Latest / Breaking The Meta / Democrats Say She's a Spoiler. Republicans Say Worse. She's Running Anyway.
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Cherokee Sampson who is running for US Senate in the state of Virginia as an independent. Hello Cherokee, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Looking forward to sitting down and talking with you. Let's start off with the most important thing. Who are you and why did you decide to run for US Senate in the first place? Cherokee Allyse Sampson: I'm doing good, how are you? Yeah, so I, like you just said, my name is Cherokee Sampson and I am, I'm a poet, I'm a mom, I am a small business owner, a social media expert, so I've been helping businesses for the past 15 years in multiple countries grow their social media businesses organically, key word. And so I was also on a city council down in Port Richey, Florida. Breaking The Meta: Hmm? Cherokee Allyse Sampson: I famously in that area resigned and called out a bunch of stuff. And yeah, I'm from the Appalachian Mountains. I'm from Galax, Virginia, where the fiddling capital of the world and lived there till I was 19 and then moved to Germany, lived there for eight years, came back overseas, been working in nonprofits and on city council and et cetera ever since. And the position was open. So I said, hey, Breaking The Meta: Okay. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: I'm going to give this a shot. You know, I was already on city council and they're very different, very beyond different scopes even. But, you know, people were, my friends and family were challenging me and saying, you know, we think you'd be great at this and, cause I annoy the hell out of all of them about politics. I've always been vocal. I'm so vocal. And they were like, yeah, they think that I should do this too. Breaking The Meta: Yeah, a little bit. He he! Cherokee Allyse Sampson: And so, yeah, grassroots, baby. Grassroots. Breaking The Meta: There's a lot of them going on right now. It's pretty crazy. So what are the kind of things that you are hearing from the people of Virginia as you're going around and talking to them? What kind of stuff do they need your help in the US Senate with? Cherokee Allyse Sampson: Mm-hmm. That's a loaded question. I think a lot of people, whenever they get this question, I hear so much. I hear about electricity costs. I hear about the fact that elected officials who are currently serving have been given money for their campaigns from certain electricity companies. And the people know this. And so that's the thing that I think a lot of politicians... Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: they get wrong is that they think that the people are all as a whole uneducated. And that is so far from the truth. And especially I would say with the rise of social media and the internet, we love learning the people, you know. But the cost of food rising, the cost of gas rising, the fact that elected officials, specifically Congress, you know, are trading stocks, hello. The president, that could be whole podcast. The thoughts. Breaking The Meta: that could be, it has been multiple podcasts. In fact, Cherokee Allyse Sampson: Yes, so that for me and the data centers, I've talked to so many people and I follow along so many stories of people who their water bills are going up, their electricity bills are going up, they are hearing this horrible noise consistently. People are starting to get sick in other places and here. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: the consensus from the local city councils and the commissions and et cetera is, well, you just got our jobs, without even thinking about the fact that most of the jobs in those facilities require degrees. And so it's incredibly complicated to speak with people who. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: don't have food anymore because their local food bank ran out of money. You know, people who are like, okay, I used to be able to afford meat and organic milk and all these things. Now I do not buy organic milk anymore because it's nine dollars a gallon or I don't buy meat anymore. I went vegan or vegetarian because that was the cheaper option. You know, you see all over Facebook, all over threads, all over TikTok, everywhere people saying, hey, Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: You know, our, we had to choose between our electricity bill and extra food this month. And what, what are we doing? You know, I keep asking that question. I have been, think for like 10, 15 years it feels like. I'm sure you know what I mean. But just, you know, what are we doing? Breaking The Meta: Ha ha ha. Yes, I do. You know, when if you figure that out, would you let me know? Because I've definitely asked him the same question. I think one of the other things that comes up a lot from people that's less policy oriented, but I think as big, if not a larger problem. And I think for a lot of people in the country, it's we're experiencing it right now in great detail is this idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to our representatives. It was nice for everyone listening at the time of this recording. It was announced that Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzalez are both resigning instead of going through the voting, which is nice. We were not going to go super in depth on that part. But the fact is, is that accountability, especially when it comes to our representatives, it has not really existed at all as of late. what does accountability look like to you? What does being held accountable by the people of Virginia look like? Cherokee Allyse Sampson: I'm a very... justice oriented person when it comes to specific topics, in particular when children are involved in any way. And then women and then. I think a lot of people... When a regular citizen breaks the law and does something minute, let's say they steal three times and then it's considered this larger charge because they've done it thrice, you know? Why isn't that being that sort of justice and that sort of dire, you know, they're filling the prison full of people who do things like steal a candy bar or smoke weed or transport weed, I just, but people like all of the people who were in the Epstein files, all of the people who have been mentioned millions of times, thousands of times, hundreds of times, even twice, I think, it should be cause for, They're arresting people in other countries. People are stepping down and they're being held in some ways accountable for this. And we need First of all, the survivors should always be believed. That is something that is very, it shouldn't be, but it seems to be this very difficult concept in the United States or in patriarchal cultures to expect that, well, this might be a good guy. Well, he's my favorite this or well, this is my favorite. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: celebrity who gives a who cares you know I wanted to say something else but you know and so you know the people are tired of it you know we we knew so I'm an independent I've always been independent I from the time that I could vote you know does that mean that I voted for Democrat and Republican yes does that mean that I've voted independent yes I Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: I've voted all over the place, but I always vote for people that have basic decency and common, a common goal for the people. And that is lacking again and again and again. saw it like, we saw how close Biden almost got us to Iran. Now we see Donald Trump did it like that with a switch of his fingers and Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: They put us there. They're using our taxes and not listening to us and saying, hey, the people of the United States don't want war. We want to hold all of these people who are taking money from these countries or these conglomerates or these corporations to be held accountable. But if they aren't even going to arrest anyone in the Epstein files, and if people who are No. I don't know. I don't know. I think they're upstairs. I apologize. I have three young ones. So, but you know, for the people, I feel like, you know, we just want absolute transparency. And that is how we get some sort of accountability. You know, we have to have absolute transparency. And that is just not present at all anymore. I mean, Breaking The Meta: You're Cherokee Allyse Sampson: definitely not now with the current administration, but even beforehand, it's been slowly, you know, fading away. And so I think, you know, that's why all of a sudden people are so shocked, you know, all of these Democrats, they're being paid, they have a pack, they're taking pack, you know, what, what are you talking about? People, many, many, many people have known this for a very long time and we've been saying it and it's, it's just so frustrating. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: And so when you get into a room and you talk to people, they want transparency. They want absolute accountability, regardless of what is in your bank account. Because if somebody out on the streets can get worse for a crime than a guy because only of a dollar bill, no. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. So that brings an interesting question because, you know, one of the problems with this administration that I've noticed is when they were running, they ran on the idea of full transparency. And we know that's not been the case in any way, or form. So what does that look like? How do you hope to bring transparency in a way that can bring trust back to to politicians, just, I mean, to you and specifically, but in general. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: Whoever serves, regardless of what part of the government they're serving in, whether that be from a city council member to a county commissioner to a governor to a senator to a U.S. senator to president, they should be the voice of their constituents. And if they can't do that, then they should step down. And I think that that was actually one of the reasons I left city council, because there was a development that was going to be going in place. The mayor and other council members, before I was on the council, agreed to a $14,000 survey. Fast forward, the survey results come in. All of the citizens are saying, absolutely not. There's only 3,000 plus citizens in that town and 780 some of them took the survey. That's a large percentage. And they said no. And so I voted no. you know, and he compared himself to God, which, I mean, you know, our president did that today. So it tracks, it tracks from mayor to president these, so. Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: I blasted that, you know, right there when he said his stuff. I blasted him right away and I resigned shortly after and wrote a very well worded, polite letter to the city manager, public record. So I just feel that people need to understand that when they get into office, it shouldn't be about them being Republican or Democrat. It should be about their service to the people that both put them there and did not put them there. Because that's the part that I see, I mean, come on, you just take a look through a history book, a real one, not a government sanctioned one, but you take a look through history and you see over and over again people. getting into office, into elected office and clinging to that identity politics and canceling out basically the, and then it becomes this struggle and it's grown and it's grown and it's grown and now look at what we have. Breaking The Meta: Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I think so one of the one of the struggles that I that that we have in this country is we are a two party system. Being an independent and winning in any state has been difficult in the past. Bernie Sanders is the only one that I can recall since I've been able to vote that has at least consistently won, if has won at all. Some have switched to independent, but in general, winning as an independent is very difficult. What has been your experience going around and interacting with people? And when they find out that you're running as an independent in a state like Virginia, which is so close to DC, which sometimes can bring some difficulties in that. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: I have had a few moments, particularly from, I would say, right-wing Republicans, right-wing extreme conservative Christian nationalist Republican, but also from certain Democrats. For instance, there was a no-kings parade. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: here and I attended, I was asked to come and speak and so I did. But then I was told that the organizer of this particular event was one of the chairs of the DNC in the local area and so I could not mention my campaign in any capacity. Which I didn't, I was like okay fine, but I'm still gonna be mean, I'm still gonna speak on fascism like I said I was going to and it's gonna rip the two party system because, so. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: I have a little bit of a different background too, when you really dive into my background. I was homeschooled after the age of 13 and my mother taught me the world. She made me read libraries full of books and I was reading, you know, books about law when I was 16 and 17 years old. even, you know, younger I was reading thesauruses for fun and my friends thought I was really weird. Breaking The Meta: Mm. wow. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: You know, I, she encouraged reading to such a degree and she really restricted television with us. And then when computers started in the whole Facebook and in my space and all that, my space, I feel so old. but so she homeschooled me and she taught me both the Appalachian ways of how to survive and how to keep a home, an Appalachian home, you know, to be able to Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Don't remind me about my space. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: start a fire and fix a car, but also about law and space and astrology and astronomy and you know, she taught me about religions. She would take me to different churches all over the place and she would expose me to all of these new things because she said, you know, everything new that you experience builds brain pathways, you know. But so for me, you know, that ties into She was very vocal about not believing anything you hear and only half of what you see because I was in public school. So I was constantly challenging my teachers. That is not what really happened, I would say. And I'd say, I got in trouble all the time in public school. I really did. That's actually one of the reasons why she had to take me out. But then my mom would give me a book and this is what the true history of the Civil War is. And this is what Breaking The Meta: Heh, heh. Mm-hmm. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: the true history of the Christian religion is and the Catholic religion and the Muslim religion and the Jewish religion and let's talk about Jesus Christ. Did you know that he was in other parts of the world? And there's notes of him in other parts of the world. And just all of these different things that were really, at eight years old, she was like, can decide whatever you want to be, whoever you want to be, if that... means if I was trans or like whatever. She was like, I am here, you know? And so she really encouraged me to think outside of what is taught in public school from the beginning. And so that is why I never clung to the archaic, sexist as hell, racist, built on systemic racism, two party system. You know, the... The founding fathers, a lot of people like to quote the Constitution and quote the founding fathers and all of these things and you know, okay, but the founding fathers also were people who thought that they could own other people based on the color of their skin. And they thought women were inferior and always, most of them. How can you, I have no interest in, raising them to some kind of heroic status when they were oppressors and systemically so. You know, so that has been a little bit of a struggle. Democrats kind of just always tell me that I'm giving votes to Republicans. Republicans tell me that I'm a libtard. That's their only thing they can come up with, libtard. And I am very calm. Sometimes I like to mess with people. Sometimes I don't. Breaking The Meta: Sure. Yep. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: Most of the time I'm very direct and like if you want to follow along the journey go ahead if you don't don't you know, but I'm not gonna tolerate racist sexist speech on any of my social media anywhere but Most of the time I would say 99 % of the time people are like whoa Like at when I spoke at the no Kings event I have quite a number of people come up to me and say I never thought about it like that Breaking The Meta: Mm. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: You know, I said it before, I'm a poet. And so I write poetry about all of the things that are going on. And I have been for years. recently, like in 2024 or 25, 25, I published my first book and the name of it is The American Legacy. And that's a tongue in cheek thing because my first poem is The American Legacy and it is very direct about capitalism and consumerism and You know, we just need to, we need to have new representation and the Democrat versus Republican thing obviously isn't working out because look at where we are right now. Breaking The Meta: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Since the end of World War Two, America has pretty much been at the head of the table everywhere. Forced or not, we've we've we've been there in the last 14 months. This administration has summarily destroyed that through a variety of of methods. Regardless of what this administration thinks, we are no longer at the head of the table, even with some of our closest allies. How do you see America's foreign policy going forward knowing that our friends, our allies don't trust us anymore? Even if we get a more progressive candidate in office as president, get the majority, progressives get majorities in the House and the Senate, who's to say that four years later, a Republican will come in office or someone MAGA won't get in office and reverse everything that was done just like this administration did. So how do you see us going forward with that reality? I like giving you the easy questions, I know. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: Yeah, no it's good. No, this is a good one. This is... So I lived in Europe for almost eight years. And I'll tell you right now, I lived in Germany specifically the entire time. I traveled to 23 different countries. I speak multiple languages. I've talked to people all over the world. I worked in nonprofit, German American Chamber of Commerce and other Chamber of Commerce. So I talked to lots of different people from the whole world. And I still talk to them today. and they don't want to come here anymore. You know, and they've asked me the same question. And the only thing in my personal, probably very... Breaking The Meta: Right. Yeah. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: very direct opinion is we need to put all of these people in jail and we need to make an example of them like the Germans did the Nazis. And that doesn't mean that any of them... Breaking The Meta: Mm. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: I think that every single person needs to be investigated and every single person who was found complicit in the deaths of all of these, like where are these kids at by Dilley? What is going on with all of these humans that have disappeared from all of these ICE facilities? Why is this all so closely linked to the Epstein files? And when you hear about things like the butterfly rooms and these you know, underage girls becoming impregnated inside of these ICE facilities by obviously someone within the ICE facility. You know, it just... These people, they need to be held accountable. They've, in my opinion, and in the opinion of most people that I talk with, they've committed treason against United States citizens. First of all, by being bought by corporations and conglomerates and other countries, as we now know. and many of us have known for a while and have been shouting it. I think that that is what we're gonna have to do. I think that we're gonna have to hold all of them accountable. It brings us back to our beginning of the conversation. We need to actually hold these people accountable. I am very upset, other people, especially I am a, I don't always get vocal about it, but I am a survival. survivor of sexual trauma from when I was very young and it is not okay that these people are getting away with what they're doing as far as the Epstein files are concerned and then also what they're doing as far as the ICE facilities and all of the people that they've killed, Andre, Renee, etc. This is just... plus many, many more. There's hundreds, actually. There's hundreds. And so they need to be held accountable, and they all need to be tried, and they need to be investigated, and they need to be held to the same standards that the American people would be if they were caught stealing three times. And if that isn't, you know, that is what we're gonna have to do as a country to also be even seen as anything. actually as even any kind of a country to the world for probably a long time. I mean, don't see the world with everything that's been done, especially with Iran and Israel and Gaza. You know, we've been funding that for how long now? You know, okay, no. So I think the American people are really upset. We're really upset and we're ready for a change. And, you know, even Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: You know, I intend to win. Of course, all of us do. But even if I don't, you maybe I speak to one person whose mind has changed. Maybe I speak to two, three, four. Maybe they talk to other people and who talks to other people. And I'm building brain pathways all over the place, you know? Just like my mama said, you know? And yeah. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Yeah, that's all you can do sometimes. Yeah. I would like to do a little future casting. in the line that you already said, how you think you're going to win. let's assume November 3rd comes along and you do win. And then January comes along and you're sworn in as a senator for the state of Virginia. What are the first things that you do? Cherokee Allyse Sampson: I would be banging down doors is what I would be doing. I would be having meetings with anyone and everyone that I could possible get a meeting with, period. I'm already doing that in advance. Like I have political analysts working with me on my campaign. know, we as a team... are working to make sure that whenever we do win and whenever we do get into office, that the first thing that we do is start holding people accountable all over the place. I really don't have any kind of filter. I mean, I do cuss a lot more in real life, but otherwise, this is, I am who I am. And so I think working on Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: right away holding Congress accountable for insider trading, any and all of the people who did that, because that should just never have been allowed. Working on term limits right away, pushing for that, working on legalizing marijuana, and pushing for the release of people who have only nonviolent marijuana charges. And it's just changing a lot. working to make sure that farms aren't being bought up by data centers, Like, I would have to hop on it, you know? And that's the thing, like, we're building policies already. working, you we're wanting to work with people from all over the state of Virginia. And I'm not talking politicians, I'm talking regular people. You know, we want to hear all of their input because that, you know, that is how you build real policy. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: It isn't by sitting in Washington. It's by going out to the rural communities and talking to hardworking people, just like me, and saying, OK, what is it that we need? Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: and continuing to do that once you're in office because that's what a lot of them forget. Breaking The Meta: Yes, very true, unfortunately. For everyone that has listened to everything that we have talked about up until this point, what are one or two things that no matter what you would want to make sure that they come away with knowing about you and your campaign? Cherokee Allyse Sampson: That is always I, famously, as my campaign manager says, famously, don't like to really talk about myself. I like to talk about... the campaign and the things that we need to be doing together. But I would say that I am authentic, I'm transparent, I'm blunt as hell, I'm a mom of three, I'm an Appalachian mother, and I am ready to be a voice in Washington that actually represents the people. You know, that's working with indigenous communities, that's working with African American and black communities, that's working with, you know, Hispanic communities and the disabled, LGBTQ plus, you know, trans health care. You know, working with women who have had abortions and working with mothers who have had miscarriages and, you know, just representing everyone in a way that's think Virginia really needs, in my opinion. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. For anyone that wants to learn more about you or support you in any way, where can they find you? Cherokee Allyse Sampson: Yeah, so you can go to my website, www.cherokee4va.com and Cherokee4VA again with the number everywhere except for Facebook. That's my full name. yeah, you can just Google me too. You can Google me. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yep. Can confirm it does work. Cherokee. Thank you so much for sitting down with us and letting us get to know you a little bit. I do appreciate it very much. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: Yeah. Yeah, no worries. Thank you for having me on. Breaking The Meta: Of course. And for everyone else that has listened this far, also thank you very much. Please hit all those buttons down below. makes it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is interviewing amazing people like Cherokee and so many other people that really want to make some serious change in this country. So please like, subscribe, share, comment, do all the things that can give people that aren't taking PAC money, that aren't getting millions of dollars, the kind of visibility and name recognition necessary to be seen by everyone in in this case, in the state of Virginia. Because we want everyone to make whatever choice that they, whatever choice they make, we want it to be a fully informed choice. We don't want people to not vote for someone like Cherokee just because they never heard of her at all. We want everyone to have all the information they need. And the way we get that is by getting these people like her visible to everyone. And for everyone that may be new to this. Cherokee Allyse Sampson: Thank you. Breaking The Meta: And for everyone that may be 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, deserve rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Again, Cherokee, thank you for being here, and everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys.