Latest / The People's News / Democrats Sweep the 2025 Elections - Trump Shutdown Dragging Down GOP; Houston Unions Win Again - TPN 11/9/25

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Democrats Sweep the 2025 Elections - Trump Shutdown Dragging Down GOP; Houston Unions Win Again - TPN 11/9/25 · The People's News

0:03
Speaker 1: It's the week of November ninth, twenty twenty five, and
0:06
Speaker 1: this is what's on the People's News. The Democrats sweep
0:10
Speaker 1: elections from coast to coast. California governor comes to Houston.
0:16
Speaker 1: Congressman Al Green announces his run for the eighteenth George R. Brown.
0:22
Speaker 1: Workers win a new contract in another union victory in Houston.
0:28
Speaker 1: La Raza, Houston's Chicano Boulevard rally for the community. A
0:33
Speaker 1: history of Canadian baseball. All that and more on the
0:37
Speaker 1: People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This is the People's News,
0:41
Speaker 1: and the People's News starts now. After an overwhelming and
0:51
Speaker 1: decisive victory in California with the passage of Proposition fifty,
0:56
Speaker 1: which would add five more Democratic congressional seats, two time
1:02
Speaker 1: governor of California, Gavin Newsom made his way to Texas
1:06
Speaker 1: on Saturday to cheer on Democrats in Texas. We talked
1:10
Speaker 1: to some outside the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union
1:13
Speaker 1: hall where he was speaking.
1:15
Speaker 2: But what brings you down here?
1:16
Speaker 3: Interest in what he has to say?
1:25
Speaker 4: Oh, just enjoying being with like minded people on a
1:28
Speaker 4: beautiful day and supporting somebody who can really help us.
1:33
Speaker 2: How could he help us standing up to do.
1:38
Speaker 5: To the dismantlement of democracy that's going on.
1:44
Speaker 2: He can put his plans into action.
1:50
Speaker 6: And we love KPFT.
1:53
Speaker 7: What brought you guys down here.
1:58
Speaker 3: And the fact that he's reviewed feuding everything that that
2:02
Speaker 3: Greg Abbott and Trump have done, and so that's that's
2:06
Speaker 3: that was our main motivation. And he's he's got the
2:09
Speaker 3: enthusiasm as to what we're speaking about today and what
2:12
Speaker 3: we need something different and he's saying the hard part
2:16
Speaker 3: out loud.
2:18
Speaker 2: It kickstart the.
2:21
Speaker 8: Democratic Party, I believe.
2:23
Speaker 3: So yes, ma'am, Yes, sir.
2:25
Speaker 9: Yeah, my name's Willing, a child and I'm wanting to
2:27
Speaker 9: come down here to see Gavin Newsom.
2:30
Speaker 2: And for what reason.
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Speaker 9: Well, I'm a Democrat, lifelong Democrat, raises the Democrat. So
2:34
Speaker 9: when I heard he was coming to Houston, I was like,
2:37
Speaker 9: what I need to see him in person.
2:39
Speaker 7: And what brings What's what do you think he'll do
2:42
Speaker 7: for the Democratic Party.
2:43
Speaker 9: Well, I think he really raises morale and gives people
2:45
Speaker 9: a lot of hope and I think that's really important
2:48
Speaker 9: in this dand age.
2:50
Speaker 1: Inside the hall, state and local officials spoke on becoming
2:53
Speaker 1: stronger and how energized they are, but the main speaker
2:57
Speaker 1: was Governor Newsom, who electrified the eight hundred plus people
3:01
Speaker 1: in attendance.
3:02
Speaker 2: Thank you for.
3:03
Speaker 10: Stepping in, and thank you for inspiring a nation Texas.
3:07
Speaker 10: Thank you for inspiring the state.
3:15
Speaker 11: He wasn't wrong.
3:17
Speaker 10: You guys made this happen. You guys have awakened up
3:21
Speaker 10: arm system. We're dealing with an evasive species. By the way,
3:34
Speaker 10: he is an historic president. However, historically unpopular president.
3:42
Speaker 6: Under every category. You can't even make that. This is
3:47
Speaker 6: hard to do.
3:50
Speaker 12: On every issue, on the economy, on terras, on immigration,
3:53
Speaker 12: on healthcare, Historically unpopular presidents, and he knows it.
4:04
Speaker 8: And he knows it.
4:05
Speaker 6: Why else, Why else did.
4:07
Speaker 8: He make that call to your governor?
4:10
Speaker 10: Why else did he feel the need to raid the
4:13
Speaker 10: election before even one vote was asked. That's just weakness, weakness,
4:21
Speaker 10: masading has strength.
4:24
Speaker 8: That's Donald Trump.
4:26
Speaker 13: And he had a very bad night on Tuesdays.
4:34
Speaker 14: He did because all of you you're showing up that
4:40
Speaker 14: no King's rally.
4:45
Speaker 10: Talk about patriotism, you talk about why the founding fathers
4:50
Speaker 10: lived and died.
4:53
Speaker 15: You talk about why we're all here, the best of
4:56
Speaker 15: the Roman Republic, best of grief, democracy, so equal branches
5:00
Speaker 15: of government, the rule of law, not the rule of God.
5:09
Speaker 15: It is nodding on people all across the United States
5:11
Speaker 15: of America.
5:12
Speaker 6: What's at stake?
5:14
Speaker 1: And you put a.
5:15
Speaker 13: Stake of the ground.
5:16
Speaker 10: People are showing up. I believe in crowns groans, no case,
5:26
Speaker 10: and people all across this country are waking up because
5:30
Speaker 10: you have the courage. Months ago, Gene colleagues had the
5:36
Speaker 10: courage to step up at a time when we were
5:39
Speaker 10: desperate for leaderships. How that happens to us, It's how
5:48
Speaker 10: we respond to what happens.
5:51
Speaker 16: Responded, You didn't rull over and you'd give in its
5:55
Speaker 16: stepped up and you traveled, as Gene said, all across
5:58
Speaker 16: the United States America, and you woke us up. You
6:03
Speaker 16: didn't just have your bats here, you had our back
6:07
Speaker 16: in the state of California, we were looking for a fight,
6:09
Speaker 16: not only.
6:10
Speaker 10: Then we could win a fight worth fighting for. When
6:19
Speaker 10: I kicked off this campaign, we kicked off the prof
6:22
Speaker 10: fifty campaign. It was at the Democracy Center in Little
6:26
Speaker 10: Tokyo in Los Angeles. That's the sacred site where we
6:29
Speaker 10: were in turning and bussing the Japanese at that site.
6:33
Speaker 6: To kick off the campaign.
6:35
Speaker 8: At the Democracy Center.
6:36
Speaker 10: What did Donald Trump do? He sent out his mass
6:41
Speaker 10: then he sent out his secret police. Greg will beat him.
6:48
Speaker 10: And don't take my word for it. You could hear
6:50
Speaker 10: the federal judge's own words. This is the guy who
6:52
Speaker 10: believes that the oath of office he needs to take
6:55
Speaker 10: is to the dear leader, not the Constitution of the
6:57
Speaker 10: United States. Mass man, mass man showing up border patrol.
7:05
Speaker 10: You saw, you saw. You may have seen this on
7:10
Speaker 10: election day in Los Angeles. Days after I'll say it,
7:16
Speaker 10: the Los Angeles Dollars won the World Series? Did you
7:23
Speaker 10: not listen to Albrene I was the former mayor of
7:25
Speaker 10: San Francisco.
7:31
Speaker 8: This days later?
7:32
Speaker 4: What did he do?
7:32
Speaker 6: On election day?
7:34
Speaker 10: He sent one hundred ice and border patrol to assemble
7:39
Speaker 10: at Dodger Stadium.
7:41
Speaker 8: What they call the board tax units.
7:43
Speaker 10: These are the border tactical units.
7:46
Speaker 6: This is what you're seeing all across the United States.
7:49
Speaker 17: What you're seeing almost nightly and daily in Chicago, sent
7:55
Speaker 17: out to chill, to intimidate so people wouldn't show up
7:59
Speaker 17: at the polls.
8:00
Speaker 8: You know, it's amazing. Did we show up?
8:05
Speaker 10: Lies two hours after Pauling.
8:11
Speaker 18: Had su wanted to send a Misstates and she's absolutely right.
8:22
Speaker 10: It wasn't just New Jersey, it wasn't just Virginia. It
8:25
Speaker 10: was in Bucks County with him.
8:26
Speaker 8: Now, democratic is a trade sixteen hundreds.
8:29
Speaker 6: It was in Georgia.
8:30
Speaker 13: It wasn't Mississippi.
8:32
Speaker 10: It was all across this country, not in Texas.
8:36
Speaker 4: As we are.
8:39
Speaker 10: He is boot army and system justice brandeis.
8:46
Speaker 8: He said it best.
8:48
Speaker 10: He said it best said. In a democracy, the most
8:53
Speaker 10: important honest not governor.
8:57
Speaker 8: It's not president.
8:58
Speaker 10: In a democracy, the most important office is office of citizen.
9:06
Speaker 19: Even be more anything listens. And so I just again,
9:16
Speaker 19: I want to express gratitude. You just sell the sense
9:19
Speaker 19: of well being.
9:20
Speaker 6: You're giving us.
9:22
Speaker 10: We're gonna get through this, but as I said, we
9:30
Speaker 10: cannot rest.
9:33
Speaker 8: Until we take it back.
9:37
Speaker 10: More in our lifetime than the House of Representatives, and
9:42
Speaker 10: taking back the House of dat starts today.
9:50
Speaker 8: It started on Tuesday.
9:53
Speaker 10: And I say this, the future is not just something
9:54
Speaker 10: to experience.
9:55
Speaker 8: It's not something to enjoy.
9:58
Speaker 20: The future is something that as decisions, not conditions that
10:02
Speaker 20: would a termine our faith in future. The fact that
10:05
Speaker 20: you chose to be here his testament to that we
10:08
Speaker 20: have agency.
10:09
Speaker 1: We could shape the future.
10:10
Speaker 6: Here in Texas. We could shape the future.
10:14
Speaker 10: Here all a trust the South and across the United
10:17
Speaker 10: States of America. You have tacked out.
10:25
Speaker 1: The mood in the hall was electric and exciting as
10:29
Speaker 1: Houstonians of all stripes fight to combat the fascism and
10:34
Speaker 1: cruelty and corruption of the current administration across town. In
10:39
Speaker 1: a much more somber event, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott
10:43
Speaker 1: made an appearance in Houston to announce that he is
10:46
Speaker 1: running for governor again. With no clear winner on Tuesday's
10:50
Speaker 1: election for the eighteenth Congressional district, we are now moving
10:54
Speaker 1: to a runoff. Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee had a
10:59
Speaker 1: strong showing, but it was not enough to stop a
11:02
Speaker 1: runoff with Amanda Edwards, who he beat only by three points.
11:06
Speaker 1: As is now becoming the sad truth, Republicans seek to
11:11
Speaker 1: delay when there are empty Democratic seats to get them filled,
11:15
Speaker 1: and Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott took his time to
11:19
Speaker 1: set up this election following the death of former Houston
11:23
Speaker 1: Mayor Sylvester Turner, who had replaced long time representative from
11:27
Speaker 1: District eighteen, Shila Jackson.
11:29
Speaker 2: Lee.
11:30
Speaker 1: Menafee had this to say after the runoff.
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Speaker 21: Look our message has been resonating, and my message from
11:35
Speaker 21: the beginning has been the same, and that is that
11:38
Speaker 21: there used to be a time in this country where
11:40
Speaker 21: you could work forty hours a week, you could get
11:42
Speaker 21: the house to two cars, send your kids off to
11:45
Speaker 21: do better than you did, and retire to reasonable age.
11:47
Speaker 21: But now most people in our district and really across
11:50
Speaker 21: the country are struggling. They're working multiple jobs, they have
11:54
Speaker 21: no money in savings. If something happens to their health,
11:57
Speaker 21: it sets them back financially decades, and they're retiring later.
12:01
Speaker 21: So that means that as a Democratic party, we have
12:03
Speaker 21: to be focused on making things affordable for folks and
12:07
Speaker 21: putting more money in their pocket. That means increasing the
12:09
Speaker 21: minimum wage to a livable wage so that nobody has
12:11
Speaker 21: to live in a situation and where they can't afford
12:14
Speaker 21: to make it into meet.
12:14
Speaker 8: That means fighting for.
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Speaker 21: Universal health care, because healthcare is a right and nobody
12:18
Speaker 21: should have to choose between putting food on the table
12:21
Speaker 21: and getting life saving treatment. That means creating more workforce
12:24
Speaker 21: development programs instead of telling our kids you either go
12:27
Speaker 21: to college and get two undred thousand dollars in debt,
12:29
Speaker 21: or you're going to.
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Speaker 8: Be unsuccessful in life.
12:31
Speaker 21: We create real pathways to skill trade jobs like being
12:34
Speaker 21: an electrician, a plumber, working in construction, the types of
12:37
Speaker 21: jobs that if you do it for enough time, you
12:38
Speaker 21: can make a good amount of money and take care
12:40
Speaker 21: of your family. Whenever I go talk to folks, what
12:43
Speaker 21: I hear from them is they just want enough money
12:45
Speaker 21: to take care of their family, send their kids off
12:47
Speaker 21: to do better, and then maybe to.
12:48
Speaker 8: Have a good time of the weekend.
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Speaker 21: That's what I've been talking about during this campaign is
12:51
Speaker 21: what I plan to keep talking about.
12:52
Speaker 7: And what do you say to the people are asking
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Speaker 7: you what she thinks about the shutdown?
12:58
Speaker 2: Right now?
12:58
Speaker 7: What would you do in that cad FEI comans right now.
13:01
Speaker 21: The shutdown is awful, and I want to be clear
13:03
Speaker 21: that it is to be laid at the feet of
13:05
Speaker 21: Donald Trump. This is a president who, since the moment
13:08
Speaker 21: he has taken office, has violated the Constitution, has violated laws,
13:12
Speaker 21: has deported US citizens, has cut diversity, equity and inclusion
13:16
Speaker 21: programs that help build black businesses, and then has cut
13:20
Speaker 21: SNAP benefits, has cut Medicaid access despite the fact that.
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Speaker 8: So many people in our communities rely on that.
13:25
Speaker 21: Now he set to allow the subsidies for the Affordable
13:28
Speaker 21: Care Act premium, so people's healthcare premiums, the subsidies, the
13:32
Speaker 21: governmental subsidies that help keep those prices down, He's going
13:35
Speaker 21: to let them expire so that people's health care prices
13:37
Speaker 21: jack up. When I talk to people, what they say
13:39
Speaker 21: is they want a democratic party that is ready to fight.
13:42
Speaker 21: And right now, what Democrats are doing is making Donald
13:45
Speaker 21: Trump do the right thing and not jack up people's
13:47
Speaker 21: health care prices. This shutdown lies at the feed of
13:50
Speaker 21: Donald Trump. All he has to do is say he's
13:52
Speaker 21: going to extend the subsidies and work with Democrats to
13:54
Speaker 21: get that done.
13:54
Speaker 8: He won't do that.
13:55
Speaker 21: And that's why the government to shut down. You can't
13:57
Speaker 21: blame Democrats right now. Republicans control the White House, is
14:00
Speaker 21: in court and Congress.
14:01
Speaker 8: Government to shut down and stay fault.
14:04
Speaker 7: And of course you're getting the inspiration for this pass
14:07
Speaker 7: and this past election is especially what happened in New
14:09
Speaker 7: York in California.
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Speaker 21: Yeah, what I think you're saying right now is you
14:13
Speaker 21: have a generation of leaders who are standing up, who
14:16
Speaker 21: are prepared to fight back and advocate for their communities,
14:19
Speaker 21: whether it be Zou Mamdani out of New York City
14:22
Speaker 21: or some of the folks we're saying.
14:23
Speaker 8: Get elected in other places. People are on fire.
14:25
Speaker 21: They're on fire about not political campaigns, but on fire
14:29
Speaker 21: about a change to the way that we do public service.
14:31
Speaker 8: At the County Attorney's office.
14:33
Speaker 21: I've had that fire for multiple years, fighting Greg Avant
14:35
Speaker 21: and beating them to protect our voting rights, fighting Donald
14:37
Speaker 21: Trump and beating them to protect our healthcare programs. So
14:40
Speaker 21: I'm just glad the Democratic Party is catching up, but no,
14:43
Speaker 21: it's time to take that fight in a real way
14:46
Speaker 21: to deliver and win for our communities in Washington, DC.
14:49
Speaker 21: You're seeing that flame be ignited throughout the country and
14:52
Speaker 21: I consider this campaign a part of that, and I'm
14:54
Speaker 21: excited about it.
14:55
Speaker 1: Amanda Edward's strategy is to get the people out to vote.
15:00
Speaker 22: We're very excited about the runoff because this district has
15:04
Speaker 22: been without its voice, without its vote, without a representative
15:08
Speaker 22: for far too long, and we need someone in this
15:10
Speaker 22: seat who is going to be able to stand up
15:14
Speaker 22: and elevate the issues and more importantly, deliver for this community.
15:18
Speaker 22: It's been too long without them having representation. If you
15:22
Speaker 22: do the math from when Congresswoman Jacionally got sick and
15:25
Speaker 22: then passed away, and Congressman Turner passing away, the delay
15:28
Speaker 22: and the special election, and the delay and the runoff election.
15:30
Speaker 22: We're talking about eighteen months where this district hasn't had
15:33
Speaker 22: its voice, its vote, or anyone to advocate on its behalf.
15:36
Speaker 22: And so we've got to put into place folks that can,
15:41
Speaker 22: of course elevate the issues, but resolve the challenges that
15:44
Speaker 22: this community faces.
15:46
Speaker 23: Some people were saying that the issues that concern voters
15:51
Speaker 23: in the district are not being answered.
15:56
Speaker 22: Yeah, I talk about those issues all the time. Our
15:59
Speaker 22: campaign has been focused on people and the issues that
16:02
Speaker 22: matter most to them. So if you may recall, we
16:05
Speaker 22: came out with our ad talking about health care access
16:08
Speaker 22: and making sure it was affordable. That was the first
16:10
Speaker 22: thing we did and at the time didn't know that
16:13
Speaker 22: that was going to be the source of the government
16:16
Speaker 22: shut down. Is the access to affordable healthcare question. In addition,
16:21
Speaker 22: we focus on other meat and potatoes issues besides for healthcare.
16:24
Speaker 22: We look at things like economic opportunities so that every
16:27
Speaker 22: family in this district has the opportunity to thrive. Just
16:29
Speaker 22: on Saturday, I was passing out food of fruits to
16:34
Speaker 22: people and a long line of cars because they were
16:38
Speaker 22: of course food and scure. This is inappropriate. This cannot
16:42
Speaker 22: be happening here in America in this way, and it is,
16:45
Speaker 22: and it's self induced as it relates to what our
16:47
Speaker 22: government is now subjecting us to. This is the embodiment
16:51
Speaker 22: of Donald Trump and then broken Washington politics resulting in
16:57
Speaker 22: people's real lives being impacted. And then I'll say this too.
17:00
Speaker 22: Education is on the minds of a lot of the residents.
17:03
Speaker 22: You know, we've seen what's happened with public education funding
17:07
Speaker 22: on the local level in terms of our state underfunding
17:10
Speaker 22: our public schools. But now, of course, with the dismantling
17:13
Speaker 22: of the Department of Education and the way that it
17:16
Speaker 22: has been, you're going to see additional challenges result as
17:20
Speaker 22: well for our kids and students who need more options,
17:25
Speaker 22: not less as it relates to public school education. So
17:29
Speaker 22: these are some of the meat and potales issues I
17:30
Speaker 22: focus on. I got started in my journey focusing on
17:34
Speaker 22: healthcare because when I was young, my father got very
17:37
Speaker 22: ill with something called multiple myloma, which is a very
17:40
Speaker 22: aggressive form of cancer that took his life when I
17:43
Speaker 22: was a teen, And as a result of that, I
17:46
Speaker 22: remember asking my dad questions whether his health care treatments
17:49
Speaker 22: would be covered by the insurance, and I remember my
17:52
Speaker 22: dad saying if I said, well, what if they said no,
17:54
Speaker 22: he would just say, well, We've got to have to
17:56
Speaker 22: figure something else out. And I just felt like at
17:59
Speaker 22: the time, the wrong answer and the right answer should
18:02
Speaker 22: have been that there are systems in place for families
18:05
Speaker 22: that work to save lives rather than to lead them
18:07
Speaker 22: to their own devices. And that's what motivates me. That
18:10
Speaker 22: is why I'm in the arena. I'm not here for
18:14
Speaker 22: establishment politics. I'm not here for politics over people. I'm
18:17
Speaker 22: here to put the people over the politics and get
18:19
Speaker 22: them real life results, because that's what this is all about.
18:22
Speaker 22: That's what would be sending me to Washington to do.
18:25
Speaker 1: The two are in a runoff to finish the current
18:28
Speaker 1: unexpired term. Added to this race for the permanent seat,
18:32
Speaker 1: which will be held in November of twenty twenty six.
18:35
Speaker 1: Congressman Al Green announced on Friday he will run for
18:38
Speaker 1: the permanent seat for the eighteenth Congressional district.
18:42
Speaker 13: I'm a Congressman Al Green. I currently represent the ninth
18:45
Speaker 13: Congressional District in Texas. However, since i've been in Texas.
18:49
Speaker 13: I have lived in the eighteenth Congressional District. I lived
18:53
Speaker 13: there until I was drawn into the ninth Congressional district,
18:57
Speaker 13: at which time I ran for Congress. And I have
18:59
Speaker 13: served in the ninth Congressional district now since two thousand
19:03
Speaker 13: and five. And I'm proud to announce tonight that the
19:06
Speaker 13: eighteenth Congressional district has come back to me.
19:09
Speaker 8: I am not moving.
19:11
Speaker 13: The eighteenth Congressional district was redrawn such that my home
19:14
Speaker 13: of more than twenty five years and the constituents that
19:17
Speaker 13: I have represented for some twenty years are now in
19:20
Speaker 13: the eighteenth Congressional district. So I announced that I will
19:24
Speaker 13: be running for the eighteenth Congressional district, the permanent seat,
19:29
Speaker 13: not the seat that will fulfill the unexpired term of
19:33
Speaker 13: the Honorable Sylvester Turner. That is a separate election. I'll
19:36
Speaker 13: be running in the eighteenth Congressional district. And one of
19:39
Speaker 13: the issues that we're having to embrace right now is
19:42
Speaker 13: the shutdown. The shutdown never should have taken place. I
19:46
Speaker 13: do not believe that people should be suffering. Forty two
19:49
Speaker 13: million people, for two percent of people in this country,
19:54
Speaker 13: they be suffering as a result of not getting health
19:56
Speaker 13: care that they need. We've got to protect health care
20:00
Speaker 13: for the people of this country. But I would also
20:03
Speaker 13: add the shutdown as hurting people who need snap people
20:07
Speaker 13: need food, they should be helped. So my final comment
20:10
Speaker 13: is this, the shutdown could have been prevented with simple negotiation,
20:14
Speaker 13: not capitulation. There are those who would have us capitulate
20:18
Speaker 13: me for one, and I don't believe we should capitulate.
20:21
Speaker 13: We should talk and negotiate. But there's another way that
20:24
Speaker 13: it could have been red avoided. It could have been
20:26
Speaker 13: avoided by the Republicans who have the House, the Senate,
20:30
Speaker 13: and the presidency. It could have been aboided by them
20:33
Speaker 13: simply deciding that they're going to use the same rule
20:36
Speaker 13: that they use to put Justice Gorsage on the Supreme Court.
20:40
Speaker 13: That rule allows them to do it with a majority
20:42
Speaker 13: of the votes as opposed to having sixty votes. There's
20:45
Speaker 13: a sixty vote rule and a majority vote rule. Chief
20:48
Speaker 13: Justice Apartment. Justice Corsage was put on the Supreme Court
20:55
Speaker 13: with some fifty four votes. He could not get sixty votes.
21:00
Speaker 13: Gorsics could not get sixty votes, and as a result
21:03
Speaker 13: of not being able to get sixty votes, they resorted
21:06
Speaker 13: to the majority rule. I don't believe that putting anyone
21:09
Speaker 13: on the Supreme Court is more important than feeding people
21:12
Speaker 13: and making sure people have good health care, opening up
21:15
Speaker 13: this country so that people can traverse the country as
21:18
Speaker 13: they normally do. Airports are now having to shut down
21:22
Speaker 13: some of their flights. It is time for the country
21:24
Speaker 13: to open. So I say to my colleagues across the aisle, please,
21:28
Speaker 13: let's negotiate this and resolve it. But if we can't
21:31
Speaker 13: negotiate it, you have the power with the House to
21:34
Speaker 13: send it in the presidency to legislate it by simply
21:38
Speaker 13: using a majority rule, the same rule that you use
21:41
Speaker 13: to put Gorsich on the Supreme Court. You can use
21:45
Speaker 13: that rule to open up the government, and I ask
21:48
Speaker 13: that you do so.
21:52
Speaker 7: The decision to run, how hard was that for you,
21:55
Speaker 7: especially with the younger people.
21:56
Speaker 1: Cary of come up now?
21:58
Speaker 13: Well, the decision run was an easy one for me
22:01
Speaker 13: because I've been to Congress. I know what's happening in Congress.
22:06
Speaker 13: I have worked with the Honorable Maxine Waters, who spoke
22:08
Speaker 13: at this event tonight. She is my leader on financial Services.
22:12
Speaker 13: The Honorable Benny Thompson is my leader on Homeland Security.
22:15
Speaker 13: I serve on both of these committees, and it was
22:18
Speaker 13: not a difficult decision for me to make. The difficulty
22:21
Speaker 13: is explaining to people the ball of confusion that has
22:24
Speaker 13: been created by Trump as he sought to take five
22:29
Speaker 13: seats from Texas so that they could maintain a majority
22:32
Speaker 13: in the House. That was a difficulty trying to explain it.
22:35
Speaker 13: So I'm continually trying to explain that I'm running for
22:38
Speaker 13: the permanent eighteenth Congressional District. I will continue to serve
22:42
Speaker 13: District nine until January of twenty twenty seven, at which
22:46
Speaker 13: time I would be elected to serve on the eighteenth
22:50
Speaker 13: Congressional District, which happens to be two thirds of the
22:53
Speaker 13: people that I represent currently. So it just made sense
22:56
Speaker 13: and it was not a difficult decision, and I welcome
23:00
Speaker 13: anybody running. I'm not going to in any way conclude
23:03
Speaker 13: that people are too young to run. That's not a
23:06
Speaker 13: thing for me to say I'm too old to run.
23:09
Speaker 13: I let the people decide, and the people I believe
23:12
Speaker 13: will make a choice, and I will respect the choice
23:15
Speaker 13: of the people. I'm going to work hard, run hard,
23:17
Speaker 13: do everything that I can to let people know that
23:20
Speaker 13: the fighter they elected for some twenty years is still
23:23
Speaker 13: the fighter that they'll be electing on March.
23:25
Speaker 2: Third, Hi.
23:27
Speaker 1: This is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the People's News.
23:32
Speaker 1: The People's News is people powered news. We are free
23:35
Speaker 1: to report the unvarnished and unspun truth and challenge the
23:39
Speaker 1: status quo of corporate propaganda and social media advertising disguised
23:44
Speaker 1: as real news. Shiny new one hour episodes of The
23:48
Speaker 1: People's News drop each Sunday on The People's News Podcast.
23:54
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. This election, which saw historic voter turnout,
24:01
Speaker 1: is a harbinger for what's going to be happening in
24:04
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. You cannot emphasize enough how dramatic this
24:10
Speaker 1: was and how much of a blue tsunami is coming
24:15
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six. Doctor Michael Adams is founding director
24:19
Speaker 1: of the Executive Master of Public Administration Program Barbara Jordan
24:24
Speaker 1: Public Policy and Research Center at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas.
24:29
Speaker 1: He analyzed this election.
24:32
Speaker 24: We know that within a fifteen month period, we saw
24:37
Speaker 24: the untimely death in some astasis of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson
24:44
Speaker 24: Lee and also Congressman Selvester Turner, and that created an
24:51
Speaker 24: environment where Sheila Jackson Lee was on the ballot, and
24:57
Speaker 24: therefore the precinct judges had to select a replacement, and
25:03
Speaker 24: that election, we saw Sebster Turner being picked by the
25:08
Speaker 24: precinct judges to be on the ballot for.
25:11
Speaker 2: The twenty to twenty four, twenty twenty.
25:15
Speaker 24: Four elections special election for that and so he won that.
25:20
Speaker 2: Seat. But also the term of Sheila Jackson.
25:26
Speaker 24: Lee had to be completed by someone, and her daughter,
25:30
Speaker 24: Erica Lee Carter was chosen by the voters to that.
25:35
Speaker 2: So if you take into account all of these.
25:39
Speaker 24: Moving pieces, as I would describe them, you get a
25:44
Speaker 24: lot of confusion within the eighteen congressional district, I would
25:47
Speaker 24: surmise to say, amongst the voters and the residents of
25:51
Speaker 24: this district. And then within a fifteen month period you
25:56
Speaker 24: see the passing of two Kung reessonal members in terms
26:02
Speaker 24: of those who occupied the acient congressional.
26:04
Speaker 2: District, namely Silo Jackson Lee and.
26:06
Speaker 24: Te Best Attorneys and March, that seat became vacant and
26:13
Speaker 24: the governor chose to schedule a special election on November the.
26:20
Speaker 2: Fourth of this year.
26:23
Speaker 24: And so that's how we got to this point, and
26:25
Speaker 24: we see a wide field of candidates who wanted to
26:32
Speaker 24: fill in the gap for being the congressperson for the
26:37
Speaker 24: ancient congressional district specifically, there were sixteen people.
26:41
Speaker 2: Who signed up.
26:42
Speaker 24: There were more than that that some of them chose
26:45
Speaker 24: not to run, So we had sixteen candidates on the
26:49
Speaker 24: ballots on Tuesday of this week, and out of those
26:53
Speaker 24: two candidates, we knew that with such a wide field,
26:57
Speaker 24: it was it.
26:58
Speaker 2: Guaranteed run off.
27:01
Speaker 24: And the polling I think was very clear, and kudos
27:06
Speaker 24: to my friends over at the Hobby School, I think
27:08
Speaker 24: they were spot on and within the margin of era,
27:11
Speaker 24: they predicted that.
27:14
Speaker 2: Christian Minifie, who is.
27:16
Speaker 24: The current attorney County Attorney, and Amanda Edwards were the
27:21
Speaker 24: were the front runners. And that's what we saw on
27:26
Speaker 24: election night when the results were finally tabulated. All right,
27:31
Speaker 24: And I don't know I hadn't checked the county site
27:32
Speaker 24: this morning whether they are official, but it looks as
27:36
Speaker 24: though Kristin Minafee gonnered twenty nine percent of the vote,
27:40
Speaker 24: Amanda Edward twenty five six percent.
27:44
Speaker 2: Of the vote, and.
27:47
Speaker 24: Jel Unda Jones, who is currently serving in the Texas
27:50
Speaker 24: State Legislature. She came in and captured nineteen percentage points
27:57
Speaker 24: of the vote.
27:57
Speaker 2: So that's that's what we are now.
28:00
Speaker 24: If you want to pivot and talk about what the
28:02
Speaker 24: issues were in this campaign, it seems as though the candidates,
28:07
Speaker 24: all of them if you look at their ass and
28:11
Speaker 24: those that had television ads, namely Christian Menafie and Amanda
28:15
Speaker 24: atwarth because they raised more than one point five million dollars,
28:21
Speaker 24: and I think Jelunda Jones did fairly well with a
28:24
Speaker 24: budget and campaign finance report revealing that she had about
28:29
Speaker 24: three hundred thousand dollars. All right, So they all talked
28:32
Speaker 24: about fighting or using Donald.
28:35
Speaker 2: Trump as a fall so to speak.
28:38
Speaker 24: Because the Hibby survey, I'll go back to that, when
28:42
Speaker 24: they talked about the issues that were important to the
28:45
Speaker 24: residents of the district, to me, it was kind of
28:49
Speaker 24: striking that civil liberties and civil rights was at the
28:51
Speaker 24: top of the list, not affordability, not kitchen table issues
28:56
Speaker 24: such as jobs and access to capital and these kinds
29:01
Speaker 24: of things, civil rights and civiliveries.
29:04
Speaker 2: And what that allowed me to conclude.
29:07
Speaker 24: Was that the residents of the Aty Congressional District clearly
29:13
Speaker 24: believe that the current presidential administration, namely Donald Trump, is
29:18
Speaker 24: an existential threat to their well.
29:21
Speaker 2: Being in their future and our Paul to see if
29:24
Speaker 2: you have a follow up.
29:25
Speaker 23: Yeah, it seemed like the money people with Menifee and Edwards,
29:33
Speaker 23: they were able to get the downtown money which as
29:36
Speaker 23: Julanda wasn't wasn't able to and Jilanda was speaking to
29:39
Speaker 23: issues dealing with the community more than Menifee and and Edwards.
29:46
Speaker 23: Am I looking at that right, Well.
29:48
Speaker 24: You can, and I think you would have to just
29:50
Speaker 24: aggregate that and break that down. I would say that
29:53
Speaker 24: because Jelanda Jones and some local media sources have suggested
29:58
Speaker 24: that even in the last elect and there was a
30:00
Speaker 24: campaign in terms of criminal justice reform in terms of
30:03
Speaker 24: the judges, that she had taken money from that and
30:06
Speaker 24: been a member of the Texas State Legislature. I wouldn't
30:09
Speaker 24: necessarily say that all of her funds came from small
30:15
Speaker 24: donations and these kinds of things. Just like we saw
30:18
Speaker 24: one candidate Isaiah Martin, and I did some digging on
30:24
Speaker 24: that as well, and it seemed as though that was
30:26
Speaker 24: kind of misleading because it said that he had a
30:28
Speaker 24: million dollars. However, if you look at what was happening
30:35
Speaker 24: there with his fundraising, is like he was buying funds.
30:38
Speaker 2: It's where you can use a company where you pay
30:41
Speaker 2: a certain amount of money and then they will do
30:44
Speaker 2: digital blasts for you and then the money will come in.
30:48
Speaker 24: And so I think that was somewhat I don't want
30:50
Speaker 24: to say disingenuous, but it's notwithstanding. So so no, I
30:54
Speaker 24: wouldn't clearly say that hers was community based and what
30:58
Speaker 24: have you. Now, I think Jelunda Jones is going to
31:02
Speaker 24: talk about it. She's she's she's benefited her, She's been
31:04
Speaker 24: out there and in many quarters, she could be described
31:09
Speaker 24: as being a kind of polarizing figure. And I think, uh,
31:14
Speaker 24: it's my belief that Menifee uh certainly tied to the
31:19
Speaker 24: county and some of the things he was better positioned
31:22
Speaker 24: and the people who endorsed him. Now he won the endorsement, right,
31:27
Speaker 24: so I think all of that helped bring more money
31:30
Speaker 24: into him. Now he was endorsed by Jasmine Crockett. And
31:32
Speaker 24: whether you like Jasmine Crockett or not, but poling suggests
31:37
Speaker 24: that she's a very popular figure, uh, in particular in Texas,
31:41
Speaker 24: and I would surmise in the major urban areas and
31:45
Speaker 24: also amongst black people in particular.
31:49
Speaker 23: What do you what about these propositions that were As
31:54
Speaker 23: a matter of fact, actually before we talk about the props, UH,
31:57
Speaker 23: talk about the at large issues that were that were
32:01
Speaker 23: that were on on on the table.
32:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, they had large position for the Houston City Council.
32:07
Speaker 24: We know that Letitia Plumber Uh is leaving city council.
32:12
Speaker 24: She's opting to run for County judge and that seat
32:17
Speaker 24: is open. And what we saw was Alexandra Uh Halundion.
32:24
Speaker 24: I can't think of her negative excuse me now for that,
32:26
Speaker 24: but she is a lawyer with a major law firm.
32:31
Speaker 24: I think she came in first a percentage point ahead
32:34
Speaker 24: of Dwight Borkins, who is a long time political UH
32:38
Speaker 24: and someone who is well known in the community, the
32:41
Speaker 24: black community. And I also believe that Borkin's benefited from
32:48
Speaker 24: the fact of the special election because he lives in
32:53
Speaker 24: the ancient congressional district and some of the things that
32:56
Speaker 24: he touted in terms of food deserts and bringing in
32:59
Speaker 24: the atb that we see right there on the two
33:02
Speaker 24: eighty eight quarter in the McGregor area.
33:06
Speaker 2: The hetitled himself was that.
33:08
Speaker 24: And we know that Dwight has one run from mayor
33:10
Speaker 24: before and he's a well known figure in buy so
33:13
Speaker 24: I think that helps him in that particular rate. So
33:15
Speaker 24: that's going into a runoff, and so it's going to
33:18
Speaker 24: be interesting to see. First of all, in all of
33:21
Speaker 24: these when we talk about a ronoff, you have to
33:23
Speaker 24: talk about getting your supporters back to the polls on
33:28
Speaker 24: runoff day. Now, for the city council, it looks like
33:31
Speaker 24: that runoff will occur December thirteenth, and for the special
33:35
Speaker 24: election for the eighteenth Congressional district, that could be pushed
33:39
Speaker 24: back to January or even early February because there's a
33:43
Speaker 24: law that most people are not familiar with. It's called
33:45
Speaker 24: the MOVE Act, and it's a law enacted by Congress
33:49
Speaker 24: that stands for the Military Overseas Voter Empowerment Act and Act.
33:54
Speaker 24: That law mandates a forty five day canvass in period.
33:59
Speaker 24: And what I mean canason period is counting the votes
34:02
Speaker 24: and certifying the ballot. And so that's up to the
34:05
Speaker 24: governor to schedule that election. The runoff for the city
34:09
Speaker 24: council position.
34:10
Speaker 2: The mayor will will.
34:12
Speaker 24: Schedule that and I'm suggesting that he will call that
34:16
Speaker 24: on December the thirteenth.
34:18
Speaker 2: So that's what we are. So he's not the mayor.
34:21
Speaker 23: I can understand the mayor getting it out of the
34:23
Speaker 23: way that the governor I don't know where, but no.
34:27
Speaker 2: Wh Yeah, and that's going to lead to a lot
34:30
Speaker 2: of confusion.
34:31
Speaker 24: If the maps, the mid decade redistricting maps are upheild
34:35
Speaker 24: to be constitutional out in El Paso by the federal court,
34:39
Speaker 24: and we know that we will get an immediate appeal
34:41
Speaker 24: from from either side, the win inside or the losing side.
34:45
Speaker 24: In terms of the losing side in particular, will will
34:49
Speaker 24: appeal directly to the US Supreme Court. And that's they
34:52
Speaker 24: don't have to go through the Thirteenth Circuit Court of
34:55
Speaker 24: Appeal in the orders because of this is the voting
34:59
Speaker 24: rights case can go directly to the US Supreme Court.
35:03
Speaker 23: Well, yeah, and we we had one of the lowest
35:06
Speaker 23: turnouts for for voting in years this it seemed like
35:11
Speaker 23: he was getting lower and lower, but.
35:14
Speaker 24: Not necessarily in terms of an off cycle kind of
35:18
Speaker 24: election or this is a special election, so you're gonna
35:21
Speaker 24: get lower, lower voter voter turnout. All right, Now, do
35:24
Speaker 24: we have a problem with turnout?
35:25
Speaker 2: Yes? How do we energize voters? What do we do? One,
35:28
Speaker 2: you can stay at.
35:29
Speaker 24: The top of the list better politicians, better candidates, right,
35:32
Speaker 24: but there are a lot of things driving turnout.
35:34
Speaker 23: Wait wait, hold on, man, old man. Not better candidates,
35:39
Speaker 23: more exciting candidates, because you you can you can be
35:42
Speaker 23: you can be a better candidate. But if you if
35:45
Speaker 23: you're not exciting the electors, uh, they're not gonna come out.
35:48
Speaker 23: You know you can be, you know, the smartest dude
35:53
Speaker 23: in the house and running for office. But if you
35:55
Speaker 23: can't get the people excited to come and vote for you,
35:58
Speaker 23: then you're not You're gonna wheels.
36:01
Speaker 24: Yeah, but betic Canadas and you allow me. Now you
36:03
Speaker 24: sound like Barbara wal Walters. He used to ask the
36:07
Speaker 24: question and answer it to right now, what I mean
36:08
Speaker 24: about Bedi Cannis in terms of the messaging what we
36:11
Speaker 24: saw in New York for example, Uh, the biggest issue
36:14
Speaker 24: that we've had and I have a project Pacific engagement
36:17
Speaker 24: project Uh that is design is designed excuse me, to
36:22
Speaker 24: increase a voter turnout. And the biggest challenges that we
36:26
Speaker 24: have as young people or gen Z people in terms
36:29
Speaker 24: of what do we motivate how do we get them
36:31
Speaker 24: there better messaging? As if we look at New York
36:35
Speaker 24: in terms of a progressive campaign, how do you resonate.
36:38
Speaker 24: How do you hone in on issues Bernie Sanders when
36:41
Speaker 24: he ran for president in terms of uh, free free
36:45
Speaker 24: college and these kinds of things, how do you motivate when.
36:47
Speaker 2: You talk about that?
36:49
Speaker 24: And if you look at even the eight and congressional
36:52
Speaker 24: district election, I was kind of surprised, and I made
36:54
Speaker 24: this comment, why do these people just keep talking about
36:56
Speaker 24: fighting Donald Trump?
36:57
Speaker 2: And what else is on the table?
36:59
Speaker 24: Driving around the district and I know the district, well,
37:01
Speaker 24: I live in the district. You go down in the
37:03
Speaker 24: bottom and going back. And I told some chap when
37:07
Speaker 24: Barack Obama was elected, I said, well, look we're gonna
37:09
Speaker 24: come back. You can take two thousand and eight. You
37:11
Speaker 24: come back at the end of two terms. If he's successful,
37:17
Speaker 24: the bottom is going to look the same basically, and
37:20
Speaker 24: it has been looking the same, safe for gentrification. And
37:24
Speaker 24: so if you don't talk about these kinds of issues
37:27
Speaker 24: where you're impacting human life and the people who live
37:31
Speaker 24: there and there's a lot of suffering, you can say
37:34
Speaker 24: that there's a social element there. If you don't talk
37:37
Speaker 24: about social equity, then you don't have the messaging. And
37:41
Speaker 24: I think the Democratic Party has been in search of that.
37:44
Speaker 2: And this is why we saw in New York and where.
37:47
Speaker 24: They didn't say it was about the economy, stupid, but men,
37:50
Speaker 24: Johnny was able to javanize people around the affordability issue.
37:56
Speaker 24: And anybody who knows New York, you knows New York
37:59
Speaker 24: is not a cheap.
38:01
Speaker 2: Place to live in.
38:02
Speaker 24: And he can talk about wind control, you can talk
38:05
Speaker 24: about free transportation.
38:07
Speaker 2: If you have a job, how.
38:08
Speaker 24: Do you get to work, and these kinds of things,
38:10
Speaker 24: because and we know that there's a problem that.
38:13
Speaker 2: Most of the people, I want to say most of
38:14
Speaker 2: the people larg.
38:15
Speaker 24: Percentage of the folks that only even pay the transfer,
38:18
Speaker 24: they jump jump.
38:19
Speaker 2: The real interest points and what have you.
38:22
Speaker 24: So having seen all of that, he was able to
38:25
Speaker 24: tap into something.
38:27
Speaker 2: And whether or not this was a bill, whether of
38:30
Speaker 2: what can.
38:30
Speaker 24: Happen in the mid term elections coming up for the
38:33
Speaker 24: Democrats and how they will position themselves and what have you,
38:39
Speaker 24: I don't know, but clearly it was something. I think
38:42
Speaker 24: it was a glaring indictment on the Trump administration and
38:47
Speaker 24: what we've seen in terms of what the shutdown of
38:50
Speaker 24: the American government. I think it was the confluence of
38:54
Speaker 24: these kinds of things. And so you're going to have
38:56
Speaker 24: to talk about that if you're going to try to
38:58
Speaker 24: increase or grow grow voter turnout.
39:02
Speaker 1: That was doctor Michael Adams, founding director of the Executive
39:06
Speaker 1: Master of Public Administration Program Barbara Jordan Public Policy and
39:10
Speaker 1: Research Center at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. Food
39:15
Speaker 1: service workers at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston,
39:18
Speaker 1: Texas ratified a new contract with Levy Premium Food Service,
39:23
Speaker 1: making them the second group to reach a settlement in
39:26
Speaker 1: the Unite Here Local twenty three's citywide campaign to raise
39:30
Speaker 1: the standard for hospitality. Francesca Caraballo, Texas Chapter President of
39:36
Speaker 1: Unite Here Local twenty three, spoke on the new contract.
39:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, so yesterday workers at the Georgia Brown ratified their
39:48
Speaker 4: contract again, another historic contract for hospitality workers downtown. You know,
39:56
Speaker 4: workers are some workers are going from making sixteen dollars
40:01
Speaker 4: to twenty this coming January and with significant races each
40:06
Speaker 4: year after so each year of the contract. So it's
40:11
Speaker 4: very exciting. The workers feel very proud.
40:14
Speaker 23: And I have to ask this question, with the shutdown
40:17
Speaker 23: going on and a lot of people jobs are being affected,
40:23
Speaker 23: how powerful is it for you guys?
40:26
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, it's a. It's a very you know,
40:29
Speaker 4: dark time in a lot of ways in the country.
40:32
Speaker 4: I mean definitely, you know, it's it's just super unfortunate.
40:37
Speaker 4: You know that our government's had a good luck, and
40:40
Speaker 4: you know the people that are most affected are working
40:43
Speaker 4: class people. So you know, being part of something like this,
40:48
Speaker 4: you know, even the strike that wrapped up earlier this month,
40:51
Speaker 4: and then you know, having this victory almost back to back,
40:55
Speaker 4: it's a definite bright spot and it's definitely you know,
41:00
Speaker 4: given a lot of hope to our members and I
41:04
Speaker 4: think just workers across the city that you know, there's
41:07
Speaker 4: still you know, even though there's there's a lot of
41:11
Speaker 4: barriers sometimes in the way, especially in Texas, like workers,
41:15
Speaker 4: this is like a a prime example of like what
41:19
Speaker 4: can happen when workers do come together, when they organize
41:23
Speaker 4: and they fight that they can't win.
41:26
Speaker 23: I'm already saying the House of Blues is workers are
41:30
Speaker 23: organizing there now, like something like your fighters being uh
41:36
Speaker 23: spread across the city.
41:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just heard about that today actually, So that's
41:42
Speaker 4: that's super exciting. I hope that we hear more stories
41:47
Speaker 4: like that. You know, the Houston is definitely like a
41:51
Speaker 4: growing electuristicity and it's it's booming, and workers in hospitality
41:57
Speaker 4: and entertainment are are struggling to get by in the
42:01
Speaker 4: city because everything's going up and the wages are not.
42:03
Speaker 4: So I know a lot of people are happy to
42:06
Speaker 4: hear that the union movement, the labor movement is spreading.
42:12
Speaker 23: This contract is for how long?
42:14
Speaker 4: Oh, expirations in twenty twenty eight, okay, and they were
42:21
Speaker 4: out of they were out of the contract for how long? Well,
42:25
Speaker 4: their contract expired in a proper first.
42:29
Speaker 23: Was it hard trying to negotiate or was this something
42:33
Speaker 23: that they just wanted to stay because the World Cup
42:36
Speaker 23: and all these events is coming here they wanted just
42:38
Speaker 23: to get it out of the way.
42:42
Speaker 4: Well, I definitely feel like the pressure right of the
42:47
Speaker 4: Hilton strike, you know, just last month definitely had a
42:52
Speaker 4: lot to do with them. Then the workers also at
42:54
Speaker 4: the at Levy, the Convention Center, they took similar steps.
42:59
Speaker 4: They authorized the right vote if necessary. You know, obviously
43:03
Speaker 4: that definitely put some pressure on the employer to move fast,
43:08
Speaker 4: and you know, they put uh, they put together, They've
43:12
Speaker 4: met a lot of the demands that the workers put
43:14
Speaker 4: on the table, so you know, in the end, it
43:17
Speaker 4: wasn't necessary to walk out because you know, they felt
43:20
Speaker 4: the press, they felt sufficient enough, you know, pressure to
43:25
Speaker 4: come to the table with a real offer and that
43:28
Speaker 4: workers feel you know, uh proud about.
43:33
Speaker 23: And just luckily in Houston you have a city, you
43:36
Speaker 23: have a city official that a city and other union
43:39
Speaker 23: organizers that that have your back, have the support.
43:44
Speaker 4: Yes, no, yeah, definitely. I mean we had a lot
43:47
Speaker 4: of political support and community support out on the picket line,
43:50
Speaker 4: and you know they were all asking like, oh, like
43:53
Speaker 4: is the you know, is the conventions?
43:54
Speaker 2: Internet?
43:55
Speaker 4: Keep us updated? We want to support in any way
43:57
Speaker 4: we can. So Yeah, that was definitely great to see
44:00
Speaker 4: the community come together.
44:02
Speaker 1: That was Francesca Carballo, Texas Chapter president of Unite Here
44:07
Speaker 1: Local twenty three. Under the addled and convicted felon Trump's cruel, incompetent,
44:15
Speaker 1: and criminal administration, one thing has become very clear. If
44:22
Speaker 1: you are brown, you are under threat. In recent weeks,
44:26
Speaker 1: there have been countless raids in Latin neighborhoods. Houston's Chicano
44:30
Speaker 1: Boulevard held a peaceful rally on Thursday in Houston's historic
44:35
Speaker 1: Segundo Barrio. The second Ward rooted in love, strength and
44:39
Speaker 1: resilience to uplift and unify the Houston Latino community and
44:44
Speaker 1: is to highlight Houston's Chicano culture, which grew out of
44:48
Speaker 1: the historic Mexican American community in the heart of the
44:51
Speaker 1: Houston area. We talked to Isaac Rodriguez with Chicano Boulevard.
44:58
Speaker 25: So my name is Isaac rodriguezem part of an organization
45:01
Speaker 25: called Chicono Boulevard and we're just out here tonight to
45:05
Speaker 25: show our Brown brothers and sisters that are being targeted,
45:08
Speaker 25: that are being hunted down, these families that are being
45:12
Speaker 25: torn apart, that we are here for them. We're standing
45:14
Speaker 25: in solidarity with them tonight. This is just a small showcase,
45:18
Speaker 25: a rally, but it's right here in the historic Second
45:20
Speaker 25: Ward and we just want everybody to know that we
45:24
Speaker 25: are here for one another. We're here to protect one another,
45:27
Speaker 25: and we are here to stand up for one another,
45:29
Speaker 25: Black brown.
45:30
Speaker 8: It's all the same.
45:31
Speaker 25: We're all standing unity and solidarity. We need to stop
45:35
Speaker 25: letting these people use us as a scapegoat every time
45:39
Speaker 25: something happens, and it's gotten to the point to where
45:43
Speaker 25: US citizens aren't even safe because the government allowed ICE
45:49
Speaker 25: to racially profile anyone that they see fit, anyone that
45:53
Speaker 25: fits the profile. So me, as a fourth generation Houstonian,
45:57
Speaker 25: I don't even feel safe. I don't feel safe for
45:59
Speaker 25: my kids that are fifth generation Eastonians. So we're out
46:02
Speaker 25: here today just to draw some awareness and raise some
46:05
Speaker 25: noise tonight.
46:06
Speaker 7: I mean in you know, you in the second Ward.
46:09
Speaker 2: I look at it.
46:10
Speaker 7: I look around me, and I remember the neighborhood where
46:13
Speaker 7: it was. It was mostly brown people here, right, it's changed.
46:16
Speaker 7: You got high rises and right that type of stuff
46:19
Speaker 7: here is it the same?
46:21
Speaker 25: So definitely this neighborhood second Ward is historically brown neighborhood,
46:24
Speaker 25: and within the last fifteen to ten years it's been changing.
46:28
Speaker 25: Of course, it's right next to downtown, a block away
46:31
Speaker 25: from downtown, so this has become a place where gentrifires
46:35
Speaker 25: have wanted to move into and they buy out these
46:38
Speaker 25: houses and they build all these crappic town homes. But
46:41
Speaker 25: you know what, a lot of the people in this
46:43
Speaker 25: community have caught wind of that. They're not selling their home.
46:46
Speaker 25: They're staying strong. Second Ward is the it's the central
46:50
Speaker 25: area for Chicano, for Mexican American, for Mexican culture. So
46:56
Speaker 25: we're trying to hold it down over here. We got
46:58
Speaker 25: artists here that you know, they haint murals around the neighborhood.
47:01
Speaker 8: Just to keep the culture here.
47:03
Speaker 23: Now, you might want to.
47:04
Speaker 7: Explain to people that don't know the Chicano versus Latino
47:08
Speaker 7: versus so.
47:09
Speaker 25: Chicano is a is basically a Mexican American that identifies
47:13
Speaker 25: with their native roots. Right, we have native native blood.
47:17
Speaker 25: We don't really identify as Hispanic. Hispanic is a Spanish
47:20
Speaker 25: term from Spain. It was it was given to us
47:23
Speaker 25: by the government. Chicano is something that we created and
47:27
Speaker 25: that's how we identify.
47:28
Speaker 23: Uh.
47:29
Speaker 25: Chicano's know that all brown people from no matter what
47:32
Speaker 25: side of the border you come from, we have the same.
47:34
Speaker 8: Blood running through our veins.
47:36
Speaker 25: So we're here to stand up for those that can't
47:38
Speaker 25: speak up for themselves.
47:40
Speaker 7: People like to point out because what happened now in Chicago,
47:43
Speaker 7: but we had an incident here where the kid, a
47:46
Speaker 7: young kid picked up by Houston police and kept and
47:51
Speaker 7: then called Ice.
47:52
Speaker 25: Right right, not only that there's there's they're they're attacking,
47:56
Speaker 25: they're harassing us citizens. We had an into in Pasadena
48:01
Speaker 25: where a teenager was choked out by Ice because there
48:04
Speaker 25: after his father. Now, any person who is living going
48:09
Speaker 25: on about their day and massed, armed, masked men come
48:12
Speaker 25: up and try to snack them up. Of course they're
48:14
Speaker 25: going to react, right, So these are US citizens that
48:17
Speaker 25: these ICE agents are brutalizing, and again this is not right.
48:21
Speaker 25: It's time for all allso to stand up for ourselves,
48:23
Speaker 25: you know what I mean. We have to be the
48:25
Speaker 25: ones to organize. We don't have to wait for others
48:27
Speaker 25: to tell us when it's time to organize, when it's
48:30
Speaker 25: time to be. Enough is enough, The time is now.
48:34
Speaker 25: So we're we invited the community out here tonight and
48:37
Speaker 25: we love to see you out here. Rad you're always
48:39
Speaker 25: on the front lines as well.
48:40
Speaker 13: Man.
48:40
Speaker 7: And also, you know, people understand racial profiling because racial
48:45
Speaker 7: profiling means that you're not just targeted because you're doing
48:48
Speaker 7: something wrong. You're targeted because of.
48:50
Speaker 2: The color of your skin.
48:51
Speaker 25: Right, So basically, right now, there's something going on in
48:53
Speaker 25: this country where you can be guilty of being brown.
48:56
Speaker 25: Just the color of your skin is enough to give
48:58
Speaker 25: them problem, enough to give them cause to detain you,
49:02
Speaker 25: to harass you, to ask you for citizenship. Again, they
49:06
Speaker 25: even even the veterans are being harassed because of the
49:09
Speaker 25: color of their skin. So you know, it's just enough, man,
49:12
Speaker 25: It's enough. And we're tired, and and and we're here
49:15
Speaker 25: today just to to to speak our minds.
49:17
Speaker 7: Also the aspect of due process, and I'm hearing that
49:23
Speaker 7: ICE ice S officials are not even following due process,
49:26
Speaker 7: you know, arresting people on probable cause. They just arresting
49:29
Speaker 7: people just just because of suspicion, right, not even because
49:32
Speaker 7: of suspicion, because you know, just because the skin. So
49:35
Speaker 7: they're not even giving him a chance to call a lawyer.
49:39
Speaker 25: So there's people out there. I spoke to someone. They
49:42
Speaker 25: were in they were in the detention center. There's a
49:45
Speaker 25: guy here who said he was in the detention center
49:47
Speaker 25: for six months until he could show his papers and
49:50
Speaker 25: prove that that he was, that he's a was given
49:53
Speaker 25: a residency here. So so it's just crazy, man. You know,
49:57
Speaker 25: the the government has always never accepted us as Rosa,
50:01
Speaker 25: as brown people in this country, black and brown, we
50:04
Speaker 25: have the same struggle. You know, same person has oppressed
50:06
Speaker 25: us throughout throughout the centuries. So you know, again we're
50:10
Speaker 25: just here man, to to show show support for one another.
50:14
Speaker 23: You know what I mean.
50:15
Speaker 1: A local artist that has been putting up paintings across
50:18
Speaker 1: the city feels the importance of what he is painting.
50:22
Speaker 5: Now they know me as mean here and I do
50:25
Speaker 5: a lot of murals here in the city of Houston.
50:28
Speaker 7: And doing as most of the neighborhoods.
50:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've done a worldwide, but I'm from here, from Houston,
50:34
Speaker 5: so I've done a lot here, especially in this area,
50:37
Speaker 5: which is second work.
50:38
Speaker 7: What kind of what kind of murals are you?
50:40
Speaker 2: Are you painting? Now? You know?
50:42
Speaker 5: You know, it all varies, man, but it all, it
50:46
Speaker 5: all goes back to, you know, from where I was born,
50:49
Speaker 5: which is I was born in Mexico, So it all
50:53
Speaker 5: I'll get on inspiration from that from from my homeland.
50:57
Speaker 7: He talks about Chicano culture in Chicago and Chicao. You
51:00
Speaker 7: know how much is that fish?
51:03
Speaker 5: Well, a lot, you know, I mean we grew up
51:04
Speaker 5: on it, you know, we grew up on the cars,
51:06
Speaker 5: the music, I mean, from kids to adults now you know,
51:10
Speaker 5: so I mean now we're here, you know, it's a uh,
51:13
Speaker 5: you know, it was a big influence on my childhood.
51:15
Speaker 7: So is this a scary time now?
51:20
Speaker 2: What's going on?
51:21
Speaker 8: Yeah?
51:22
Speaker 5: Yes, it's it's just it's very it's a very.
51:26
Speaker 16: Weird topic or like the way.
51:28
Speaker 5: I mean, even people that are citizens are feeling weird
51:31
Speaker 5: about even going around because even people that are American
51:35
Speaker 5: citizens are getting arrested. So it's just the other day
51:39
Speaker 5: I was for the first time ever, man. I mean
51:41
Speaker 5: I came here when I was three and I went
51:44
Speaker 5: to go have records from my parents, and I've never
51:47
Speaker 5: heard my mom being scared about.
51:49
Speaker 8: Any of this stuff.
51:50
Speaker 5: And this is the first time I ever heard her
51:52
Speaker 5: say that she was scared of.
51:53
Speaker 8: Even go out.
51:54
Speaker 5: And she's a citizen, you know, so that's whenever. I
51:59
Speaker 5: don't know, man, you know, I was trying to stay
52:01
Speaker 5: away from the whole thing. But now it's like I
52:03
Speaker 5: gotta come back and do some more uh, some more
52:07
Speaker 5: murals on this topic.
52:08
Speaker 2: You know.
52:09
Speaker 7: The people are the people find either we're more aware
52:11
Speaker 7: now even people are built into the safety.
52:14
Speaker 5: Yeah, most definitely. I mean whether it's a big prod
52:17
Speaker 5: or not, as long as we have a crowd that
52:19
Speaker 5: comes out, uh, that's all that matters. You know, within smaller,
52:23
Speaker 5: big numbers, the only thing that matters is that someone
52:26
Speaker 5: comes and does it, you know, That's what That's what matters.
52:28
Speaker 3: The moment.
52:29
Speaker 1: More events are planned by this group as they spread
52:32
Speaker 1: awareness of Chicano culture. The kt Pride Celebration was derailed
52:38
Speaker 1: for a moment last week as the event was to
52:40
Speaker 1: be held at Typhoon Texas Water Park in Katie, but
52:43
Speaker 1: the venue canceled the event. The barter Park gave no
52:47
Speaker 1: reason for the cancelation. Despite the setback, Commissioner Leslie Brionez
52:52
Speaker 1: joined the community for the third annual Katie Pride Celebration.
52:56
Speaker 1: Commissioner Brionis partnered with community organizers to secure their Creek
53:00
Speaker 1: Rodeo arena after the original Katie Pride venue was canceled.
53:05
Speaker 1: This free celebration featured live performances, family friendly activities, and
53:09
Speaker 1: over sixty five vendors, drawing a large gathering of LGBTQIA
53:14
Speaker 1: plus residents and their allies in West Harris County.
53:18
Speaker 6: As someone who.
53:19
Speaker 26: Was you may hopefully knew, knew her name, knew of her,
53:23
Speaker 26: but I think after the events of unfolded in the
53:26
Speaker 26: last seventy two hours, who we as Katie Bride, hopefully
53:30
Speaker 26: members of the Katie believe is our true superhero is
53:33
Speaker 26: someone who is willing to stand up and stand proud
53:36
Speaker 26: and is not going to back down by bullies and
53:38
Speaker 26: is truly welcoming and inclusive and shows it not just.
53:41
Speaker 6: In words but in behaviors.
53:43
Speaker 26: Katie Bride today would not be possible without the support
53:46
Speaker 26: of Commissioner in Leslie Briona and her precinct poor staff.
53:51
Speaker 26: It is because of her and her staff and how
53:53
Speaker 26: she bes and the leadership in which she demonstrates and
53:57
Speaker 26: upholds her staff to also demonstrate the you're here today.
54:01
Speaker 6: They immediately went into action.
54:03
Speaker 2: What can we do?
54:04
Speaker 26: Said no to basically nothing, which is amazing that we
54:07
Speaker 26: are here and this is still happening.
54:09
Speaker 6: So those people who want to bully online and hate.
54:12
Speaker 26: And think that they can use their positions in their
54:14
Speaker 26: platforms to harm other people, it is the opposite.
54:17
Speaker 6: For Leslie Brena. She's the one that has stood up
54:20
Speaker 6: and has stand out.
54:21
Speaker 26: So please remember that always support everything to her, Support
54:24
Speaker 26: her because our voices will always be louder.
54:27
Speaker 6: So please our celebrity of the day and for.
54:30
Speaker 26: A really long time, Commissioner Leslie frionas.
54:42
Speaker 6: Okay, can we give it up for Amanda?
54:44
Speaker 4: Who?
54:46
Speaker 11: Can we give it up to everybody who organized Katie Pride.
54:53
Speaker 6: Hi, I'm not saying yon this.
54:55
Speaker 11: She heard a young and I'm proud to be a
54:57
Speaker 11: Harris County commissioner.
54:59
Speaker 6: They they try.
55:00
Speaker 11: To silence us, but hate will never win Harris County.
55:06
Speaker 6: We know that we're on.
55:07
Speaker 11: The right side of history and the right side of justice.
55:10
Speaker 11: They may try to cancel events, they may try to
55:14
Speaker 11: paint over our crosswalks, but we will never be silent
55:20
Speaker 11: because here everybody is welcome, everybody is respected. When we
55:25
Speaker 11: say y'all, we mean all in Harris County know that
55:30
Speaker 11: we welcome you here. Increasing four, I want to thank
55:33
Speaker 11: my team because when they try to cancel, we.
55:37
Speaker 6: Were happy to host.
55:39
Speaker 25: You have an open.
55:40
Speaker 11: Invitation, always, always and forever, because I believe deeply that
55:46
Speaker 11: we're all one.
55:48
Speaker 6: And it makes me so sad.
55:49
Speaker 11: I'm raising three little girls, and I love Texas, but
55:53
Speaker 11: this is not the Texas.
55:55
Speaker 6: Our kids deserve.
55:57
Speaker 11: When I think about Texas and everything's bigger in tech, frankly,
56:01
Speaker 11: I think they're just talking about high waves and trucks.
56:04
Speaker 11: But one day, when they say everything is bigger in Texas,
56:08
Speaker 11: our liberty will be bigger, our respect will be bigger,
56:12
Speaker 11: our rights will be bigger, and that change This is
56:17
Speaker 11: our Texas and that change will come from the freedom
56:22
Speaker 11: in this room, the equality in this room, and we
56:24
Speaker 11: need to fight together in unity because this is our
56:28
Speaker 11: home and they will never break our pride ever. So
56:33
Speaker 11: if you can join me, stand up Stand Proud. Let's
56:37
Speaker 11: say it together. Stand up Stand pro, Stand up stand Prone, Mother,
56:43
Speaker 11: Stand up stand Prown, Stand up stand prog One.
56:48
Speaker 6: More time, Stand up stand Proud. Let's go Harris County.
56:53
Speaker 11: Let us fight for the equality and herons and all
56:56
Speaker 11: of us have fun. Thank you, Katy Pride.
57:02
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