Latest / Breaking The Meta / Florida District 2: USAID Veteran Fights to Flip Dunn's Seat - Amanda Marie Green
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Amanda Marie Green, who is running in Florida's second district for the United States Congress. Hello Amanda, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. ⁓ You know, lot of things going on in the world, but we're hoping that people like you will change it. So it's very exciting to sit down and talk with you. ⁓ I always find it really important. Amanda: Good, how are you doing, Mike? Breaking The Meta: that we start out with. If you wouldn't mind giving us a little background on who you are and why you decided to run for Congress in the first place. Amanda: I appreciate it. And I also sincerely appreciate you inviting me on the show today. really, our team really appreciates opportunities to get the word out about what we're doing. So like a lot of Americans right now, I am running. for Congress, which is something I did not ever plan to do. You're seeing a lot of across the country folks jump in who otherwise weren't planning to pursue political careers. My background is actually one of international development. I've spent the last 10 years working as a federal contractor for the US Agency for International Development. And so I've spent my career serving the world's most vulnerable populations, whether that was intervening in famine through the Famine Early Warning Science Network program, which I was one of the co-designers of ⁓ last year, or ⁓ two years ago now, or intervening in ⁓ the rise of HIV AIDS or malaria overseas by delivering medicines, whether it's anti-malarials or treatment drugs or preventatives, and getting the opportunity to do that and see just how far we can stretch the American dollar and serve the entire globe as well as American priorities was an honor, truly. Last year, the Trump administration told a lot of lies about the US Agency for International Development. They established DOGE and were happy to basically allege massive fraud, waste, and abuse. And I will be the first one to say, if there was massive fraud, waste, and abuse as a former operations and contracts director, why am I not in jail? ⁓ So ⁓ it's been a fascinating transition to see. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Amanda: to see what this administration thinks they're doing and to see the real outcomes that we're gonna have over the next decade because of their failure. Breaking The Meta: And I just want to make sure it's clear for everyone who doesn't know the full term. She's speaking of USAID. That is where she is coming from. is who she used to work for. ⁓ It actually took me a second when you first mentioned it. I had to put all the letters together. ⁓ yeah, yeah. OK, now I know where she works. ⁓ So if you wouldn't mind giving us a little ⁓ snapshot of what things are like in your district, what the pain points are, what the people are talking to you about and need help with the most from you when you are in Congress. Amanda: Absolutely. So the reason I jumped into this race is because when everything happened with USAID that did, I tried to get in touch with my congressman, couldn't get a hold of him. And I started asking folks, you know, when was the last time anyone's heard from Neil Dunn or seen Neil Dunn? And it had been years for most of the district, particularly the rural parts of the district. It is the largest district by landmass. And so most folks do recognize that it's a difficult district to cover. We have 16 counties. Two of them are highly populated, but 14 are very, very rural and we're the largest district by land mass east of the Mississippi, believe. hearing from folks that in particularly some of our poor counties, no one had ever seen Neil Dunn in 10 years was really depressing. And so we started to kind of think through, okay, well, what do we do? How do we change this? ⁓ I can't fix what's happening with USAID. They've completely crushed it. But I've dedicated myself to serving vulnerable communities. And I know how to do that. I know how to take big problems and chunk them. Breaking The Meta: Hmm. Amanda: out into a process and a procedure that I can address. And so we started asking folks around the district what do they need and it was overwhelmingly the same three things. They need a representative who showing up and helping make sure that SNAP benefits don't turn off. One in four families in my district is food insecure and relies on programs like SNAP and WIC to put food on the table every day. And these are people who are employed, right? This whole fake lore that these people do not have jobs and are not productive members of our society, BS. It's complete BS. Access to rural health care. There are less rural clinics in my district today than there were 10 years ago, which is particularly disturbing because our representative for the last decade was a doctor. ⁓ And last but certainly not least, support with FEMA funding. There have been over the past... Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yep. Mm. Amanda: Eight years in particular, quite a few large hurricanes have hit us here in the Big Bend and the Panhandle of Florida. And one of the most disturbing things to find out was that FEMA had allocated funds and the feds had allocated funds that were specifically for our situation that were either deterred away from our district with our representative's blessing to address the border wall instead of repairing things like our Air Force base ⁓ or Our counties did not know what the process was in order to get those funds unlocked, and there was no one there to help them from a constituent services perspective. And so all three of these things, they're not asking for more than we already have at the federal level. They're asking for a reliable and accountable representative who will ensure that what already exists actually flows down to our district, which is because of the income levels disproportionately affected when the federal government fails Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yeah. Amanda: to do their job. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. I'm actually really interested at the time of this recording, the DHS is still unfunded, which means FEMA is still unfunded. currently in Congress, they are in an impasse because Republicans want to funding for all of it and Democrats currently are willing to pass funding for all of it except for ICE and Customs and Border Protection. How How is Florida, how is people in your district seeing what's going on right now? Are you having conversations about that? Is there a problem with? because both sides want to blame each other. And again, I know where I personally put the blame. I'm pretty sure I know where you personally put the blame, but that doesn't mean people that aren't feeling the pain of it. Those people just want help. So how is your district seeing what's going on right now, especially in a place like Florida where FEMA is somebody you guys deal with probably more than most states in the union. Amanda: We really do. Yeah, we rely heavily on support from FEMA for post disaster response. One of the things that's been, I think, most interesting about our district, it's a really agricultural ⁓ focused district. It's the number three driver of both revenue and income. And so when we talk about things like funding ICE, I think even though my district leans conservative, ⁓ folks would be surprised how many people, farmers, workers, ⁓ construction foreman. are on the side of, we want people who are here on H1As and H1Bs to not be interrupted. We don't want people's visas taken away. And ICE right now is so out of control and frankly is already funded to the tune of 87 billion, which means that if they were their own military force, they would be better funded than Mexico, than Spain, mean, than actual countries, right? They're like the 27th largest military in the world on their own pulled out of Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yep. Amanda: of DHS. so it's, ⁓ it's, ICE is heart wrenching, but it is heartwarming in my district to be able to have these conversations and have them productively in a bipartisan fashion because folks see the hypocrisy of it. Folks, what rapists and murderers deported? Absolutely. No one's arguing about that. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yes, we all do. Amanda: But what we're actually seeing is our farms raided and people who have been here for decades who have put down roots, who are trusted members of their community, who you see at church every Sunday, are the folks getting picked up. And that is scaring people in this district. ⁓ And it's not earning the current administration any admiration. And so it's, I think actually got a little bit more. ⁓ there's a little bit more support for Democrats holding the line on not funding ICE ⁓ any further. The realities are already quite heavily funded. Not funding it any further, that's not actually a controversial take in my district, which I think folks would be surprised to hear in North Florida. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. considering everything that this administration has done in the last year that can affect a district like yours with the tariffs, the whole with ICE, with and now even increased gas prices because of the war in Iran. How have the conversations been with people that have been historically conservative and historically been voting Republican to to being open to talk to you when they may not have two, three years ago. Amanda: Absolutely. It's been this way since the beginning of the Trump administration to be very frank because they so quickly came for federal agencies and we started to see ⁓ federal services, the quality in federal services decline. So we, I felt this personally in February, March, folks who otherwise might not have been interested in talking with me were starting to murmur in April, May. By the time I was formally interviewing people in June and July to map out our own path to victory, Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Amanda: to see whether or not a Democrat could take the district because I can't afford a big, you know, $50,000 poll. had to do that legwork myself with interviews. ⁓ We were having ⁓ Republicans offer to sign petitions to get my name on the ballot by August of last year. And then we basically every month the administration does something that is so detrimental to the American people and our ability to live our lives that it pushes the needle further for us and makes it more realistic that a Democrat win this seat. And so then you had the government shutdown Breaking The Meta: Mm. Amanda: in October ⁓ and that moved the needle as well. You had a really expensive Christmas for folks and SNAP benefits just being turned back on. The communities were ⁓ really under fire in November in my district. ⁓ In January, I actually unplugged a little bit. I gave birth to my son. I was very pregnant on campaign trail, ⁓ which also made talking to folks, particularly conservative folks in my district. Breaking The Meta: Congratulations. Amanda: really easy, you know, I think there's a ⁓ conflation that because a lot of Democrats are pro-choice, they're not pro-family. ⁓ Being a visibly pregnant candidate offered me a lot of ⁓ grace and openness with folks who might have otherwise heard Democrat and tuned out. know, people want to talk about a baby. They want to talk about an upcoming new little person in the world. And so anyway, January, I was a little bit unplugged. And then our congressman decided to publicly step down. or not seek reelection and by February now we were hearing murmurs of a war that kicked off in March and when you look at things like gas prices, I think folks in the city don't always realize but in a rural district like this, I have people who are traveling from one county to another county to get to their jobs every day. They don't have electric vehicles, they don't have access to even like a Costco to try to get gas that's 20 cents cheaper than maybe they could find it elsewhere. They are beholden to one or two gas stations in their town, typically, and the prices are skyrocketing and it's disproportionately affecting them. At the same time, wages have been stagnant in this district and we are seeing ⁓ less and less industry ⁓ stay here because of our inability to rebuild after hurricanes. so... It's all this, it's kind of this compounding effect. And what I am finding this year that I don't think we would have seen two or three years ago is that people are rightly pointing the finger at the current administration's failure to plan and failure to remain consistent in any policy that allows predictability for everyone from farmers to our service men and women. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. I think one of the other issues that I'm hearing from a lot of people and we have been hearing, it's not new, but I think it's... hitting a peak right now is this idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to our representatives, both state and federal. So one thing that I try and ask everyone that I'm interviewing, because I think it's that important, is what does accountability mean to you? What does being held accountable mean to you in regards to your district holding you accountable? Amanda: I love that question. My district. Breaking The Meta: You Amanda: Unfortunately, the bar is really low right now. And so part of what I'll be doing as their representative is getting them to a place again where they feel comfortable expecting more out of their representative. I have entire counties that when I go to them and ask what they need from a federal representative, they tell me they've never thought about it because they've never gotten anything in, you know, 10 to 12 years. So for me, what accountability looks like is a few things. One, bringing back constituent services so that there is a lot of trust built. It's a 16 county district. and you need to have a couple ⁓ permanent offices. We'll likely have ones in Tallahassee and Panama City. ⁓ And then we'll also hopefully have field offices around the district. I think being a visible representative so that folks can show up and speak with you directly is really important. We were just endorsed last week by former, or two weeks ago now, by former Congressman Alan Boyd, who's the longest Democrat to hold a similarly drawn district to this one. He's ⁓ served his country Breaking The Meta: Mm. Mm-hmm. Amanda: in lot of ways. He's a Vietnam vet. He spent eight years in Congress and 14 years in the Florida legislature, and he's a farmer locally. He's a cattle rancher. ⁓ part of the reason that Representative Boyd lost his seat after his final term was because he decided to vote for the Affordable Care Act. And he put what he believed was best for his constituents ⁓ above his political career. And so having him as a mentor has been incredible. But one of the things Breaking The Meta: ⁓ wow. Mm. Amanda: that he did at the end of that, at the end of his term after that vote was he went to every single county and did a town hall so that people could scream at him. And it didn't feel good. It didn't serve him. But that was part of the accountability was showing up even when people are upset. And I think that's what we're missing from our current representation. People are upset and you couldn't pay this man to get to a town hall. And you know, now Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yeah. Amanda: because the president has publicly disclosed his terminal diagnosis, which I mean, even we weren't doing and we've known for months. ⁓ We know now why for the last year he's been absent. And so I will give him grace on that, but it's been 10 years for a lot of our counties and that's unacceptable. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. One of the other things, and we mentioned it a little bit, that has happened, especially over the last year, is the America seat at the table, which has always been the head, has been summarily destroyed by this administration through tariffs, through ⁓ invading Greenland, through threats to take Greenland, invading ⁓ Venezuela, now the war in Iran, threatening to, or taking away trade deals, threatening to put tariffs on them after making trade deals, just a whole bunch of stuff that we can speak of that has, in many ways, destroyed our relationships with some of our closest allies. Regardless of what this administration thinks, we are no longer at the head of the table, at least the way we were. How do you see the United States and our foreign policy going forward knowing that there's a supreme lack of trust by some of our closest allies? Amanda: It's going to take... likely decades to rebuild some of it, right? And we saw that with the first Trump administration, there was a lot of intelligence conversations that had to be handled differently because of a lack of trust with the president. But I think one thing it feels when we talk about something as big as international relationships, it feels like it's out of the average American's hands. And something I want to remind folks of is that your vote very significantly tells our allies and tells folks overseas what our American values are. And so when we flip the house this midterm, when we take back the executive branch, and when we begin to rebuild those relationships, it will be an indicator for folks that Americans are standing up and saying enough is enough. ⁓ What will have to also happen though is some real accountability. One of the only ways that you rebuild trust with others is to show that you are able to function within your country as well. And so if crimes have been committed, for example, by certain secretaries, those need to be sussed out and prosecuted, frankly. And that's one of the quickest ways to ensure that our allies know that we mean business and we will not be allowing someone to come in and ⁓ disrespect the rule of law in our own land because we've disrespected international law tremendously, but disrespecting domestic law is also a ⁓ really negative indicator for a lot of our allies. you know, when I worked in international development, I spent five years back and forth to London, opening up a branch office there for the contractor that I worked for. And I can tell you one of the things that I heard from folks in the UK all the time was that they were scared for Americans and that they hoped Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yeah. Amanda: we were staying safe and there is a lot of hope that we take back our country and we we participate in the global environment again. As far as being at the head of the table, I don't think that's coming back anytime soon. We've abdicated our leadership position in a lot of development topics in Africa and Southeast Asia to China by shutting down the US Agency for International Development or USAID. ⁓ They very swiftly, I mean, that was the biggest favor we could have ever given was taking the most valuable and cheapest tool in our soft power toolkit and just throwing it away. China picked it up and ran with it. We're going to have to deal with the repercussions of that. ⁓ And I think it's just going to take time and it's going to take Americans leading by example again to rebuild that trust. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. So I want to do a little looking into the future. ⁓ November 3rd comes along and you win. Congratulations. ⁓ January 2nd comes along and you're sworn in as a representative of the 2nd District of Florida. Understanding that you are a new congressperson, there will be obviously some learning and some relationships you'll have to do. But what will be the first things that you hope to do? as a congressman, what are the priorities that you have? Amanda: The top priorities for me are lobbying for and buying for the committee assignments that I think will serve my district. best. And so obviously that will require relationship management and building with folks as a freshman congressperson. ⁓ You typically have two committee assignments. And so one, I'm hoping that ⁓ will be a kind of a gimme. The agricultural community in District 2 hasn't had a representative since my mentor, ⁓ former Congressman Alan Boyd. And Florida at large has only had over the past term one representative on the committee. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Amanda: and you've got other states that have six or seven folks on the committee. And when you look at the agricultural zones in Florida, the reality is we have a really diverse ecology here and we need more than one person focused on ag. And it's just such a driver of income for the state. frankly, our farmers have been left behind. so lobbying to get onto the Ag Committee is a top priority for me personally. The other one, and bear with me because people always laugh when I say this, that as a freshman congresswoman, I would be vying for this, but I be working pretty hard to try to get onto appropriations or at least a subcommittee. My district has been completely forgotten and the lack of investment here needs to be rectified, particularly when you look at the population increasing significantly. significantly over the coming years. And one of the ways, one of the cards that I think we'll have to play is this is a plus eight Republican district. When we flip it and we flip the house, Democratic leadership will be inclined and incentivized to reward this district and attempt to hold the seat. One of the ways that you hold it is by ensuring that ⁓ you have that representative on powerful community or powerful committees. like appropriations and so we'll be pushing that quite hard. So honestly, get to Congress, introduce myself, let everyone know that I mean business and get to work on committees that bring real impact back to my district. Breaking The Meta: For everyone that has listened to this far, has heard everything that we've talked about, what are one or two things that no matter what, you would want them to come away with knowing about you and your campaign? Amanda: I would want them. to come away knowing that this is a campaign by American people for American people. We aren't taking billionaire dollars. We're not taking corporate PAC money. We are dedicated to serving the American people because I truly do believe we have a Congress who's forgotten who they work for. And I know in my district, we feel that really acutely. And for folks in my district, I want them to know that I work for them. I give my cell phone out to everyone that I meet. And one day I might regret that I gave my cell phone out to 800,000 people. ⁓ But you deserve that. You deserve someone who's going to show up and who's overwhelmed with how much you want to participate in your democracy, in your community, and who welcomes that participation. ⁓ Because when folks are reaching out, it's because they care. And I promise you, I will care just as much. I'm raising my son in this district. We won't leave. And ⁓ you shouldn't either. Don't give up on Florida. We are flipable, and folks are ready for change here. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. For anyone that wants to learn more about you, whether and ⁓ support you, whether it's through volunteering or donations, where can they find you? Amanda: You can find us at AMG, Amanda Marie Green. It's my initials, AMG for Congress, spelled out F-O-R-A-M-G for Congress dot com. We've got signups for volunteers. There's a donation link. There's also some top priorities. Admittedly, kicking off a new war in the Middle East has happened since we published those top priorities. And so those are due for an update because I fundamentally do not believe that an unjust war in the Middle East serves the American people. So you'll see some new policy positions popping up very soon on that site. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Amanda, thank you for coming here and sitting down with us and letting us get to know you a little bit. I really do appreciate it. Amanda: I appreciate you so much. Thanks for having me. Breaking The Meta: And for everyone else that has listened this far, thank you so much for listening. Please ⁓ follow, like, subscribe, share. ⁓ These people, people like Amanda, are amazing people that are trying to do things the right way. They're trying to, they're running without taking pack money. They want to be held accountable. They want to make the hard choices and fix things. These are the kinds of things we've been screaming about for decades, and these are people that are trying to do it, and we need to support them. And one of the ways we can do it is by watching and sharing. and helping increase the chance that these people will get the visibility and name recognition necessary to get voted into office. So again, if you listen this far, please like, subscribe, make it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing and I'll make it possible for people like Amanda to win their districts. And for anyone who's new to this podcast, just so you know, Breaking the Meta is about having hard conversations when necessary, fighting to break the status quo and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender or identity, get rights, respect, dignity and safety. Again, Amanda, thank you for being here. And for everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye guys.