Latest / Breaking The Meta / Who's Running for Nancy Mace's Seat? | Matt Fulmer | SC-01
Transcript
- Leila S.: Hello everyone, welcome back to Breaking the Meta Podcast. I'm Layla, helping out with interviews, super fun, super exciting stuff. And today we're here with Matt Fullmer. Matt Fulmer SC01: This guy right here. Hello everybody. Thanks for having me. Leila S.: Heck yeah, no problem. ⁓ Tell us about your district. Where are you running? What are you running for? Matt Fulmer SC01: I'm running for Congress in South Carolina's first district. Most people know it because its current occupant is Nancy Mace, but it seems like she is going to vacate the seat to run for governor. And the district's shape starts all the way at Georgia's border. It hugs up our coast and it goes, hooks around Charleston. So it's sort of Charleston suburbs then running down the coast to the Georgia border. Leila S.: Yeah, it sounds like a pretty big district. Matt Fulmer SC01: It's... you know, when you look at some of the ones out west, it's not, but it's probably like two and a half hours to drive tip to tip, but it's skinny. Leila S.: Yeah, that's about the size of my house district. So I'm running for Iowa House and my district is like really wide and really cool. So it takes about two hours to drive across it. Yeah, just for an Iowa House seat. Matt Fulmer SC01: Mm-hmm. You're running yourself? That's cool, that's really cool, congratulations. Leila S.: ⁓ thank you. ⁓ So what's your background? What did you do before? Matt Fulmer SC01: Sir. Service industry. I'm turning 33 next month and I've I've done stuff outside of it, but to make ends meet bartender server taking tables, making drinks. That's the bulk of it. I do have a collage of experiences outside of that with activism. I was an Andrew Yang super volunteer during his 2020 run. I've done a lot of door knocking some stuff with local county parties, but mostly what I'm going to save some time. Service industry is my background just to keep it simple for people. Leila S.: Yeah, I think it's exciting to see people other than lawyers and doctors and the average politician. Matt Fulmer SC01: It's nice? Yes, no, it's nice to see people run that make the amount of money most people make and share the challenges most people face in modern America. So I'm really stoked whenever I see a working class person step up at Redford office. Leila S.: Yeah, 100%. Do you find anything specifically difficult because of your background or do you think it makes running easier? Where would you place- Matt Fulmer SC01: So I think that in a general election, having a working class background is really, really strong. A lot of people out there feel like if we keep sending people to Congress who have succeeded in the economy as it is, they're less likely to know all the ways in which it's failing other people. So I think it's actually a huge benefit to be working class at a point in time where the people running America are not running it on the behalf of everybody. ⁓ But that being said, there is a stigma against it that you have to cut through. You know, if you're going to stand up in front of a group of people who are rather accomplished, that are like triple prime democratic voters at some local country club, they can have a stigma. They can be dismissive. And you just got to show them, you know, that that's undeserved. So. Leila S.: Thanks. 100 % I get that I'm young in politics so I'm often just told to sit down and shut up and do my time. I hate it but it exists and you just have to kind of get over it and work through it. Matt Fulmer SC01: ⁓ I hate that. I hate it. Yeah, and it's important when we talk about, know, it's important to say we're running for Congress. We're running for to be a member of a committee, you know, and we talk about the importance of representation in America. What can be more important than putting people into office that reflect at least the plurality of experiences that most people are having? So I'm, I'm very excited for your, for your campaign and for people like you. Yeah. Leila S.: ⁓ What motivated you to run? Like what was the last straw? Matt Fulmer SC01: The last straw was looking at who was going to run for this district and noticing they weren't running on universal health care or Medicare for all, single payer, whatever language we want to call it. I believe every single person deserves health care. And I look at other countries that have managed to do it in a way that's far more affordable for the government, far more accessible for their people. When my uncle was in Italy, he dislocated his arm and He went to a doctor, they just waived the $50 co-pay he was supposed to pay. I told that story to a coworker. She said when she was in Sweden, she broke her foot in the Swedish healthcare system, paid to fix her foot and gave her a new pair of shoes. I met a guy from Canada, he's Canadian American, injured his neck twice. In America, it was $100,000 for operations, in Canada, it was completely free, including the physical therapy. So those all have single pair healthcare systems and it seems like we should do the things that are working for other people. And when I see candidates in the year 2026 not embrace this, I'm incredibly skeptical of what they're really trying to accomplish. Leila S.: Right. think. Looking around and seeing that the top reason for bankruptcy is medical debt. Matt Fulmer SC01: It's horrifying. The worst statistic I've heard throughout all of my research is 42 % of American cancer patients go broke within two years of their diagnosis from the costs of operations and treatment, debt, and lost income. And one of my favorite quotes is, can always judge the character of a man by how he treats someone who can do nothing for him. And what does that say about a country that doesn't take care of its most vulnerable? You know, so. Leila S.: Yeah. Matt Fulmer SC01: And what people should know about single payer is that it's not incredibly expensive. Most countries are spending less money per person in a single payer system because of the leverage that you gain as a society over all the profit seeking elements of a for-profit system. You're going to be paying less for medicines, for devices, for operations, because you can price negotiate in this system in a way that you don't in America. Leila S.: Alright, 100%. ⁓ We're so behind. I feel like our country is so behind. And also hypocritical. Hypocritical. Okay, so you've been traveling throughout your district. What are the constituents telling you? What are people's kind of biggest worries right now? ⁓ What are they looking for in their representative? Matt Fulmer SC01: Yes, that's accurate. Well, I think there's two main elements. The more financially comfortable you are, the more likely you are to tell me you're concerned about Donald Trump, you're concerned about democracy. The farther away you get from that into making a more normal level of income, you're probably talking about housing around here, which is incredibly brutal. The median price of a house in America. is $400,000 or about $400,000. And it's the same in this district. We're a coastal district. A lot of people want to move here. And so you get younger people that can't find their own place to live. They're living with their parents much longer than they anticipated, or they're doing something extreme. I work with people that live out of their cars. I work with a guy that lives on a broken boat. He's just paying the mooring fee at the marina. The boat can't go anywhere. So housing is huge around here. And then you can't get away from talking about. the overall cost of inflation, particularly in healthcare and in childcare and in advanced education. Leila S.: Yeah, how do you think that Congress could act to make housing more affordable? Matt Fulmer SC01: So I think some people are starting to put their finger on it. I will say what most candidates, which just about any candidate will tell you is we need to make it easier to build housing. And that goes into stripping down tariffs or looking at deregulations to make it easier to build homes. Where I come in is I say, all right, we have to realize that a lot of the inflation in housing is just downstream of wealth inequality. Like you get a 30 year old couple that just wants to buy their first home, they're competing against if not corporations themselves, multimillionaire families that want to buy one more property, live in it two months out of the year, turn it into a rental property for the rest of the year. And we have to have some kind of mechanism that dissuades or stops people from purchasing large amounts of residential land. And some people are beating around the bush with the idea of a wealth tax where it's not just real estate, but you also factor in the value of their other assets like stocks, I would say we probably need something like a federal land value tax with exemptions for people that have the amount of property we're not concerned about people having. But land is a scarce resource. There's only so much of it. If you're not gonna dissuade people from owning large amounts of it as an investment, don't be surprised when a small portion of your population eventually owns most of the land or properties. Europe had to deal with this, like they had to deal with a landed gentry for quite some time. And over here, we're recreating an American aristocracy in more ways than just the ownership of land, but the ownership of land is particularly painful for us right now. Leila S.: Right. Do you think, not do you think, you probably know, but companies like Airbnb and Verbo, do you think they're having a pretty, that they have a stronghold on real estate in your district? Matt Fulmer SC01: Yes, I mean, we're a coastal district. So you can, you know that a lot of people want to come here. A lot of people want to move here and live here. So you do just have these, you know, well-to-do older families that are moving down here. But then you also have a bunch of properties that are just turned into rental units through one program or another. And that, yeah, yes, I'm sure Verbo, you know, Airbnb are real bad down here. I haven't looked at their statistics. But it's, it's, still living, you know? I mean, that's, yeah. Leila S.: Call them out by name. Yeah, I've seen, I think maybe it was in 2024, maybe 2023, but state and local government in Louisiana cornered Airbnb and Verbo in New Orleans to limit how much property that could be equated to Airbnb. And it worked relatively well for a little bit. I'm not sure how it's continuing to go, but I think that's an interesting thing to talk about. Matt Fulmer SC01: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think my main message or one of the main messages that I'm sharing with people is that America is set up to advantage the people that are farthest ahead, which will be at the expense of everyone behind them, because this is a competitive country. We compete against each other to own stuff, land, access to education, even influence on the government through a corrupt campaign finance system. And if you are a nation and you allow those who own the most to buy the most, You can't be surprised when they eventually own nearly everything. know, land, property, water, your food supply, your hospitals, you know, and not just the material wealth of the nation, but the halls of power, access to education, ownership of the media, ability to navigate the courts, and because of the corrupt campaign finance system, your government yourself. And that's what we're seeing. We're seeing the creation of an American aristocracy where a small portion of our population has an unacceptable level of control over the prices we pay, over the candidates we elect, and over the laws that we follow. Leila S.: Yeah, 100%. Okay, so fast forward, everything has gone super well. You get elected. What is your first priority? Matt Fulmer SC01: My first priority is to get more people elected that are fighting for the thing that I'm fighting for. ⁓ I don't have a particular label like progressive or DSA or liberal or anything that I use to describe myself, but my overarching agenda, you what I'm trying to accomplish is make sure that our society benefits workers more in a way that it used to as opposed to investors, as opposed to people that already own stuff. make sure we're taking care of our most vulnerable, make sure we're a real meritocracy by making sure that every child has access to advanced education. And I believe in human rights, you know, that the many differences across humanity do not lessen the love, respect, or protection we all equally deserve, regardless if we're in South Carolina or Iowa or Palestine or Minneapolis. There are plenty of people fighting for that same vision. But it's gonna take more than just myself going to Congress to realize it. So the goal, this is a national movement that's happening right now where we're fighting for things like Medicare for all, college for all, ⁓ anti-imperialism, money out of politics, election reforms that enable more independent candidates or more political parties to have success. That's a national movement and. We're not over the 50 % mark for Congress yet. So my number one goal is getting more of those people into Congress. Leila S.: That's a good goal and a unique one and I'm excited about that answer. Okay, so accountability is a huge concern for a lot of voters. What does accountability mean to you both for yourself and then for your district? What does that look like? Matt Fulmer SC01: Yeah. I don't take any corporate PAC money. So that's, that's huge. I mean, people need to know that you're there to represent them. And when politicians care more about their donors than their voters, that's not a democracy. You know, that's just kleptocratic and plutocratic and it's awful and it's way too present. So that's immediately what my mind went forward to. And also you have to realize that you are running to be a representative as headstrong as I am, as excited as I am to talk about. platform that I care about, at the end of the day, you're there to represent your district. So there might be some things where you have to pull away from the arc of what you're fighting for just to make sure that you are being a loyal and a good representative of your district and of your people. Leila S.: Yeah, 100%. Too many people feel like, I know, I can't even call my representative and get them on the phone. And that's a huge common mess all the time. ⁓ So how would you approach working in Congress with people you strongly disagree with? Matt Fulmer SC01: you have something you can't. I think everyone is largely a product of environments in that they didn't pick for themselves. So I'm a very forgiving and accepting person of differences. I'll hear people out, but my number one goal is to make sure that I'm working with the people that are jabbing with me. ⁓ I'm tired of the Democratic Party that keeps self-defeating and self-moderating. So... Honestly, when I get asked like, how are you going to work with Republicans? My first answer is like, I'm not really going to. I mean, I'm going to, if they want to in good faith, but I'm not, I'm not here to sacrifice my beliefs. I'm here to fight for them to the greatest degree that I possibly can at every given opportunity. And that's how movements grow. That's how you can evolve national narratives about things like what is the best way to provide healthcare for our people or college, or to get money out of politics, you know, to really. to really embody the spirit of democracy. Leila S.: Yeah. I think that that is very fair. How are you going to work on a piece of legislation to get money out of politics with someone who gets their entire life savings while working in public. That, yeah. Matt Fulmer SC01: Yeah, yeah, Mike, yeah. I mean, I see myself, I think, and I want more people running for office to see themselves this way. You have to realize you as one person are not the change that this country needs. You we need a movement, not one more candidate. And we have to reach for each other. We have to platform each other. We have to support each other. We have to find the people that are willing to... ⁓ enter this space and collaborate with us, but have some kind of barrier, you know, right now and try to elevate them. So that's really where my focus is. It's not going to Congress so I can kneecap, you know, my own agenda to appease people that are too different from me in terms of their objectives. Leila S.: Yeah, I mean, it's really difficult to find... even a little bit of common ground with someone who... hasn't had to struggle in an economy. Like, just that. Just that example. Most of the people in Congress haven't had a serving job or anything remotely close to minimum wage. It's difficult. So I definitely get that. So the US is navigating a complex global movement. How do you believe that the US should move forward to establish a consistent, credible, Matt Fulmer SC01: Yeah. Leila S.: approach to foreign policy. Matt Fulmer SC01: Yeah, so it seems like the Trump administration right now is just going hard on imperialism. There's no other way to look at it. They're identifying places that have natural resources they want and they're going after them. And it's important to realize that if we get Venezuelan oil, it's not really going to benefit the average American. It might benefit the big oil execs. If we get Greenland's mineral deposits, it's really not going to help the average American. It's just going to help the people of the top society that are already benefiting from the system as it is. So my alternative approach is we need to make alliances with countries that have a similar have a similar goal, have a similar sense of human rights, of workers' rights, of democracy, and we need to make military and economic alliances with them and try to pull away from the various authoritarian nations that we've been relying on for natural resources or other kinds of geopolitical objectives. So I'm actually more in favor of kind of an international order, but not one like the current UN. The current UN doesn't really work because of the Security Council, you know, and additionally, like a lot of the people that hold seats at the UN are not democracies at home. And it's strange to see them want democracy abroad when they don't want democracy at home. So there's a lot of countries out there that we could make real alliances with. I don't know if you can hear that plane. This might be real bad. That plane might be real bad and you're recording. But yeah. All right. He's going wild. Okay. There's a military fort not too far away. So that's the only one of the night. Leila S.: I completely get it. Well, I don't get it because I don't live next to like a military port, but they were doing construction on my road this morning and I was like manifesting them to leave because I didn't want to have to deal with all of the sounds all day. ⁓ Matt Fulmer SC01: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Did you win? Seems like you were victorious at some point. Leila S.: did win. I did win. They did leave around 3 p.m. Okay, so Congress is often criticized for its lack of accountability. ⁓ How do you think Congress can be held accountable more? And what role would you play in that effort? Matt Fulmer SC01: Nice. So there's two directions I want to go with this. This is about campaign finance reform and election reform. ⁓ One, I am running as a Democrat, but I believe strongly in having a multi-party America like other nations have. I think that that is the best way to fully realize the democratic spirit of a people. Right now, a lot of people don't see themselves in the leadership of either political party. And the leadership of the political parties doesn't fully represent the coalitions they're supposed to represent. They can't. And the best way to get through with this is I think one, you want ranked choice voting for executive, you know, single seat positions like governor or president. And got a little pop up over here. All right, we're back. All right. So, and Senate, if there's one person running, think ranked choice voting is the best way to allow independent candidates or more political parties to fairly compete. For Congress, I'm in favor of multi-member districts with a system that is used in Ireland and Australia called single transferable vote. But to be less technical and not to take up too much time on this, basically you want a situation where if a party gets 10 % of the vote, they can get 10 % of the seats. With single transferable vote, it's more like you as a candidate have to get a fraction of the votes equivalent to ⁓ your fraction as a candidate among House seats. So like in South Carolina, we have seven seats. If you want to win under single transferable vote, you need one seventh of the vote. That's how that works. Now getting money out of politics, Citizens United is the big boogeyman. If we can challenge and overturn it, that'd be awesome. But maybe within it, there are some people out there that are trying to put forward policies that would ban or limit contributions to super PACs. I would say even better what if we can tax them at a high level and then use that to fund a matching public fund for candidates that don't take super PAC money. And that way you have the wealthiest people in society indirectly funding the candidates they are trying to keep out of power. So I think, yeah, and that's really what we need. mean, right now we just have an issue where so many of the people that are running are in these safe seats because Leila S.: That's creative. I like that. Matt Fulmer SC01: country's been so thoroughly gerrymandered, all they really need to do is keep their head down and not tick off the big money to stay in power. And both of those, that whole spectrum of reforms I was just talking about, I see as the right direction to making sure our elections really respond and represent the will of the people. Leila S.: Right. Especially like looking at my congressional district, it's like 42 % registered Democrats or people who lean left because our voter registrations are weird. And then 49 % Republican. And you could get like the 49 % of people who lean Republican and win. And that's less than half of all of the people. Like if there's a third party candidate. Matt Fulmer SC01: Yeah. Yeah. Leila S.: That person automatically wins. That's not representation. ⁓ Yeah. Matt Fulmer SC01: It's not. Yeah. And so with like proportional representation for multi-party districts, which we hear a lot, what you want is, 25 % of the seats go to Democrats if they get 25 % of the vote. Same thing with Libertarians, same things with Republicans, same things with DSA, Green Party, you know, so on and so forth. And it's much more useful for us to have a bunch of parties that don't have an outright majority because then politicians tend to have to collaborate and come together on an issue by issue basis. Whereas with the two party system that we have right now, the parties basically serve to just like kneecap and shiv each other, you know, to be obstacles to the party in power doing anything really good. Because sadly, when the country does well under the leadership of your opposing party, you as the party out of power fail. Like ⁓ you injure your own ability to come back into power when things are going well, when the other party's in power. So it's... Leila S.: Right. Yeah. Matt Fulmer SC01: Really, ugh, I do not like this current two-party system. If one party is authoritarianism, then what is a two-party system? It's just a step away. Yeah. Leila S.: Real. Right. Yeah. Okay, so for everyone watching this, ⁓ what is the key takeaway you want them to have? Just one thing. Matt Fulmer SC01: One thing is we have to lead the way to the future we deserve. It's not going to come from the top down. It's going to come from the bottom up. If everyone just took a moment to think about something that really matters to them, that was a great fight in our country, maybe it was civil rights, maybe it's the 19th Amendment. Maybe it's just workers' rights and being able to end child labor or being able to get a minimum wage. These things don't happen. Leila S.: One. Matt Fulmer SC01: suddenly, you know, they don't happen because it suddenly becomes politically salient, you know, in a two year period. There are people that spend their lives, you know, fighting for these things to the greatest degree that they can with every opportunity they're given. And it's not up to one person to save the world. It's up to all of us. You, you as a viewer here do have power. You matter. You're stronger than you realize. And even if your contribution seems small, it is a contribution. And it leads this world into the direction that you want it to go. Leila S.: Yeah. I like to think that if everyone just did one small thing to make the world a better place, we'd have a better place. Matt Fulmer SC01: Yeah. And I'm so thankful because we're finally getting there. Like we're finally seeing a lot more Kamovitz running that I'm excited about that aren't running on the same old, same old political talk. They're really out there to elevate an idea regardless of whether or not it's poll tested or, know, whether or not consultants are going to tell them that they should run on it. It's like, no, I believe in this thing. I want to communicate to people why it's good. And that manifests, you know, the moment where it does become politically viable. Leila S.: Thank Matt Fulmer SC01: If you just take a look at Medicare for All and what Bernie Sanders did with it over a 10 year period where he didn't even win the presidency, know, that's just an example of like the movement and the communication is what leads to these things manifesting in the long run. Leila S.: ⁓ 100%. I think it's really easy for people to kind of take what they have for granted a little bit. people died over my ability to have a lunch break and people died over my ability to fill in the bubble on my ballot. ⁓ And just like recognizing that those, like people did die for these things. So I should probably do that. Right? I think it's really easy to forget ⁓ what we have is taken, other people achieve. ⁓ And now, like, we can do much smaller things than die for a better place. So that's it. It gives us the responsibility. Almost. Okay. Matt Fulmer SC01: It's... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we sure can. Yeah. It's been a long journey, but you know, when we walk it together, we're going to get to the end. yeah. Right. Leila S.: 100 % Can't do it alone! Alright, thank you so much Matt, and thank you everyone who's watching, who listened through this entire interview. If you liked what you heard, please like and subscribe. It allows us to continue what we're doing. And for those who are new, Breaking the Meta is 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, Identity, have rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Thank you again, Matt, for joining us, and we'll see everyone next time on Breaking the Meta. Matt Fulmer SC01: All right, thanks y'all. Take care. Leila S.: Good.