So as someone who is ⁓ Arab but also a Southerner, which is it for you, hot tea or cold iced tea? I drink both, actually. So I tend to be a hot tea person, like nighttime, know, something that isn't caffeine. I will say Arabs also drink caffeinated black tea. So that is usually if my mom hosts us her brunch. But if I'm out at a restaurant or something, it's either water or sweet tea for me. ⁓ to me, I just I can't imagine drinking anything hot with food. so ⁓ that that will ⁓ you really can't I mean it. You can't separate them, right? Like I'm to drink tea in the morning when you when it's you're trying to get a little cozy and trying to start your day. But you betcha, especially in those summer days, it's going to be as cold as humanly possible. Yeah. One of the things that a governor obviously also has to do is interact with the president of the United States and his administration. ⁓ If there was a message that you would want to let people know on what, how you would interact with this current administration, what would that be? Yeah. No. One of the things before I ran, there were a lot of people that were very concerned for my safety. And I remember I told them, now is the time to be bold. And now is the time to show people what bravery looks like. And if I'm not willing to do it myself, how can I look anybody in the eye and ask them to do the same? And so my message to this administration is that's what you're going to be getting. I'm not looking for a fight. I'm not looking to escalate anything. But if anyone has any doubt about what would happen if the Trump administration targets our state, I wouldn't hide like the current governor is hiding, by the way. We haven't heard from him. We have the fourth highest rate of ICE detentions in the country. And yet the man hasn't said a word. He hasn't said a word about the FBI raise. hasn't said a word about the expanding ICE detention facilities. He has not said a word about any of it. And so as governor, one, at bare minimum, I will make sure I'm communicating with my my voters. But two, to be clear, back in the day, and this is the best part about being from the South as you know this history is that back in the day, Southern governors would deploy their National Guard in order to fight back against what they called federal tyranny when it came to integrating schools. I think it's a shame that these Democratic governors aren't using that exact same playbook to protect their constituents from a rogue administration. And, you know, this is why oftentimes, you know, you'll start to see people going, this position is too extreme or whatever. No, it's not. Us talking about abolishing ICE is very explicit because it is a rogue administration. No amount of rules implemented on it are going to be followed when they have already been funded. And so when we talk about what I would do as governor, instead of having average everyday people step in to feed their neighbors, protect their neighbors, we should be leveraging the National Guard. We should be doing know your rights PSAs everywhere. We should be talking about sort of, ⁓ you know, Bare minimum talk about how unacceptable this is, right? And it's not about escalating. It's truly about the fact that we have a constitution and it is being shredded right now. And to think that you can just willy-nilly pick somebody up off the street for being accused of a crime, not convicted, accused, is an atrocity that needs to end. Yeah. One of the other things that this administration has done that's affecting every single state is a big, horrible bill. and tariffs. So how have both of those realities affected the state of Georgia? I've been asking people, honest to God, if I was Trump and I wanted to destroy Georgia, what would I do differently? Because the answer is nothing. We rely on ports. Our economy relies on lot of imports and exports. Tariffs have been disruptive to that. The ice rates have been disruptive to our agriculture business. The massive firings of federal workers, by the way, have decimated our workforce here in the state with tens of thousands of people either being furloughed or completely fired. That has downstream effects with small businesses losing their consumers. We have the second highest rate of student loans in the country. And so when you look at every policy this administration has pursued, my question to my colleagues has been, what would you do differently if you wanted to destroy our state? Because right now, nothing. And so when we talk about the impact of Trump on our state, the most mind boggling piece of this is that it has just been complete silence and cowardice. And I would have expected a governor to go, I am going to invest in our labor department and build back out our employment offices so people can find jobs. I would, for example, expand government, which I know is a scary word for a lot of people, but the reality is we have outsource so much of government to these incredibly expensive corporations that we could just save a ton of money by bringing that expertise in house. Part of the reason we talk about our cancer research facility is because of those CDC workers. We have the expertise right here. We can hire those people. And so that I think for us is if I was governor, what I would be doing in this moment. So if for everyone who's been listening this long has gotten to this point, heard everything you said about what you want to do as governor. If there are one or two things that no matter what else they heard that you want to make sure they come away with about you or about your campaign and what you hope to do, what would those one or two things be? Georgia is an incredible place. It is an incredibly diverse place as one of the youngest populations in the country. We are now a majority minority state. And my hope is that they continue to see us for what we are, which is a beacon of hope for the rest of the country. Oftentimes I'm told that I don't know why you're doing this. This isn't New York, you're crazy. And I have to remind them that New York has never had a Black Senator, that we are the home of the civil rights movement and that anything is possible as long as we believe it because the opposition wins. Once they convince you it's not possible. And that's before you've even lifted a finger. And so if there's nothing else that people hear from what we're doing, it's that hope is a discipline we must always practice. And not only can we win, but we can actually change our state and country for the better. If anyone wants to learn more about you or wants to volunteer or give to your campaign, where can they find you? You can find us at Rural4Georgia.com. That's R-U-W-A-F-O-R-G-E-O-R-G-I-A.com. You'll find our pledge form, you'll find our volunteer form. And we would absolutely love and need the support because again, we are a grassroots campaign. We do not rely on PAC money, on APAC. I guess the Georgia equivalent of APAC. And so for us, we want to make sure that we are running the way we want to govern. Rua, thank you so much for spending this time and letting us to get to know you and what you hope to do for Georgia. I really do appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. And for everyone listening, thank you so much for getting this far. If you like what you heard or please hit all those buttons below. It helps me be able to do what I'm doing, which is trying to talk to as many people like Rua who are trying to do things the way we keep saying that we want them to be done. We keep saying we want them to stop taking, you know, corporate money or PAC money. We want them to change the status quo. We want them to fix the actual problems we keep saying that are out there. So ⁓ one thing that you all can do is help get these people visibility and name recognition. Watch the stuff. Share it with people. If you know people in Georgia, send this to them because This is everybody in Georgia right here who needs to see this, not just a small district. That is very important. It's something easy to do. It doesn't cost you. It's really a bare minimum thing. If we really want change, this is the kind of stuff that we need to be willing and able to do, as well as supporting amazing people like Rua who are trying to make the kind of change that we keep talking about we want. For anyone who doesn't know about this podcast, just so know, Breaking the Meta is always all about having hard conversations when it's necessary, breaking the status quo and fighting for the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender or identity, get rights, respect, dignity and safety. So again, thank you for being here, Ruwa. Thank you everyone for watching this far and we will see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye guys. Thanks so much. Bye y'all.