Latest / Coconut Justice / CJP #36: Vance Bostic (NY-8)

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CJP #36: Vance Bostic (NY-8) · Coconut Justice

• Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hey everybody. So you know how we're always talking about how the do-nothing Democrats in office are just kind of like holding a place for like the next Republican to come and take that chair or whatever that seat whatever they just continue to do the same dumb shit that the Republicans are doing? That's why we brought on Vance Bostic y'all he's coming after Hakeem Jeffries seat. What up Vance? What's up, what's up, how's it going doing? Well, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. You were telling us before we started recording you are You're kind of busy a little bit. There's a lot going on from putting up posters and right now We're just trying to make the ballot. That's like the biggest focus in the campaign is everything is focused on getting on the ballot right now Awesome. Yeah, we're gonna dig into that. But first come to the front of the class. Mr. C4 explosives Was cracking everybody. Thanks for having me on as always. I am humble. This was going to be fun. I've been looking forward to talking to Vance specifically because I I'm on Instagram or yeah, Instagram and stuff like that and I see you getting out there being feisty and stuff and I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan. If you're going to make change, you need to fill the you need to fill the chamber with feisty and that's you young young man. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think a big part of it is also that they're trying to challenge our First Amendment And free speech and I think that it's important to push back on that as aggressively as possible ⁓ in multiple ways For sure. Yeah, it seems like they're infringing on a lot of them not just freedom of speech But now ever since whatever happened over the weekend with ⁓ boy from Minnesota Now they're infringing on the second. I saw a list of all the things that this administration has been infringing on. And it's more than just two and three ⁓ rights that are in the Constitution. They're going through and they're jamming everything. I mean, you can go through the Declaration of Independence, actually, and just see what they have listed for what would be reason to declare independence. And it's just like almost everything this regime is doing that would give us the people reason to declare independence from this government for sure Isn't that crazy? We we fought so long and hard to get this And now because of greed and rate this racistness racial and capitalism It all fuels it together. Yeah Yeah, capitalism is definitely the engine. But all of this hoopla that our forefathers were talking about freedom and we don't need any tyrants and all this stuff and how easy it is for this population to just slip into the same. We've seen it before. We've seen it. Fidel Castro, we've seen it. Maduro, we've seen it. Hitler, we've seen it. I think a big part of the problem is that we're just as a society and money has spent so much time just spending a shit ton of money on conditioning us and programming us to be as docile as possible. mean, we're like, we're basically wage slaves meant to be exhausted as much as possible, raising a family and just also stupid. They've destroyed our infrastructure. They destroyed our education system specifically. we're equipped with the right tools to be able to fight back against anything like this. This is something they've been planning for decades. This is something that like it's it I don't know if it started with Ronald Reagan, but he definitely opened up the It ⁓ started right around there, but yeah Yeah, and then the Heritage Foundation is really just ran with it I I honestly think a lot of what we're seeing is just like the Confederacy reborn is something that I say often to people I'm like this The Confederacy held the grudge for all these decades And they pass it down through their family through their families generation after generation. And this is what we're seeing right now is they have that grudge and now they're unleashing it. ⁓ Yeah, it's it's it's bananas and this is the only kind I don't know. I can't remember in history when there was two groups of people on the same chunk of land. And I have to be careful because this is kind of happening over in Israel. and Palestine, but I don't remember ever there being a war where the country is fighting against the country and then the winning country lets the losing country keep their representation. Yeah, think not dealing with the Confederacy the first time around was how we got into this problem that we're in right now. 100 % we should have dealt with that before and you know, I will say we will deal with it now ⁓ When when the Democrats take back power when not even just Democrats but when progressives people with vision for change Take back our government. We will deal with them There will be retribution for what they have done to this nation hundred percent. I don't doubt that ever Yeah, I For me, isn't it funny how when it comes to if you're not the powerful people and right now the powerful people are white dudes. Isn't it funny how the rules don't really apply to them, but they really apply to us. Yeah. Right. So then if I were to fly the Cuban flag all by itself, some of these flag goofballs, some of these America, whatever America first knuckleheads and MAGA and all these idiots. Well, MAGA is not going to fly the American flag. They're going to fly the Trump flag. So there's that. But they're going to be upset. We're the Confederate flag. But when you you can fly your home flag, but it has to be the American flag on top. It's either only the American flag. Or it's your dumbass flag with the American flag on top. Tell me why I'm driving around on the highways of Florida. And that was one of this, it was a Confederate flag. One of the biggest flags I have ever seen in my life. And I have been around the world. I was in the military. So, you know, I saw some big ass American flags. I folded flags. That was part of my responsibilities. Never seen a flag this big. And it was a Confederate flag. No American flag flying over top. pretty much your if you cross the street from where they were at, you're going into a Hispanic neighborhood. So like you have you have these visuals and then you got your let's go Brandon on the back little bumper sticker or whatever. Like it's here and it's like they're so they're so like open about it. And it's it's ridiculous. Like it's just like a time machine. Yeah. And all you want to say is, hey, if you're not going to be an American, get the fuck out. Get out. go back to England, go back to Scotland, go back to whatever hateful place your people are from. We got shit to do here. They wouldn't let them back there though either. They wouldn't let any of them back there. I don't know what's so hard about people understanding the fact that America is a reflection of earth. America, especially New York City, I'm in New York. So New York City specifically. Is a reflection of the entire planet every bit of earth is what is america? ⁓ mean not all areas of america But for the most part people from all around the planet come here and that's just what it is I mean we have the Statue of Liberty. We have ellis island These are things that were specific for immigration. That's what ⁓ the soil is it's for the people of earth so even when we talk about like American like nationalism or even like being America first because I'm very odd more on the side of like humanity first then I am so like America first and for me America first feel very racist as well So I don't really care for it. But like I like talking about humanity first I think we're at a point in time in human history where we have to start thinking about the species as a planet as the human race Yeah, as a team. ⁓ that's definitely like where I'm at My entire thing is definitely about putting the people first definitely about putting humanity first and to see people like talk about American culture Which is feels to me American culture is the culture of earth. It's all culture. Yeah American culture. Yeah, so it's really it's really sad to see that people are still in this old world way of thinking of Just American exceptionalism, you know, so that's no so you you are You're from New York. You're running for the eighth district of New York. That's right. Again, I already need a Hakeem Jeffries because fuck. I was going to say what made you do that, but I think you just answered my question. Yeah, no, but I mean, there's more to it. There's a lot of things that made me want to run. ⁓ You know, other than like, again, my background is in hospitality. I've worked in the food industry and service industry my entire life. I've been an artist. I've worked in nightclubs. I've done photography. I've done some music. And it's always been in service to the people. I believe ⁓ that our Congress is owned. And if we don't take back that ownership from the billionaires and return the power of all the seats back to the people, there will be no change in the system. If we're not rewriting the laws, to add more regulation to the corporations and to the billionaires and removing red tape for the people, not going to be any change in the system. So I think about what we need, I feel like we need real public servants and not another career politician or not another ⁓ representative with a law degree. ⁓ think we need- Or connections to money that- Or connections You know is going to corrupt their ⁓ vision. And then I look at Hakeem and I see somebody who is- whether he's been in the system for so long or whether it's his middle class upbringing in his background, either way, he's tapped out. He does not relate to the people. The people do not relate to him either. But he doesn't represent us. He isn't in tune with the modern world. It's a problem. And I think we need fresh people who are very much of the people, truly of the people of the here and now, to meet this moment that we are in. Because it's a very ⁓ important time. Again, it's a turning point in human history entirely. It's not just an American problem where we face a mutual threat. ⁓ There's 3,000 billionaires who want to dictate how 8 billion people get to live and it is a problem. ⁓ All these same people own governments around the world. ⁓ letting money buy it all. ⁓ think we need to take that back. So other than watching Hakeem be a failure, looking at his voting record, the way he votes our best interests because he's bought by the corporations or whether it's him bending the knee to Donald because he's complicit in fascism. It's just it's all a problem. at the top of it, I think we need to cut the head off the snake and go after the face of the Democratic establishment, which at this moment is Hakeem Jeffries. Yeah. And for him not to not to articles, impeachment for Kristi Noem, I was I was very I wasn't shocked anymore that he would. ⁓ It was upsetting. And I don't think he's had any. he say why he didn't? He just has it and and he hasn't had any steam really since Cory Booker stood and Actually, he was on the steps of Cory Booker and they were doing those like live live little town halls Other for show and other than that man. He really hasn't done anything. It's really been disappointing Yeah, and that's really all it is is it's for show even like the Cory Booker thing like it's all like when I look at the establishment now I just see performance it like there's no for me. There's no Justifying with there's no making up. There's no doing better What these people that are in office now like there's no way that you can be like, ⁓ but if they just do xyz things will get like I'm not i'm not trying to hear it I want them all gone every single sitting representative needs to be replaced by real people and there are people running all across this nation who are actually You know who have like-minded priorities for change who want to make sure that we do what's needed for the people? Because the billionaires have too much protection We have none and there are people that actually want to change that and everything else from the establishment right now Just feels like pretend it's it's political theater. They feel like political actors and I'm I'm not feeling it So there's nothing that they're gonna do that's gonna be like, all right, you know what? Let me give them another chance like no, no, no, no That's one of the things that I've been You know that I've that that I'm trying to describe to people is Republicans know that what they want to do is they want to have corporations telling you what to do instead of the government. want to break the government. It's absolutely clear that they want private companies, corporations to control you and to tell you what to do. The Democrats also do that, but they're playing hard to get. They're playing, you know, they're little, you know. I think the mask is for both parties. Yeah. And now with everyone, everyone with the phone and everyone is a snitch. Now all of a sudden you can't hide no more. ⁓ So now it's time to get to work and, and all the people that you're talking about in the democratic party, number one, Republicans, all of them are bums. The fact that the president has gone this far and done all this stuff and you guys haven't yet even tried. To stop him, Republicans, it's time to flush the toilet on that half of the argument. We're done. The Democrats, the ones that are playing these little flirty games, but then they're still cosigning to all the bullshit that the Republicans are doing, it's time to go, y'all. It's time to go. And for people that are watching this video, and let's say the do nothing Democrats and all this stuff, and people like Vance and people like all the other folks that we're talking to on this channel, that are going in here to say we gotta get money out of politics. We gotta be done. We gotta have term limits and all this stuff. When these people stand up, I see on social media where you're calling people like Vance dumb and you're not politically savvy and all this stuff. Vance, explain to those people. how government works and why you be a perfect piece of this rebranding of government? Yeah, I think, so here's my part of my thing for running is ⁓ why I'm also choosing to run is because I don't want somebody who is experienced in government to come in and say, is how government works, this is how it's done, this is how we've always done it. I want people to come in and say, this is how government needs to work, this is how we need to do things, this is what we need to change. Because what we're missing in our government is humanity. We're missing actual public service. We're missing people that care for the people. And you're right about the- People that would do this even if there's no money on the table. There are people that would do this. Exactly. you don't have to write them a check for a million dollars. Exactly. when you talk about the Republicans supporting the corporations, you're 100 % right about that. And part of the problem is they've kind of been conditioned into that to- by the billionaires and the corporations to protect them, to make sure that they make government look like the bad guy, and to make it look like private ownership is what is gonna help us or anything like that. And I just think it's the complete opposite. think that's manipulation. I think it's conditioning. ⁓ And I do think that if we had a government that worked for the people, that worked with the people, We can change things and do things in a different way. Like we don't, I'm very much a believer we don't have to live like this. This doesn't have to be the system that we build for ourselves or for the future of humanity. We can do something different where we put the people first, where we put people over power. And that's what I would like to bring to this, to government. That's what I would like to try to do with other people that are gonna be ⁓ running for office and be elected into these positions. It's about... Changing the system. It's not about going by what it was or how it's been because clearly it doesn't work. doesn't work. It's failed. So what we do next has to be something new. has to be something completely different. It has to be completely ripping down the walls and building something new that works for the people, not a system where the people are working for it, but a system that works for us. Right. And that's the difference between a corporation and the government. A corporation, your main thing is to make money. All right, cool. But we see the bottleneck because the people that have the money are the ones that are telling people what to make and not make. Right. Yeah. Whereas the government, all those rich people that you guys see making all these cool things, flipping rockets and you know, doing all that stuff. Chances are they got their money from the government. Yeah, no, they have, did. So ingenuity and all of these things that we're inventing, it comes more times than not. That shit comes from the government. The funding comes from the government. You don't see private companies doing that. You don't see Kmart coming out saying hey look Let's build these roads. Let's yeah, let's make cooler tennis shoes. They don't do that. Yeah Yeah And and I mean the problem the bigger problem with that is that capitalism has corrupted everything to the point that we're sacrificing quality now Quality everything quality and our appliances quality and our food quality and this is our standard of living all for profit and our education, everything, all quality of life has been stripped away for the for the bottom line. And it's a problem. Yeah. And again, it's the small few that are telling you how we're going to make money instead of a wider net. If we had a wider net and more people able to actually follow up on inventing that thing or creating the thing or whatever, whatever it may be. But Corporations are gonna say we need to make that but way cheaper. Yeah, and you're like, but this is a road Fucking bridge I don't want stickers. I don't want on this bridge. Yeah You know 100 % not everything has to be not everything has to be you know corporation field and You know, I keep trying to tell people that what we need to do as a society is shift our perspectives to where we don't look at success based on our wealth or the material items that we have or our profit that we generate, but the way we deal with our humanitarian efforts or the way we approach sustainability for the planet. ⁓ That's the way we need to start viewing success and shift our perspective towards that. Because without that, like we're just going to live in like a dystopian future. And I keep telling people like we've watched this movie. played this game, we've read this book. Like we know. We know what's gonna happen. What? look at England. Look at England. Yeah. Well, it was like, like, they're all out of control. Yeah. We're about to live in Terminator soon. Yeah. Yeah. And some of you folks that are in the country that I talked to you from time to time, I have to remind you, even though you think Homeless people are pooping in the streets in San Francisco. We got robots, y'all. We got robots doing things, whether it's making food or driving you to a place or picking up trash in the street. We got robots. It's coming for you. Yeah. I mean, I don't, I just don't think that humanity is ready for that yet. You know, and it bothers me because I'm a huge space nerd. Like I love space. I envision a future of Star Trek. And that's something that I've grown up on, and I love it. And I'm like, can't wait till humanity gets to that place. And then to watch Elon Musk talk about how we need to build Star Trek and how we need to get to Mars. I'm like, but we still have poverty. Part of Star Trek is that they got rid of poverty first. Because one of the first things they did was they like, so we can't do any of that while we're still trapped with poverty. We can't build rockets that take humanity to Mars. Well, there's people across the planet trying to siphon fresh water from mud. It's like it makes no sense to me. Yeah Sorry You can't build a better planet when you're already fucking this one up and then we're gonna be like, yeah, go ahead Let's give you the reins and just just do whatever you want. Yeah, and no even better even better They have technology that they want to send to Mars. That's going to basically start creating vegetation And like building foods, they have like these vertical farms and shit like that. Yeah. Meanwhile, got a whole bunch of hungry people. I don't think it's I don't think it's where we what we should be doing. I don't think that's what our focus is. I think let's let's focus on earth. Let's focus on poverty and equality. ⁓ Let's uplift the human race. Let's start working together as a human race. I'll say one other funny thing about this that I I don't know what it's going to take for humanity to start thinking as a singular species. But my hope has always been that if there was an alien invasion, I think that would be the thing that sparks humanity to be like, ⁓ shit, we are one people. So I don't know how true that may be, but I'm hopeful. I don't agree with you. I think when the aliens land and they say, take me to your leader, they're going to go to whomever, and that leader is going to be like, give me a million dollars. You can take just half of them. That's what's going I don't know if the alien cares about money. I don't know about that. I would hope not. I mean, if they're coming here. the ⁓ ⁓ I was a bellman at a hotel and that was the first and last impression. So those are the things that you want to do as a representative. People come in, you make them feel welcome. You try to make their experience here in your district as pleasant as possible. You deal with situations that you try to handle, but you you can't, but you got to try to have some empathy towards them. hopefully at the end of everything, then we can be building towards that better future that doesn't have to go beyond Mars. You know what I'm saying? could do that right here at home. that's that's one of the things that with the channel we've been trying to do, man, Carlos has been really good at getting these getting people like yourself and Karen Ortiz and a bunch of other grassroots candidates that really want to just do the right thing for people and and don't have to do it for money. Or they look at or they look at money in a different way because money is money is a shortcut for doing transactions and all that stuff. Right. It's helpful. But when you make it your main thing, that's where the problem exists. That's where we start running into issues with this is mine, not yours. No, no, no, no, no. And then it's just this, this race that, that doesn't do anything for anyone. Vance Vance, tell me about your upbringing. Tell me about little Vance. What, what kind of kid were you? Look at his face. wasn't the best little kid. I was pretty bad. I was a bad kid. was all over the place. was very like, you know, I think I had fun. Like, I had a good imagination. It led me into being an artist. I didn't have like the worst upbringing. I'm also the youngest. So I was babied a lot by both my siblings and my parents. You know, so like I got away with a lot. was I was bad, but I got away with a lot just for being the youngest. I was very creative always. I used to make like outfits for like my toys. I loved Legos as a kid. Like I was very big with putting together things and building like villages out of like Legos. I really enjoyed that in my youth. ⁓ And I used to write songs. used to I that was my first thing that I did is like I remember being like seven years old and I was playing like Sonic the Hedgehog. And in the original Sega game, there was a soundtrack in the settings where you can listen to the whole thing. And I would literally write songs to the Sonic the Hedgehog soundtrack. That was before I got a keyboard. I eventually got myself a keyboard and then started writing my own music on that. And then as I got older, I got actual software for the computer where I would make my own beats and produce my own stuff. In high school, I got into photography. and really fell in love with that. I traveled the East Coast of the United States with carnival. was a carny for a while. was an interesting time in my life, especially because I was so young. I was 15 when I started. I lied and said I was 18. I grew up in Coney Island, Brooklyn, and Coney Island is an amusement park here. And so I've always had connections to that field. So when I met somebody that was going out to Long Island and I went to work in Long Island, was like, yeah, I'm 18. I can do this. I was 15 at the time though, but I was like, yeah, I'm 18, I can do this. We went out to Long Island, I like sat on a fun house and just like let kids like play like a ball pit that was there or whatever. And then- you in your scholastic career when you decided to join the circus? Where was I? I was doing photography also at the same time. Also I did win the Scholastics Arts and Writing Award back in, I think it was 2009, no, 2004. For actually, I don't remember the year it was it have been 2004. Um, but I did for regionals and nationals for photography for a really good actually I have the picture here was in the Brooklyn Museum of Art for a while as well. Um, but no, I definitely did all that. I really like traveling. Um, that's when I got into food hospitality. My boss also owned a pretzel trailer where we would make like fresh handmade pretzels. Um, and then I was a waiter for a while at like a wedding, like banquet hall. I worked on multiple food trucks. But the little me just liked art. I really liked ⁓ creating music. I really liked photography. I liked making Legos stuff. I liked designing clothing. was a big fan of Buffy. I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Big fan of Scalar Moon. Love me some Scalar Moon. Sailor Venus is my favorite Sailor Scout, case anybody wants to know. ⁓ Orange is also my favorite color, subsequently. ⁓ partly because I like Venus, but also because orange is my favorite color. So yeah, no, really like that. And also part of growing up in New York City, I've always had this vision of being a starving artist. I was like, I'm going to work in the food industry, and I'm going to be an artist that night. And that's little for better or worse. It may not have been the best decision in my life, but I feel very successful in what I have done in that path. I have. I worked in the food industry and hospitality, and then I did art. did photography. I did music. I've done videography. ⁓ And that's just been what my life has been. And I think part of that is what sets me up for running for Congress. When I think about it and I look back, like, I don't have this hunger for money. I've never had this hunger for wealth. Or I don't come from money. I don't have money now. It's not something that I've ever strived to achieve in my life. Again, I wanted to be a starving artist. it's really just like you work to get by. it's about hospitality. It's about service. Art was about providing a distraction for people so they can escape from the horrors that we live in. And it's always been about service for me. Everything I've done has always been about how can I participate? How can I help? How can I live this human experience without gathering massive amounts of money, without that being a central focus point? Because that's something that I've never been attracted to. And that's a big part of why I'm running is because I know that that's not something that I seek. And it's not something that I want. That's what we need. need people who won't have a hunger for money. We need people who with a hunger for service. And that's really what my entire life has been. Yeah. Imagine. having someone running for office that says, I'm not money hungry. And how different that is compared to what we're used to. All these people are saying, ⁓ I raised all this money. Even with that, ⁓ my god, when I do questionnaires, and it bothers me so much that people judge a candidate's capabilities based on how much money we raise, that drives me crazy. When the first question out of somebody's mouth is, how much money did you raise? I'm backing out at that point. I'm like, you're not right for me, because that shouldn't even be a thought of yours. How about read my policies or read the things that I want to do? Or listen to what I'm saying about the change that we need to have in the world. Asking me how much money I've raised is something that's going to push me away from you entirely. So I've done questionnaires, and I've read other people's questionnaires that they've done for these same organizations where it's like they aim to raise like $5 million, $10 million, $20 million throughout the campaign. And when I did mine, I remember the first thing I wrote was, I plan on raising $300,000 for my campaign. it seems silly to say it's only a little bit of money and compared to what everybody else is saying. there's a way to run these campaigns where we're not seeking millions and millions and millions of dollars. feels so, especially as a candidate with no money and who's not raising much money, I am raising money. I'm not prioritizing it, but like we are raising money and it just, doesn't seem like it's completely necessary. ⁓ It seems like a little bit of a grift when they're raising millions and millions of dollars. As I'm looking at it from the inside as somebody who's running a campaign, I'm like, really, like it does take a lot of money, but it does not take an excess of like five, 10, 15 million dollars to do this. And to get that, and then like, I was like looking at Hakeem's like FEC and to see him like spending millions of dollars on like political consultants and lavish like campaign dinners. and flights all around. It's it's insane the amount of money that these people are spending on their lifestyles. A lot of it. And to say that it's just, it's bothersome. And to break that is definitely a part of why I'm running for sure. And to show that it can be done with not much money. Yeah. Yeah, and incumbents, we've learned, get the scales of balance, of political balance between the incumbent and the people that are coming up is so off. Like you're, you have to raise whatever and then Hakim, for example, he's going to raise however many millions. He's at 10 million already, by the way. ⁓ he might almost be at 10 million already and I'm at like almost 30,000. Like the scales are way off. It's not even an and all to me because I think I have. Well, to me, all Hakim is telling me is that he's owned by his friends who have a lot of money. And you don't give someone millions of dollars and not expect something in return. And these are the practices that got us here in the first place. And as I say to candidates all the time is there's a different way to do it. We don't have to run our campaigns and play by the same rules. Like, yes, we need to have money. I don't think that we need to prioritize money in the same way that the establishment does. We can build a different path forward without doing the same things that we're fighting against. Yeah. What would it look like if all the grassroots candidates came in and they raised bare minimum money and they all won? And then it just like sucked the government like this conception of what the government should be. And all these packs and donors would be like, that a bread and butter right there you know every during every election season like yeah it's it's go time a pack money I came at a 800 looking 867 thousand dollars in a pack impact money and it's like it's I want to see the change I want to see the money gone out of these because you can't represent the people when the people that are buying you you know are making the decisions that you're supposed to be making yeah it's Yeah, the people that control these people they they sit in Wall Street and in boardrooms in Tel Aviv They're not in the projects of Brooklyn or wherever across the nation and that's a problem. Yeah, 100 % Yeah, but I think so what it would like I think I think we can make it happen I what we're seeing it like we look at what's going on in New York when Zara on one and they threw millions of dollars at that country we look at what's going on with Wisconsin where was it the governor for Wisconsin or I can't remember but when Elon through like 22 million at that race and they still didn't win ⁓ We see that people can unite in a way where we don't have to let big money win And I think that if the people rally behind these progressive candidates who aren't taking this big corporate money, there is a way where we could be like, ⁓ look, it actually doesn't take millions and millions of dollars to do this. But what it will take is people power and people getting out there and yes, throwing a little bit of money at a candidate, but also getting out there and actually voting. Yeah. Yeah. And if this last election didn't scare you into voting, it's a perfect excuse to vote from here on out. Mm hmm. Is because from what I understand, there was a lot of people that sat on their hands this go around because they wanted to punish whatever party. 90 million didn't vote. Crazy 90 million people and actually voted for either party. Yeah, and then voter suppression you got all these other Man Is your district? I mean I came just the one that's running running like running right now, but is there any gerrymandering going on your in your district? Not that I know of I mean for the most part it's it's democratic where it's New York City So it's not much. mean, we have like 50,000 Republican voters, like probably like registered Republicans. Like for the most part, it's like all Democratic ⁓ for this district. ⁓ Yeah, and I don't know if it's like gerrymandered because again, it's not many Republicans that win in New York City. It's not something that happens like frequently. ⁓ And usually if it does, it's like some random thing that happens like when Giuliani won mayor or something like that. ⁓ Other than that, like, no, it's a very democratic place, New York City. So it is very democratic. Like when I talk to people and they're like, ⁓ but if you win the primary and you're going to go up against a Republican, I'm like, this is Brooklyn. Like this is deep blue Brooklyn. Like what are you talking about? There's not even enough fucking Republicans registered. Not that that matters, but like it's just not a thing here. It's not. I know. Are you running? Are you running under the Democratic band? I am running under Democrats. Yes, I did not choose to run under the independent. I know now ⁓ what's your experience like dealing with the Democratic Party? I don't have any experience dealing with the Democratic Party. For the most part, they are not going to want me there. They are not going to like me at all. ⁓ I am not their friend. I mean, I am a lifelong Democratic voter. I will vote blue before I vote for a Republican. I would never vote. conservative anyway, that's not who I am. I don't value conservative ideology like in life in general. ⁓ But yeah, no, I don't foresee myself having the greatest relationship with the Democratic Party, especially because I speak very openly about ripping down the system. ⁓ I am not running to uphold the system or to play to the status quo or to get in there and be like, well, this is how it's supposed to be done. Like, ⁓ I'm intentionally running to rip down the entire system. Like, that's the focus. It's about building something new that's going to work for the people and the Democratic Party has failed. Even if it means changing the Democratic Party into something that it should be for the people. I don't know how possible that is. I know people say you can't reform from the inside, but we also can't throw our hands up and say, well, I guess this is what we're stuck with. But we got to try to do whatever we can. So, yeah, no, I'm running on the Democratic ticket not to be a part of the Democratic Party, but to bring progressive ideals back into government, to bring humanity back into government. And also, they intentionally make it extremely difficult for people to run as independent. Like, by law, they make it extremely hard for people to run. ⁓ So yeah. What are you encountering when you're going up to people and they're asking, well, you're going up against Hakeem Jeffries? When I'm talking to people in the district, I say it's like ⁓ one of every 10 people support Hakeem still. So that it's a really good really people are ready for change. I mean the district went for Zoran It's a very progressive district that they the parts of it that voted for Cuomo But the majority of the district went to Zoran. People see Hakeem's failure more and more more people are becoming over him So like when I hear things about the polls saying he has a 70 approval rating like that shit is bullshit I don't care what anybody says because when I'm on our streets talking to people more people want him gone More people are fed up with him and they're like, he's got to go. He's got to get out of this. They hear me talk. Especially when I say lines like, we need real people representing real people, that always catches somebody's attention. I could say whatever, but as soon as I say that, they're like, you know what? You're right. You're very right about that. We do need real people. And I tell people, we need people who come from our backgrounds. We need people who live our very real lived experience. I come from public school. Like I come from the streets. I come from restaurants and food trucks. Like that's what we need. Like I want to see more artists and I want to see strippers in Congress. Like on it, like truly. I want to see real people in the, especially in the house of representatives, more than Senate and the house of representatives, because there are these two year term cycles, we need to see more people fluctuate in. I would like to actually see a system. Maybe when we do six months or even a year where it's like Jerry duty, it's like mandatory where we. Put people in it's like another kind of branch of government that works with the house and the Senate where it's kind of fluctuating with people ⁓ in and out frequently very much like jury duty where you don't have a choice you kind of just get selected and you have to serve on the government as a perp as a public servant. Yeah, I would love to see something like that happen and for those people that are watching this and they say ⁓ You're gonna load a bunch of dummies in the house only if you let a bunch of dummies in the house But the house belongs to us. Yeah It's the House of Representatives. It's supposed to be a bunch of normal people so they can people like Vance can show up and say, hey, this is what's happening in Brooklyn. How Kim Jeffries has a big house somewhere and he's probably not spending a whole ton of time. Well, Brooklyn is cool. So he's probably if I was him, I'd be spending a lot of time there. But but you know what I mean? Like rich people don't always stay home. They always got two, three different homes. Right. point that I'm trying to get to is the House of Representatives is supposed to be the teachers, the truck drivers, the strippers, all that stuff. So they can figure out what needs to change. And then the filter is the Senate. And then once it filters through the Senate, then it goes up to the president. The House of Representatives needs to be a direct representation of The people you see at your grocery store at the gas station At school it's supposed to be you know people that work at Circus and at restaurants so they can tell you what the hell is happening at the restaurants Instead of having these people who spend 30 plus years in the house of representatives Especially because they as houses and they don't what they're not happening in your sheets. That's right Exactly. And that just has to change. I think right now what we're seeing is where we have the ability to actually change that. We talk a lot about having the second American Revolution. And I truly believe that this is the year that we can do that, that it will happen. And it will happen by changing our government, by changing our Congress specifically in the House of Representatives, for sure. That's how we take back our government. We give it to the people. It is the people's house. ⁓ And right leaning. Dumb Dumbs It's going to get better for you, too Yeah, I don't even care about their opinion Like you just said it's gonna get better for them. So whatever they say feels irrelevant to me. I'm not taking I'm not debating with people I'm not like having back-and-forth conversations like I don't give a fuck what a conservative has to say at all. It's irrelevant, right? the more people That have money the better your your economy is going to be If you have a consumer economy, you need what? Consumers consumers, I tell them but I think I think I think more than just having like Consumers though. I think we're at a place where we need to start transitioning for our basic needs like I'm so I'm personally tired of the paywall to survival I don't understand why we live on a planet that we in order to live like we actually have to like pay to like live Like I believe that our basic needs should be met and our basic needs for me are food, water, housing, healthcare. Like those are the big five ones that I think that should automatically be provided. And especially like when it comes to programs like SNAP, for instance, I think SNAP is a great entry point or a roadblock or the roadway to getting towards ⁓ a universal basic income. And I would love to see the eligibility for SNAP be increased so more people. can get on that assistance because we should have our food and water and our, at least that area of our basic needs met. More people should be able to get onto that program. I like to, in my head, think of like 150,000 like minimum. Like if you make under 150K a year, then you can be eligible for SNAP. I know it's a high number, but that's kind of the point. We want people on it. We want people on the program for sure. So it's about making sure that everybody has access to food and water at the very least. So it's not a question about like, you make too much money. Like sure, if you make above 150K, then sure, maybe you shouldn't, you don't need to necessarily be on it. But the idea is to get people on it. Like we want people, or we want to provide it. And not to be like, ⁓ like only if it's an emergency, should have these, so like these welfare like needs. Like I don't think it should just be an emergency situation. I think we're at a time in humanity where we should just be providing these things to everybody. How do you pay for it? How do you pay for it? You tax all the billionaires you see you cut the Pentagon's bloat. You stop funding foreign wars You shift the money elsewhere. The money is there. We have the money. Yeah, what's your bullshit? Yeah Like a ballroom. Yeah, like a fucking ballroom. Yes ⁓ A bunker ballroom a data center bunker ballroom the fuck Yeah, no, I ain't with it I wouldn't know the money is there Also, the money is being hoarded. The money is being has been stolen from us for decades. It's been funneled to the top that like and they want us this way. They want us so desperate and destitute and struggling that we were begging for crumbs away. We take any jobs they throw at us and we do. We're willing to do it. We're back in slavery, essentially. It's what we just make minimum wage is just like, listen, if we have minimum wage, they pay us nothing. We would be in full blown slavery right now. And some people are. We have present slave labor. That it's just, it's a really bad system that we're under. And this is why I say we don't have to build this world. We can build a different world. The money is there. And I plan on taking it. I'm not even, I'm not asking. Like this is, I have a 90 % tax rate that I would love to implement above, think it's incomes above 10 million that we would like to hit that off with. I also have visions of a cap of wealth. I think we cap it at 1 billion. I think if people want to play the game of capitalism Then you can become a 1 billionaire But anything above 1 billion gets funneled back into society education infrastructure social services food all of it like The fact that we have so many vacant homes and we have so many people living on the street It's fucking crazy or how many times do you see how many times you see a grocery store having to throw away food? Because no one bought it. ⁓ that is getting old ⁓ I work in the food industry. It's it's constantly it's a bureaucracy Bullshit that just blocks people from like we can't even give it away. You got it. You got it It's like they rule like you got to throw it away. Like I can't remember fucking crazy I can't remember the name of his of this guy, but there's this dude down in the LA area He was teaching people how to grow their own food in say whether it's Compton or wherever, you know, he's teaching folks how to do that. And then he got a ticket for teaching people how to grow tomatoes. Granted, you know, the little, you know, like here, most places you have your house, then there's like a little bit of grass and then the sidewalk and the little bit of grass before you get to the street. They were leveraging the little chunk of grass between the street and the sidewalk. to grow food and he got in trouble for doing that. Yeah. It's why they don't grow fruit on like the streets in general. I mean, granted, some of it may have like your be your like watered by urine, but still I think like, like to be able to go to like an orange tree. So all you're saying is got way more minerals. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of meds mixed into it also like, well, whatever the case is. ⁓ no, but I think that there's, there is a We can build a different world we this they want us living in this this dystopian This is the world they want to build intentionally, and I don't think that we should allow them I think that we can stand united as a people as a planet again not just America We face a global threat mutually all around the planet and yes There are places around the world that are functioning way better we are especially when it comes to health care and providing for the people but their folk America is Yeah, our focus is completely different and we need to change that. And I think that we can. I think we can do it through legislation. again, I'm in a place where I'm not even, I'm not asking. I'm saying this is what we're going to do. This is what is going to happen. Get me into office and we will do this. this is- Americans shouldn't be satisfied with paying for us to drop bombs in Venezuela and then Donald Trump goes to put 500 million over in Qatar. And someone, let's just say someone in the government or the government itself writes you a check for $30 million to improve your district. What would you do with $30 million? $30 million for the district. would improve the district. I think it should go to infrastructure more than anything. Yeah. think, I mean, infrastructure and education should probably be the two things that that money would go towards ⁓ for sure. Only because like I think I think that that would be the best way to go about it because um With infrastructure education people can live better and then they can do more they can feel they'll be smarter a and then with the infrastructure set up around them They'll be able to live more comfortably when they won't have to be weighed down by the system They'll be able to get more done and then that will be a return on itself because people will be able to be active more in society. They'll be smarter in society. think returning that money back into society, specifically in education infrastructure, is where I would focus at the most with that for sure. I hope that was a good answer. I don't know. That was a fantastic answer because at the end of the day, you would leverage $30 million to improve Americans' lives instead of giving it to a foreign country that is going to do God knows what with it. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I definitely wouldn't be going to Israel. That's for sure. You would think as businessmen they would want a return of investment on what they invest in America, you know America I think their investment is the destruction of America. I think that's what they want. They poverty is profitable ⁓ they they the struggle is it? It sadly is an investment for them. They want this, you know, we don't want it It's hard for us. But again poverty is profitable. So for them at least well and it's If you're running a corporation, your main thing is the bottom line. You have to make as much money with as little resources as possible. Human resources as possible. Human resources falls under that. So whether it's oil, whether it's earth minerals, whether it's humans, those resources need to, if you believe in capitalism, all those resources are worth money. But why invest in education when you have part of your population thinking that they're smart when they're dumb? It's the, what is that the something something effect? I'll think of it. Something Dunham something Dunham effect where you're so dumb that you think you're I Know you're talking about but I don't remember what it's called the Dunning Kruger effect. I think that's what it's called anyway You have a bunch of people that you that are so dumb that you can trick them into thinking Your struggle is very American Trump literally said a little bit longer You're going to struggle. It's going to be tough, but just a little bit longer. We're going to change the whole game. He said it to these people and they bit hook line is sinker. Yeah. Struggling is not American anyway. So then what they do is they go and they invest in these other countries, right? Did you, did you guys know that Apple builds schools in China to teach them how to build, ⁓ iPhones and shit? It's not surprising. I didn't know that, but it's not surprising at all. Why couldn't they do that here? And fast answer is it's expensive to live in America. So you need to ask for more money so you can buy these houses that nobody can afford, that are sitting empty, that nobody can afford because BlackRock has been buying them. So then what they do is they build schools over there and then they can hire three to four of those people for the price of one of us. Yep, and then you're left to figure it out to pull yourself up by the bootstraps Very that yeah, it's a problem all of it I think you know I I am in a place where I'm I want the whole entire system changed all of it Yeah, and I know that is not gonna go down easy I know that these people are gonna do whatever they can to try to hold on to their power and their money But we are coming for all of it 100 % and we're not gonna stop until we get it So then what do you say to the people that say, well, if you take all the rich people money, all the businessmen are going to leave, like they said in New York. That's what I would say. Bye. Let them. We'll rebuild. We'll do something. Because we're in our education. We're going to have a whole new brand new kind of business person. Bye. Let them go. I don't care about the billionaires investing into our poverty, because that's really what it is. I don't care. Let them go. Goodbye. And then, know, but also it's like the what we want to aim for, think overall is about changing the global system as well. Like, yes, we want to focus on American problems, but we want to focus on the global system. So let them go because there's nowhere that they can go on this planet that they can hide from us. Because again, we are coming for everything. They've left for they've already left for Dubai already. They're already gone. We'll get them there. There's a CEO of a corporation that refused to pay my salary. And I took him to court. And now that punk bitch is hiding in Dubai. We got to find them. That's what we got to do. Yeah, we got to get our money back. Yeah, that's what happened. Yep. And don't worry about all you folks that are stressing out about all these rich people, all these smart people leaving, let them leave. We're about to build schools. We're about to do it differently. Yeah, we're going to build. We're going to build our own new business people with the understanding. That you're not in this by yourself. Hey, there we go. Fully love that. And that's I've been banging that drum man. I've been banging that drum if we get. You know, cause everyone talks about changing culture, changing culture. Well, how do you how do you change culture? You go to the kids. Look at how many kids make their parents or my cat is like meowing. I'm not even near him. He's like in the back. ⁓ no. He agrees. To change culture, you get the kids. You teach the kids about, you know, earth and you teach them and you and you teach them recycling and they will go home and force their parents to recycle. Yeah, you're right. Especially with all of this information. Young kids were coming for you. We're coming for you in a way. where we're trying to make the world a better place. It's not supposed to be like this. Take two seconds, read the preamble, read the constitution, read all that stuff, and you will see in plain black and white letters that it's not supposed to be like this. Yeah. But I think also important to educating children, I am a big believer that we need re-education for adults. ⁓ I think a part of educating a younger generation to do better There's too many really fucking stupid people out there that are adults and 100 % we need reeducation for them. It's very almost like ⁓ what germany did with the nazis? or not remember the nazis but with right-wing ideology where they like outlawed it and they like reeducated those people or like They made laws in place where you couldn't practice these right-wing ideologies or the extreme right-wing ideologies ⁓ you really you got arrested for it or you lost your job because of it ⁓ I think we need to do something like that, especially with dealing with conservatives and the Republicans and the Confederacy in general. ⁓ I again, I have said before, but I am so anti conservative ideology. I think it is outdated. I think it does not fit in with our modern world. I think it's prevented us from moving forward. And we can't have a group of people who are actively trying to keep holding us back every chance they get. And the only way we can make real progress forward is to eliminate This old world tradition name of like getting rid of tradition but to get rid of conservative ideology Just stagnant and at this point making us regress First step would be getting all these 80 year olds out of congress That's 100 the first step if if you used to fix the vcr when it was blinking 12 or like this if you had your kids changing the vcr because it was blinking 12 and now we're talking about ai and instant Technology all over the place it might be time for you to go be and be an advisor somewhere Yeah for change I agree. I think it's a question that torch in general though like it's time We need those term limits like we said like yeah, it's gotta happen I'll tell you my quick vision for term limits on and not everybody agrees with it But I think that it's really good I would like to see for term limits for both the house and the Senate 12 years each so it'd be six six terms in the house ⁓ Two terms or as a three terms might be two terms in the Senate where? It's 12 years 12 years for a total of 24 years of public service if you are allowed to be reelected that many times Then after you serve your 12 years in the house and your 12 years in the Senate You've done your 24 years of public service. That's it for Congress You get free health care Whatever the cases whatever whatever the rules are I don't know what we're gonna do but yeah, by the way, it's just like I think like you shouldn't be able to serve both positions until you die. Yeah, for real. And this and the the the ⁓ Supreme Court to. Yeah, we got to keep it moving. We got to keep it moving. Yeah, I wanted to bring up. I wanted to bring up a really cool thing that ⁓ Lauren Collins said. Lauren Collins is running for office in LA and he was talking about education being free. your entire life. So if you've been through the gauntlet of life and you're an 80 year old American and you wanted to go to school and re-educate yourself on being a chef, go do it. Totally support that 100%. Yeah. mean, education should be free. So all these old ass congressmen after they get out, they got something to do. They go back to school. 100%. 100%. If not, if not to learn, then at least to teach. So now, so now if the exit plan for you, if you run through the gauntlet, this is great. This is, this is us fixing the world like live. You go through Congress, you do your 24 years. Now you're 24 years veteran of understanding how the government works. Take your ass and go to school and teach. So now, now we have motivation to up the teacher's salaries. Because if that is the process that you go through, if you're in government, you're going to feel, you're going to feel, you know, you're going to get comfortable making a steady paycheck. One of the things that they don't want to release is the steady paycheck and obviously the power, but fuck off. Go to school, teach people. And now you're going to have a really good perspective of why we need to be teaching or why we need to be paying teachers of proper salary agreed fully I dig it. Let's go sign that Boom, ⁓ we just fixed education. Thanks. Damn it. What's next? What's next? What's going on in New York? What? Actually, let's talk about New York. What's it like living under mom? Donnie from what I understand one of the first things he did was clean the Power wash the subways Did he I I that be interesting I mean I have not seen it, but I mean they could use it they could definitely use a good power wash especially some especially the stations in like the more like ghetto areas ⁓ They could definitely use a good power wash. I know. I saw him shoveling some snow. ⁓ I was like good on you, man Good on you for doing that cuz I'm I'm I have it I mean the snow do not get along I live in a house so I do have to shovel here as well And I fucking hate it. I hate shoveling every year. Like the winter, the snow is like my enemy. And I'm just like, it's fucking snowing again. Like, so I got to get out there and shovel. Like, I really do despise the snow. really do hate shoveling. So when I saw I'm shoveling, I was like, all right, go ahead, you. You do that thing out there. Yeah. So I just did a search. I just did a search real quick and it says following his inauguration January 1, 2026 the New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani initiated a focus on subway cleanliness with social media highlighting DSNY cleaning efforts occurring shortly after he took power. This early focus was part of a clean slate approach to city governance. Love it. Yeah, love it. I don't know if they look cleaner, but hopefully they are. They started they started in like Manhattan, you know, you all the money boys Like the World Trade Center area like that whole section like probably got done first because that station is not and it's white It's like a white station there. Like it's really nice down in that area what they've done there Yeah, ⁓ so I could I could definitely see them starting there for sure. But yeah, no, I hope that It keeps going I hope they get the buses next like let's get all the public transportation cleaned up. Let's get it all free too because I'm so tired of paying for the MTA ⁓ Free bus he wants to free buses. ⁓ fast and free buses ⁓ Hopefully that's the thing that happens. I support it fully we saw ⁓ Mike did you see Bernard Taylor was on a bus today? I saw an incident Yeah, the bus down here. I'm in Bernard Taylor's district the love ⁓ that Yeah, like think think of a society That instead of the focus is money. It's actually focused on Your success your own personal success or the collective success Well, if I argue if I focus on my success i'm going to mike knows this I'm going to share my knowledge with him because I want to see him succeed. Why because we're changing culture And then we reach out to Vance and we say, hey, we got this thing, right? Right. So if I focus on me, I'm going to get to a point where I want to help. And then I help Mike, Mike helps Vance and then us. That's where we start to rise as, a collective. Yeah. No, I fully agree. And I like the idea of that. I just feel like there's too many people right now that's stuck on this old way of individualistic thinking where there's a lot of gatekeepers. There's a lot of people who don't want to share knowledge and don't want to share power and don't want to share elevation So until we get past like that one step and this is kind of something I say is like are all of us collectively our core value needs to be Humanity first if it's not bad, then we're not gonna buy so if we have that one perspective of just it just being on the people first Then we could we can negotiate whatever from there But if we if our idea is not humanity first, then we're fucked. There's a big reason why I don't care about ⁓ conservatives because they don't care about humanity first at all ⁓ You're correct. I'm like fuck fuck them. I don't give a shit what they have to say I don't want nothing to do with them And even as somebody that's running for Congress I know that there's a lot of people like ⁓ But you got to serve like both peoples and a big thing that bothers me about running for office is when they're like ⁓ But you have to like meet like the normie Democrats and them especially when it's like this is I'm so I'm so far left They're like you got to meet like the normie Democrats in the middle and you got to like try to reach out to the Republicans and I'm like I'm not molding myself to be someone that I'm not. They need to elevate themselves to meet me where I'm at. Not that I'm not going to meet them where they're at, but I'm not going to change who I am or lessen myself to be like, just so I could be liked or just so I can win a vote. I want to win because it's the right thing to do because, again, it's about putting humanity first. Not because I'm like, you know what, maybe we can compromise on some trans rights or something. No. That's not something that I'm interested in doing at all. That's not what we're doing. And how are you gonna how are you gonna present change when you keep doing the same dumb shit? That's constantly what I say is we can't keep asking for change and doing the same thing over and over again It's partly why my slogan is changes here Cuz what we're done asking for it. It's here now now we're ready to change I Love that. Thank you. Another one of my slogans is from the grill to the hill because I work in kitchens I'm going from the grill to the hill Another one of my slogans is welcome to the era of the zero tolerance left because we're done fucking around with the bullshit. I've got slogans for days. Actually, when I first started, when I first committed to running, that was like one of the first things that I did was like, was like, what, how do I catch people? How do I get people to understand? I was like, the changes here was like one of the first ones. The welcome to the era of the zero tolerance left was also like, think I was like one of the first things that made me kind of, that gave me motivation to run. And then from the grill to the hill came up in my I was having a conversation with my best friend and I was like I'm going from the grill to the hill and I was like that's a slogan right there. Yeah, it is. You do music so you know you gotta have those But no they all work and I use them all and I really they they're very true that all each of them it's like we need change we're done fucking around and The girl that hill one is more personal, but whatever yeah, we we got it. We got to stop fucking around We can't keep doing the same thing over and over again and asking for something different to come up because that's not I was gonna be and that's kind of also on that matter is like Why I how I describe my campaign I keep saying like we're not in normal times I'm not running a normal campaign this I'm not a normal candidate. None of what is going on is normal I'm not resorting to the old normal way of doing things what I foresee in the way that I'm running my campaign is It's different. It is new. It's not playing by the same old playbook. That's why, I talk to other candidates, and I'm like, we don't have to pursue this run in the same way that it used to be done. We don't have to seek out millions of dollars. We don't even really need, like, I don't even care for, like, get endorsements. Like, if people, if organizations want to endorse me, great. But they're not something that I'm like, I need this endorsement. wanted to run. Like, I have to have this endorsement from them. Like, it's not something that, like, I think again we need the people that the people have a message and if people see the vision of change They will back it where we don't need Endorsements and we don't need millions of dollars. We don't need ads on television Mm-hmm. We can do things differently with that being said like how I Am the the question almost came out how fun it is. How fun is it to run for Congress with social media as opposed to our old days. It's not fun ⁓ I don't I don't know what old days was like I guess old days would just be like hitting the streets more yeah The using the the mail using the newspaper I guess even even even TV to a certain extent you know all these All these yes ads that keep interrupting my ⁓ my survival media helps I'll say social media definitely helps, but it's not ⁓ For me, I don't enjoy it. I'm not a content creator. I'm not an influencer. I don't spend a lot of my time. I am an artist, so I do post a lot of like, ⁓ I have in the past, posted a lot of artwork online. It was always a tool for me. was never something that I used as a lifeline. So when running the campaign, especially with not being somebody who makes content for a living or is out trying to be an influencer, it is a little tedious. I do get a little frustrated with the process of it, especially because I've personally feel very shadow banned online. ⁓ I feel like the system is trying to protect Hakim. There's a lot of times where I find my comments that I'm running are in the hidden sections of comments ⁓ or my comments are just, there's so many people that are like, this was hidden by XYZ app or whatever the case is, or it's just, I'm getting something, like on TikTok especially, so much stuff is just restricted. It's not even getting a reach, it's not getting out there. And this has been going, I mean, I'm on my TikTok account in a year. They banned me four times on that app and throughout all of 2025 It's really bad before and that's before the criminals took over Yeah, yeah that was before the criminals took over 100 % but they were trying to appease the criminals at that point in time Yeah, they they were trying to like do what they want to whatever but ⁓ I do have a hard time on social media a little bit I don't find it that enjoyable. It is a tool again. It's still a tool to making a reach I still use it as such. But yeah, I like getting on the streets. I do like speaking to people in the district a little bit more. And social media, I feel like I don't actually speak to that many people that are a part of the district through social media. I definitely speak to people that are more national or global on social media. And then there's the whole bot problem that is a whole other beast in itself. yeah. So there's all that. ⁓ But I mean, it can be fun. I don't, for me, none of this necessarily I would use fun as the word to describe any of this. I don't think of running for Congress as, like, again, it's not something I ever saw myself doing. It's not something I ever thought about doing. ⁓ This was sparked out of a necessity for change, out of a frustration of just watching our leaders be failures, to be like, well, if nobody's gonna, like, who the fuck is gonna do it? And then looking in the mirror and be like, well, I think it's gotta be fucking me. I don't see anybody else no, but like that's a real thing like no I get it It's like I think like I have to do it like because nobody else is doing it and like I started running back in July like it was it was early on that I was like Yeah, I think this is it. think this is what I have to do I had just graduated from college back in June. I got my master's degree and Thank you. Thank you. That was a whole trip in itself. ⁓ no, that's important because because up to now You've just been some kid that used to work at a circus or a car. Oh yeah. all this stuff and you're 15 and you snuck out all of a sudden you slipped it in there. Oh yeah, I got a master's degree. Yeah, we're going to let that one breathe a little bit. Let's like let's dangle on that for a hot second. All right. All right. Yeah. So like I can go into that for a little bit. So no, I am I ended up dropping out of school back in like 2006 because I spent so much time on the road traveling with the carnival. I did not. I didn't have enough credits to graduate at the time when it was done. So I ended up dropping out of school. I didn't get my GED until 2013, so it was years later. A big part of my life is I always prioritized work over my education. That's something I always did. never, and I kind of regret that a little bit, like looking back on my life. Like I wish I would have put more time into my education way back when. Um, but I always I did let work happen more frequently. I did focus on more on that in 2013 I was finally able to get my gd now again After that, I wanted to go back to college and like get degree and I never did um, I still put work first I don't come for money. So I you got to survive so it's not like I have I can just I can just take time off and be like i'm gonna live my life like now folks know why you you prioritized work over education. Right, right, right. I connect with that. Like I had no choice. I had to work over. And I could have done both, right? But I've always been somebody that wanted to dedicate. I like dedicating my full attention to whatever it is I'm doing at a particular time. did not want to balance both school and work. I see my family and friends do it, and they're so fucking stressed out. I don't want that level of stress. I don't need it. So I never pursued both at the same time. I always just did one or the other and it was always work because we need money to live. That's just a paywall to survival. So ⁓ the pandemic happened and this is in 2020. The pandemic happened and my job closed and I was sitting around and I wasn't doing anything and I was like, and everybody was going crazy. And I was like, well, instead of like me just absolutely doing nothing, like I could use this time to finally go back and to get a degree. At the time, because I have front of House of Tremendous, back House of Tremendous, I've worked on food trucks, I've worked on all levels of hospitality. And I've also gained a passion for accounting throughout the time. I've done some managerial work and some office stuff where I fell in love with the process of accounting. Also being an artist, there's something ⁓ methodical about being in the zone and editing that working through a spreadsheet and dealing with accounting kind of has that same kind of in-the-zone kind of ⁓ attack to it. So ⁓ I really wanted to get into accounting. I wanted to get back into restaurants and That was like the plan. was like, when the pandemic is over, I'm going to get into offices of a restaurant. And I'm going to start helping with accounting. And that way, can use my front of house knowledge and my back of house knowledge and with my new found office knowledge and really help restaurants thrive. That was really the plan that I was headed down before I decided to do Congress. yeah, no, I got my associate's degree in business administration. And at first, I was like, all right, I guess I'm an accountant now. And everybody was like, no, that's not how that works. You're going to need a bachelor's. So then I was like, fuck, now I need a bachelor's degree. And I got enrolled into this really cool program where it was like 90 credits. It was like part of like a master's program as well with the bachelor's. And I did public accounting, business management and finance. And I also did a minor in psychology. And so then I graduated with my bachelor's and I was like, oh, looks like I'm an accountant now. And then they were like, no, actually what you're probably. They're like, no, actually what you're going to need is a master's degree. And then you got to get a CPA. And I was like, oh, fuck. So I went and I did my master's degree in business administration. And so I graduated. And I did five years straight from 2020 to 2025. I did from no degree to having a master's degree in the five years. I was in classes around the clock, like so many classes, all semesters, winter, spring, summer, fall. I was just through that whole time. I did that again. I had the time that I didn't have to, I wasn't working. ⁓ Jobs would close. We had a pandemic, whatever. ⁓ And then whatever. I got my master's degree and then it turns up I look I get my head out of books and the world is crumbling around me and I'm like, well fuck it looks like and I was I was looking for work at the time when I first graduated I was looking for like work at like in data entry or whatever accounting for restaurants and whatnot Not finding anything Donald is destroying the world Akima's fucking flying to Silicon Valley. I'm like with the project 2025 is looming over us I'm like what the fuck is happening? instead of like I stopped looking for work after I'm certain point in time and I was like, I think I'm going to pursue Congress. I think that's where I'm needed the most right now in my life. think I'm in a place where I know that I don't care and I see that money is a problem. And I know that I'm in a place in my life where the money doesn't move me. I'm not swayed by it. Nothing is not. And I care more for humanity than I care about profit or money. ⁓ And that's what I think we need. I think we need public servants. And I have a background in hospitality. That's what I think we need. don't have a law degree, but I do have an e I say economics, although I did list a bunch of stuff that wasn't necessarily economics, but it is economic ask. so just to sum it up instead of saying a bachelor's and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Kind of like even getting the degree that pushed me away from capitalism even more especially in marketing when I went through my marketing classes And I saw the predatory vulture like me here I was like, oh they're teaching you how to be a complete scumbag Like that's what marketing was is how to be a piece of shit Yeah, 101 piece of shit 101 is what I took essentially so and I was like this is horrible the whole system is just fucked like Learning the economy really showed me how flawed it was And then for somebody who still has the humanity to see this flawed system and to be taught it I was like this is a problem So those are kind of like the things that definitely pushed me towards running It wasn't just like one thing it was a lot of them again seeing the Luigi situation to be like ⁓ there is a way that we can change the system. I'm also just a favorite I am NOT anti-violence. I don't want anybody to think that like I'm like No, don't hurt anybody. I used to be into very anti-violence. I am no longer in and we're in a time of war. We're under attack by our government. I do not stand. I do not have an anti-violence stance at all. Not that I'm pro-violence, but I'm also not like we're a bunch of pussies. Like that's not gonna happen. So I do like to say that often. Speaking of which, did you guys see that there's some people that are buying ice costumes on Amazon? They're not part of ice. They're not legally part of ice, but they're getting these outfits from Amazon and they are legit stopping people and looking through people's cars and stuff. Yeah, I believe it. I believe it, which is why the second amendment is so important. It's so it's so it's so weird to like say that because I've I've you know, as somebody who's on the left, I've always been like, ⁓ we need to like have peace and unity and get the guns out. And now I'm all like, Second Amendment, take their heads, bring out the guillotine. And then the right is like, whoa, the guy had a gun on him. And then they try to make it in this whole thing. you know what they also, somebody posted up that now ICE has kind of scaled back on their tactical gear, and now they're wearing puffy coats and hoodies and sunglasses and hats instead of the masks. So now they blend in with the people. With normal people. with normal people and then they're like Uber drivers and then they're doing like they're taking like, um, like little plumbing vans and they're renting them out and they're driving around and then they're like pretty much jumping people. I it. I hate everything. That's why, that's why, boy, I don't care. Second, don't, if you don't, yeah. If you don't show me your face and your ID and you come at me like that, I don't care who you are. And if you want to and if you want to make both of us be on the news that night We just both gonna have to be on the news that night. I purchased I purchased a I Am in New York. I don't have I've never used a gun in my life. I've never used anything of the sort I don't even have any training. ⁓ I did however get a three foot steel baton retractable baton Because I was like watching like the cops and people like beat people with sticks and I was like Well, if I'm gonna get hit with a stick, we're all getting hit with a stick. So I ended up I bought a three foot steel baton and I carry with me everywhere because bitches somebody whips out a baton on me I'm gonna whip out a baton back on you and that's just what it's gonna be We're gonna be both beating each other with sticks. And if I lose my life over it, guess what? We both will I guess you know, we're gonna be on the news. We're gonna be on the news And and here's the shortcut. I don't want to live like this. I don't know I don't want to live like this. I don't want to like this. Yeah, you know what the future to be built like this. It's not even I I'm very much a believer that like our generation is kind of like we can claw our way out of it. I don't think we're gonna see like a rainbow again, but we can build a better future. I fully believe that we can change the world for the future generations just like the people before us change the world for us for only for us to get set back by the goddamn fucking conservatives again. Mm hmm. And that's what's wild, right? Like when conservatives are have the have the have control of the government, they say, look, we're doing so great. And I'm like, you're doing so great. The people with money always do great. ⁓ the economy, the economy. Yeah, but it's only you guys participating in the economy. But when it's a Democrat in office, generally speaking, there's more jobs. There's more people spending money, the economy is better, but then people still vote against that. And that's where again, like my thing is education. We have to teach you idiots how the economy works. We have to teach you how the government works properly teach you how the government works. So you don't keep getting. ⁓ But you know what? That's, I keep saying that half the nation has been specifically conditioned to be weaponized against the other half of the population. And a part of that is also religion. Religion forces them to be obedient and to just comply and to fit into a box of conformity. And it's like, don't listen to whatever, just this is what you're told to do, this is what you do, and that's it. So when it comes to them questioning things or looking and gaining more education around the surroundings, or to trust other things other than the goddamn Bible. That's a problem. ⁓ Religion is a huge, huge, huge problem in the planet worldwide. ⁓ I am also like, I've taken a very strong stance of when I get into Congress, I want to build a greater separation of church and state. Like I would like to introduce legislation that prevents our Congress members, both in the House and in the Senate from quoting or referencing religious texts on the floor. or using it as a perspective for anything. ⁓ And that'll help. It'll be a little bit of a way to add more separation. Like when I do my swearing in, I'm gonna do my swearing in on the Constitution. I won't be doing my swearing in on the Bible. Yeah, I'm not I'm not religious. I don't I don't really I say like freedom of religion freedom also from religion ⁓ and if you're working in government and you should I don't not to say that you can't be religious while working in government, but maybe like you maybe you shouldn't be maybe like don't bring it in with you Maybe don't use your Bible to quote on why you're implementing some type of legislation What yeah? We can't even get the we can't even get all the religions to to agree on the story of Jesus or God or how we're supposed to worship. So you have to give each other enough space to be able to participate in religion however you want. Judge free. If you want to, if you don't want to, if you want to go four days a week, five days a week, seven days a week, knock yourself out. If you don't want, if you want to go as no days a week, that's up to you. but forcing someone to worship the way you wanna worship. And all these folks are white nationalists. It's not going to end there. They want you to worship white Jesus on a Sunday. I hate it. Yeah. Meanwhile, I do. I believe in God and, and, you know, we can get through some of that on a different video, but, I, I don't want to do it your way because I think your way is wrong. I believe in God, but I think the way you do it is wrong. ⁓ And you forcing me. to do it your way is infringing on my rights. Yeah. Yeah, I'm a believer too and I believe that when the perspective of like the white nationalists or whatever is weaponizing it and they want to leverage it to make you think that you need to do what they're saying in order to ⁓ go to heaven, right? For instance, and then like You make them feel bad about themselves for being religious because you're just taking it away from a space where it's supposed to be special, I think anyway. It's supposed to be community driven. When you're broadcasting it out there, some Charlie Kirk memorial, and you think that this is the way it's supposed to be, it's not supposed to be that way because Because what because God told you that what that's the way it's supposed to be or the people that are paying you told you that's the way it's supposed to be right and from what I understand for from what I understand Jesus himself always told people a keep this shit humble Yeah, then why are they doing firecrackers and and and ⁓ Fireworks and stuff like that when at at his funeral Yeah, look like a damn WWE event Yeah, all of that makes me as a believer makes me uncomfortable. And now you're going to force me to continue to do that shit? Jesus never had fireworks. So now you're gonna force me to do it your way that's against that's against my rights That's my liberty Anti-establishment Exactly Exactly, everything that that that Vance you're running for anti-establishment against the conservative belief system and Ideologies and everything that they bring to the table that this is business as usual. Nah, that's that's not that's how supposed to be Yeah, I will say well while I am anti establishment to an extent I do very much believe that the right government can do good for the people correct Yeah, you can't have people just running on all willy-nilly cuz look at one look at what happened No, yeah, yeah, for sure. I am definitely anti corporation though. I will say that like fuck the billionaires fuck these corporate Definitely that though, but I definitely Yeah, small small business for sure ⁓ but I would like to have a government that is of the people working for the people for sure yep I'm already relating these companies I wanted to tap back into your because I'm enthralled by your your circus career Okay, there was a there's a saying it says fascism is cured by reading and racism is cured by travel How how was your travels within and you're traveling just in general But I'm assuming you did a lot of traveling when you were on the on the I get the carney. Yeah I'm Expensive circus. It's a carnival. I'll just clear the circus amusement park rides. Okay, like state fairs and county fairs. Yeah But how do those skills, how do you think those skills will play when you finally make it into office? I think just by being able to ⁓ mesh with other people from all different types of backgrounds. And that's kind of like the beauty of just being in New York itself, is New York is a place that reflects everywhere. And that's one of the things of when I did travel, when I mentioned that I was from Brooklyn, New York, People would be like, ⁓ I love New York. It's definitely an opener to be able to talk to people. But just because we're not locked into a bubble here with a certain group of people, we can definitely mesh well with others. We can definitely appreciate other people's backgrounds. I think that that's a ⁓ useful skill in itself versus being from somewhere that's a small town and you're coming to New York for the first time. It's ⁓ like the complete opposite of that. ⁓ and I think so definitely being from New York, ⁓ gives me a leg up with being able to speak with other people around the nation and just having that experience of traveling around the nation and just being able to speak to people in general. And just because I work in hospitality, again, I'm speaking to people and getting to know people and working for people is not something that I've ever been afraid of or shied away from or been intimidated by. It's something that I find very easy to do in life in general. I know whether it's being in New York or whether it's just being traveled. Either way, it's something that I don't struggle with. Yeah. I being from New York, ⁓ we're me and Mike are originally from Chicago and we got exposed to like, went to high school with like everybody from everywhere. And it's easy for me to, what do they call it? Is it code switch? guess you're code switching. Whether I'm I'm hanging out with my Assyrian friends or I'm hanging out with my black friends or if I'm with the Latinos, whatever whatever and you get to you get to know these people and and that exposure to them makes you less of an ass. Mm Right. Definitely. That's why that's why there's a lot of racism is because if we had a nation that looked like New York City, it would we would live in a completely different place. ⁓ my God. It would be so different. Yeah. and White folks weird we're Mm-hmm if you're seeing this and you have a doubt about any any shade of brown We're usually pretty damn cool. And now we got one here with the master's degree. So you got no excuse I think it's very don't start no shit. There won't be no shit like I'm a believer there can be peace, but we all have to want peace there can be But we all have to have safety. It's not gonna be safety and peace for some and not safety and peace for others That's another reason why I speak about welcome to the era of the zero tolerance left So we're no longer fucking around with the shit like we can have peace we can live in a world of peace Yeah, but like not unless we all have it and if we're not gonna have it then nobody's gonna have it That's my stance on that for sure Yeah, and white folks need to understand Black and brown people have their own lives to live. We're just not that into you You worried about what the fuck we're doing every day is on your mind way more than anything we got. We got bills, we got problems, we got issues, we got things to do. Yeah, Mike's got to pick up kids any any moment of the day, he's gonna go pick up kids. So we don't have time to be sitting here worried about what are white folks doing the same way white folks are all up in our ass. That's why you guys sent comments. That's why that's why the nickname is Karen. It's not Shaniqua? Yeah, I was gonna say like James or something. was like, I wasn't even going with like a good name. I had like a such a generic name. Oh my God. Your name was way better than mine. I was like James Johnson, like what like, What are your? What are your expectations? When you finally go and you get sworn in and you go into that chamber? What? Do you have expectations have you thought that far in advance? Yeah, I mean, there's there's definitely some day one on priorities for sure. Um, like one I'm a member of Citizens Impeachments Courts Coalition So we are definitely focused on introducing articles of impeachment to every member of this treasonous regime Not just Donald not just a JD But the cabinet all of them the president the vice president everyone. Um, that's definitely a focus citizens impeachment is putting together from the House of Representatives to the Senate to judges to ⁓ generals, like all types of levels that they're working on ⁓ getting to make sure that we actually go through with the process and not just impeach them, but also convict and remove these people and prosecute as well. We wanna make sure that ⁓ punishment for what they have done is unprecedented and severe because this that's going on right now, it's completely unacceptable. So that's definitely a day one focus of mine is releasing articles of impeachment. For every member of this extreme specific specifically for treason. ⁓ that is where I focused on is making sure that we get them for treason Now there's a bunch of different articles we can introduce for impeachment. My personal one is gonna be for treason That's what I'm aiming for. ⁓ I do I'm a believer that ⁓ Donald Trump is waging a war against the United States Using our own government. ⁓ his inauguration speech was a declaration of war What we're seeing with him using ICE is a levying war against the, it's the definition of treason. Everything we're seeing is levying. So I would like to try them for treason. ⁓ 100%. That is something that is a focus of mine, but more immediate actions for the people. Like I know we want to reinstate eviction moratorium, the COVID era eviction moratorium for housing. So people aren't getting kicked out because they can't afford to live where they live. We want to make that permanent as well. We want to make sure that people. Permanently are not losing their apartment because they cannot afford it like there's something that's crazy There's introducing taxes for the billionaires. There's also like with a taxing vacant lots These are things that we want to focus on on like day one that we want to start introducing There's the artist and get workers bill of rights which is something that is so important to me as somebody who's an artist and somebody's done plenty of gig work and who's worked in the service industry making sure that those jobs are protected and ⁓ And that the people like whether it's just like extending our regular bill of rights to artists and gig workers and vendors specifically as in New York Where police are throwing away the vendors food on the street is just insane to me. Yeah, making sure that these people are protected is Something that is so important as AI becomes more prevalent in our lives and in the workforce and as people resort more to Artistry and to gig work and to being vendors on the street to be able to pay their bills and to get their medical needs met It's so important that they're protected. So that's something that we want to do. ⁓ We also want to work on stuff like we want to get Rovers's way like codified into into into law to make sure that that's something that's permanent bodily autonomy permanent for everybody, not just women, but for everybody, just making sure that our party, our choice, like who the fuck? What are we talking about right now? Like it makes no fucking sense to me that somebody is on just they don't do this with your body. Yeah. Because of this book like it's fucking crazy to me. Yeah. Yeah, so it's definitely stuff like that that we really want to focus on Minimum wage in New York City specifically. I know Zoran wants to aim for a $30 minimum wage here This is something that I intend to back I will say a lot of what Zoran wants to do I fully back and a big part of why I'm running because I feel that Keen won't He was owned by all these people that don't want to see any of that happen So removing him and making sure that we implement what he does in New York City. And as a federal, as somebody working for Congress, it would spread to the rest of the nation. ⁓ So, but definitely having that back, making sure that he is protected and getting through the agenda is a huge priority of mine. So all of that we wanna definitely do. ⁓ I mean, yeah, there's a lot of things. ⁓ Single subject bills is an area that I wanna focus on. I'm so tired of seeing these big bills. that like the big ugly bill that have a harmful things and then just a small amount of like good things that may help people. But it's all like harmful stuff. really want to we got to eliminate that. I would really love to have single subject bills where we're focusing on a single subject at a time, even if it takes the process longer. ⁓ well, that's what we're there for. We're literally taking a long time to do anything anyway. Right. And then nothing ever gets passed for us anyway. Right. So like, I'd rather I would love single subject bills. getting attacking Citizens United, getting rid of them or anything. We've to get rid of that. That's something that's a priority. There's a lot of like day one focuses. There's so many. don't know if we're to get to all of them on day one. But the list of things that we need to do again, my entire platform is about no more asking, no more asking for change. Like we have been asking for these things for federal and universal health care, a standard of living, taxing the rich, all these things. No more asking. It's about implementing them now. And the people who got us into this mess won't do it. So the people that are running are vowing to do it. So that's definitely where I stand with that is making sure that we do all of it. So whatever is on my platform as things that I believe will go to help the overall society of the nation. ⁓ Yeah, again, we don't get to everything on day one is definitely something that we intend to get to for sure. We have a day two then. That's a good thing we have a day two. But I'm excited to be part of the 120th Congress. ⁓ It's a cool number to be at too, like 120. It's not like right now we're at 119. I'm like, 119. They sucked. They got us and they destroyed the nation. They're complicit. Now the 120th Congress is going to be great. I think it's going to be a Congress that is of the people. I truly do. I think if we work together as a nation, we can elect all across in every state real people into these positions where we see people. I don't know if you know Brie Woodson, who's running in, think, Georgia, I believe she is. But she is, can't wait to work. She has such an interesting background. I cannot wait to work with her. And that's like, when I speak to a lot of candidates, I'm always sizing them up to be like, all right, who am I going to want to work with? Do I want to work with this person? There's some people that I'm like, ah, you sound like a little bit of a like, you're like conservatives. Like, and I get real, I'm like, I don't fuck with conservatism at all. So if you give me the slightest bit of like, you're a conservative, I'm like, ah, I'm going to write you off right away. But no, there's a lot of people that I'm excited to work with a bunch of people. There's some people that I'm not so excited to work with. For instance, there's Michael Blake here in New York who's running against Richie Torres also with ⁓ Jose Vega is also running against Richie Torres. But I support Jose Vega. But there's a chance that I might end up working with Michael Blake. I don't know. ⁓ But I kind of bash Michael online often. I'm always like, fuck you, Michael. We don't need you in thought you're an establishment puppet Like but like I was actually at a rally recently and I want an I haven't met him in person But I went I went up to him at this rally. Oh, I was like, hey Michael, I'm Vance I'm running against the key and he was like, yeah, I've seen your pictures before I was like There's like an awkward silence for like a second like we were like walked away and Yeah, fuck I'm gonna have to work with these people. Maybe like there's a chance it is Somebody else running everything in Karen's district Alex Boras. think his name is and Karen Ortiz's district now I also give him I give him shit online too. I'm like you Alex like I don't want to work with you little bit and then like I was like, ⁓ shit like I'll act that same rally I kind of what he walked past me and I didn't say anything to him But he did walk past me and I was like, ⁓ fuck that's Alex I was like so I introduced myself to him and I was like fuck but I be cursing him out all the time on I can't, can't, can't, I can't. So I might scale back a little bit with my critiques of other candidates. Oh yeah. guess, I don't know. Cause there's a chance that I may have to work with it. Not, not everybody I love may make it in. I don't know. I hope, I hope that all these really progressive people make it into Congress. really do. But there's a chance that the system may do what the system does. And there may be some loose cannons, people that we really don't trust, some establishment puppets getting in. and we got a so I still have to be able to play nice and I'm I'm very confident in winning my race against the king Jeffries ⁓ I think ⁓ out of any of them. He's the one that has to be removed the most He is the face of the establishment. He is the failed leader of the Democratic Party ⁓ And if there's any position to speeches are boring They don't more of a his fucking finger wagging drives me crazy Like I hate it so much. He's from New York. So I was like Hakeem is about to tear into people he's like you don't post pictures of me Hate it. Hate it. Meanwhile he's photoshopping his hips. I don't if you saw that one was he's ⁓ he's at a park bench and the you know, it's horizontal. So the bench is just skewed. ⁓ Fucking weird. It's You gotta look at you ever seen a picture you gotta look up the picture of Hakeem photoshop just like You're your die. It's the it's it's just an embarrassment. It's so it's so bad. ⁓ But yeah, no, he's got he's got that and it's just like and as a photographer I asked somebody that's like done for a lot of Photoshop, but I know not to skew or manipulate ⁓ Horizontal lines or lines in general. So you're Are you seeing it with the park bench just moved? ⁓ my it's so bad And he is specifically his hips like he wanted to make smaller like, whoa, damn it. What is happening? Like, yeah, not for anything, but throw that shit in AI. If you're going to, if you're going to, if you're going to go down like a punk, at least at least make it. It makes it look like he's leaning back real hard. Like it's like a, like ropes, like you just send it. He made he was like made his hips smaller and it's good the whole bench. Oh my god It didn't posted it and it was like yeah, I that That's what I say all the time. I'm like those hips are lying. Those hips are a motherfucking liar. the fuck? Get out of here. Like, nah, I ain't with it. I ain't with it at all. I don't like it. and I'd rather just be like he tries and I don't like that. It's eternal That's the part where that's the part where you have to assume that there's people telling him Hey, this is the right way to do it. And what they don't understand, what politicians don't understand is we're tired of that. The entire country is tired of you being fake. The entire country is tired of you wearing suits and you're just a bum. Yeah. And that's a major factor in why I decided to I'm also very anti-suit. Like don't even own a suit. And this is driving me crazy because people are like, you need to put on a suit. Not everybody. There's some people that like you need to put on a suit and I'm so anti suit because I'm also anti the fakeness. Like I am I try to be very authentic. My campaign and the way that I'm managing myself and running myself is about being as real as possible, about being of the people as possible, about being a real reflection of society. Who I am completely is who I intend to be throughout this entire process. And a part of it, like I've always worked in kitchens. I have never worn a suit in my I don't own a suit. I've never worn a suit. That's just not something that I do. So putting one on feels like a costume to me. It feels very fake, like I'm being someone that I'm not. And now, if I grew up wearing suits and I had one and I was accustomed to it, I wouldn't be as against it. But because it's something that's not a part of who I am, it feels very fake to me when I'm talking to people. And they're like, you need to represent the people like this, and this is how you have to look. And I'm like, just feels fake. And what I'm running against is that fakeness, is that performative politics. So for me to put a suit on and do that, just it doesn't feel authentic. doesn't feel real. It doesn't feel like me. It feels like pretend, but I'm not one of it. You should put on a chef coat with a little thermometer. do. I actually do. When I do interviews, I wear my other shirt that's a kitchen shirt. It's a button up kitchen shirt. And I do wear it quite often, actually, when I do a lot of my interviews. I actually considered wearing it for this. then I was like, I kind of wear them all the time anyway. was like, let me not. Let me just put on this regular, the green one. I'm always in black also as I was like, let me just put on this green one too because I'm always in black like I'm looking at this. I'm looking at this Hakeem Jeffrey. I'm sorry for cutting you off, but we just need to close this book ⁓ Hakeem Jeffrey's picture Yeah, uh-huh as As someone that I used to do photo retouching In college for groceries and I look at this picture and it makes me want to Yeah, I agree. If they would have, if I would have submitted this photo to the people that I was working for, I would have instantly been fired. This is terrible. This is terrible. And why like, It's really bad. It's boy That's embarrassing also like it's Yeah, like what were you doing that made you do that? And the thing is like the actual pants themselves look pretty good It's just that wobbly thing It looks like if you're listening to this and you're not see you haven't seen this picture yet It looks like there's a park bench that got pushed in And he just decided to be funny and and lean into the pushed in thing. I would have done something like that for me, like my sense of humor. I would have done that. He take a picture. So it looks like I pushed this. My big ass pushed this thing in like this. But no, it's a straight up terrible Photoshop job. And graphic designer, you should be ashamed of yourself. I wonder if he did it himself and then he just posted it. It was just like, ⁓ I think this is so cool. The hips are small now like. Yeah, Hakeem next time. Just take the little take that same Mexican hat that Trump uses for his AI stuff and just use the Mexican hat to cover your your hips. Yeah. That's a big sombrero though, Doc. No, you can Photoshop it. you have to do is hide ⁓ this bench. Yeah, so bad. It's so bad. It's really. Yeah, I don't know. think he's just be removed from office just for that alone. The audacity of ⁓ it. Like, don't know. I don't like when he comes to Brooklyn for the photo op. really like he spends most of his time in DC and comes into Brooklyn just to take a picture and then he leaves again. I don't know if he knows, but Hakeem has one of the lowest constituency ratings out of all the representatives at like 10%. It's like, it's really bad. Like, yeah. We talked to ⁓ Martina She lives ⁓ your area. ⁓ She used to work at the UN and all kinds of stuff. She's an amazing person. And she was talking about how when Hakeem first took office, everyone was excited because like his his people come from the Black Panthers or something like that. ⁓ his uncle or something may have been like, yeah, big activists or some shit, which you're like, all right, cool. But it's like, ⁓ No, he sold out. He he had everybody. Not everybody's Barack Obama, y'all. The problem is, is that he's also he's his background is in like corporate law. Yeah. Like so when you when you're you're just a shill. The corporations. That's like exactly literally money. He's a he's a money interest guy. I call him Hakeem to Donor Clash Dream Jeffries. That's what that's what he is. Like us. It's really bad, like The whole thing he got all that money and he still put out that dumbass picture. It really did really truly did just not that expensive No, it's it is it is The whole thing is just it's a mess. They're complicit. I don't trust our government I don't trust our representatives both parties not just the Republic the Republicans. This is like I hate when people like ⁓ you don't have this much smoke for Republicans I already know they're a piece of shit. I already know that they're scumbags. I'm not looking for Republicans to be better people because they're never gonna be better people. But the Democrats we need to hold to a higher as a Democratic voter, they need to be hold to a higher standard as the people claiming to be for the people, they're gonna be held to a higher standard. So yeah, I'm gonna come at the Democratic leadership harder than I'm gonna come at the Republicans because I already know that Republicans are a piece of shit. I don't put any weight on them. Anyway, yeah adults in the room right with the moral high ground like come on man. Yeah, right now I Don't really care about any of that like I just I again I'm at a I'm at a place where I'm past Looking for hope in our current system. ⁓ it's not there what we do next is what it's gonna matter That's why I love your your what your approach? That that gets That gets wrapped up in your tagline changes here like no more asking no more we've been asking And you guys keep you guys keep writing you guys keep writing strongly worded letters. We don't need that It's that dumb shit that got us here. Yeah Yeah, we need people. I'm so excited for you, I'm excited too, and I'm so confident. I'm so excited. I'm so ready for this change, know the people already. I know that I have no political experience. I don't make this a secret at all. I don't hold that back. ⁓ But I also a believer. I don't know if you knew this, I don't think that the people that wrote the Declaration of Independence had that much experience either. Yeah, no, I don't think It's just a bunch of people that got tired of the bullshit. Yeah. And they're like, we need to do this. So you are way more American. And you move way more American than you think. Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate that. It's a nice compliment. I do like that. Although I'd like to be thought of as being human, but whatever. That's a whole other thing. A humerican. A humerican. You are a wonderful human. Yeah. But yeah, no, I mean. It is true. We are at a moment of change and people are fed up and it's time to fight back No more asking no more waiting No more repeating the patterns. It's about changing the system or terrible Photoshop. No more. No more terrible That's great. Get a photographer in Congress. Like I will Photoshop your shit. Well, like Yeah, that's I do This one did though this one did it for me like when a when a grown-ass man Have you seen it before? No, when a grown-ass man is vain like that. I Understand going through it maybe maybe like getting rid of some wrinkles or whatever just to make the picture good ⁓ But don't take don't take so many wrinkles out that you fake ⁓ Definitely don't do this shit because now I'm now. ⁓ I was already upset that you were doing anything Hakeem Now I'm upset as a graphic designer. I am straight up pissed at you now. Yeah. And you know, as a smoker, like I'll go and I'll lighten my teeth a little. got like smokers teeth. So I'll go and do a little like whitening on my teeth and photos. ⁓ But like, don't be like pulling in my hips. Right. Maybe. I don't know. I do a better job at it though. It may be the bench. It may be the bench. Maybe the lighting. Yeah, the lighting. The lighting. ⁓ He's actually just pushing in the bench a little bit like no it's like the worst photo op with the worst Photoshop. It's just It's almost as bad as him going to union rallies and smiling and then voting for like union busting that's like That picture represents him. Yeah to it's the win you think yeah Yeah, it's just it's just it's fake. It's meant to look good. You look a little deeper and it's just bullshit I know we're not supposed to be bagging on people's looks and stuff like that, but and I'm not even bagging on his looks. Here's another picture. He's wearing a New York Knicks jersey looking awkward as shit. Son, you're from New York. Yeah, that's why that's one of that's why I say he does not. I don't feel represented. I don't see a reflection of Brooklyn in him at all at all. Like I feel Brooklyn and I don't even like sports and I got the sports hat on. I'm wearing it because it's gray. Where Brooklyn at? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't, again, I don't like the bad mouth people cause I know I'm not perfect, but I'm not out here. I'm not out here wearing Kente clothes and doing terrible Photoshop. And then voting against the people for, uh, and sending billions and they're doing your job and they're not doing your job. Cause yeah, thank you for doing the 26 hour speech. filibuster thank you but like You gotta, you gotta bring the heat more for more than just one day, Yeah. Like they're literally breaking America. And these folks that are in office right now are just chilling. The Democrats specifically in the house are just chilling. Literally. They are killing us in the streets. And this is for 53 years. I've been saying this for 53 years. I have, I grew up. in the streets and I saw black and brown people getting fucked up and punched in the face and pushed through walls and all the things, all the things. Now they're doing it to white folks in 4k. Yep. And you guys are still sitting there. What are we going to do? What are we going to do as a leader? You're supposed to, says here, the house minority leader and he hasn't done shit. When's the last time you heard hakeem jeffries did this earth-shattering thing? Mm-hmm. He ain't even on tv anymore No, no You know one of the things that ⁓ That somebody brought to my attention the other day that I think that is really important to point out often is Who all right? Because you know citizens impeachment a bunch of people want to go through with the impeachment process and fully remove the regime Which means by default that House, the Speaker of the House will become the next President of the United States when we go through it. And it'll be a Democrat, we are taking back the House, the Democratic, the Speaker of the House will be a Democrat. So by default, when we go through the impeachment process, that person will become the President of the United States and it cannot be Hakeem Jeffries. Yeah. What would America look like if it wasn't? It would be further owned by Israel. That's for sure ⁓ Israel loves Hakeem and Hakeem loves them. my god, it would be so bad It would be it we would be into more of an oligarch I don't even know though because like he's he's so owned and it feels like He just feels so pretend so I don't even I don't trust anything It feels like he would try to gaslight us and smile on our face like everything was okay while letting like the billionaires ransack us in a much more secret way than Trump is doing. So like a Biden presidency. Yeah, like a Biden presidency. Yeah. And that's something that the viewers need to understand that the game will still be played if that man is still in power, right? Just because there's a D next to it instead of an R, doesn't mean the game isn't played any differently. We just go back to the corporations stealing all the money instead of one guy and all his friends. Yeah, we go back to the status quo that was up until this disruptive motherfucker showed up and started stealing everything for him and his friends Yeah, I think for the entire establishment the veil has been lifted. The mask is off for everything I think what we're seeing right now is people being aware that the entire system no matter what the party is now I'm a big believer that we don't have a party problem. We have a people problem We have a people problem in both parties, even independents. It doesn't matter who it is. They're all owned. Every sitting representative right now is all owned by the same people, which is why I think it's so important that we have new blue. Vote blue no matter who, but vote new blue no matter who. It's got to be a whole new slate of people, people who have vowed to not be beholden to money. No blue no matter who. Yeah, yeah new blue no matter who that's what we're not just blue with those taglines Actually, I will somebody else came that was somebody else's line I'm not gonna take all the credit for that somebody else did say that and I've been using it. ⁓ Yeah, but but I threw them out. Well I have not done music in quite some time. I haven't done music in years since before. I worked in New York City nightlife photography for a while in the nightclubs here, in LGBT nightlife specifically. And that was in 2015 I started doing that. So I haven't done music since before. That was just almost over a decade now since I've done some music, yeah. But yeah, no, haven't done music in... quite some time. do miss it a little bit. It was something after I got done working in nightlife, I was gonna get back into like music, I was doing some writing. And then like, I never actually went through with it. I was just like, he just went and got a master's degree. I did. I was actually what happened. I went back and got another I went back to work. I went back to working in a kitchen after I worked in nightlife. went back to working in the kitchen. Because when I when I did start working nightlife, I was like, Four jobs at one time. I was working at a vegan bakery. That's when I started getting into accounting I was where I was doing minor accounting for a vegan bakery and then I was working on two food trucks a Mexican truck it was like Mexican barbecue and a cool house I think it was ice cream sandwich truck I was working on and then I was also doing some catering I was doing a shit ton of jobs and then I was going into clubs at nighttime so I was like 24 7 just like Working daytime and then going into the club at nighttime taking pictures at a club and then sleep I would go in like nap in front of like the food truck for like an hour before it open. Blueberry sorry my cat. Well blueberry my class name is blueberry. I'm young owner of your ear. I'm going crazy His name is blueberry. I'm you know, but that's hilarious We're sitting here and then all of a sudden you're yelling at blueberries. I thought that was hilarious Yeah, and he asked me No, I used to like go and like sleep with like like taking a little nap in front of the food truck before like getting that shift But I was doing that. ⁓ and I did that for five years. I did that up until ⁓ Closer to 2020 then I went back into like work for a little bit I like missed where after I got tired of nightlife and you know, New York City. There's a lot of late nights I was like getting home at like six in the morning. My schedule was just like I did end up Quitting my day jobs after a while. I think in like 2016 I only did like a year of doing all of that and then I was making so much money in nightlife that I was like I could actually do this full time and I don't have to like I Love it. It's something that I've always wanted to do I wanted to pursue photography photography and that level so I was like this is an opportunity and I stopped working out actually one of the food trucks was being sold one of them was seasonal I wasn't really doing the the vegan bakery like full-time anyway, everything that was kind of part-time. So I was like, I don't I'm not that committed to anything right now. I could commit myself full time to working at Nightlife. And I did, and I ended up doing it full time, and I loved it. But again, the lights, the music, the traveling, because I was also traveling to other states for like LGBTQ Pride events all around the country. And then, yeah, just a lot. There's a lot of drugs around also, a lot of drinking, a lot of like sleepless days, I guess, because you wouldn't get home until like 6 in the morning. it's a good tool. And then I was like, kind of miss working in hospitality in the food industry. And I went back and I got like a prep job and I was like working at like a restaurant in a kitchen again. And that was like right before the pandemic happened. ⁓ And then it happened and that job closes only if like a year, maybe a year and a half before that ended up closing. But yeah, then I got my master's. That's what I did. That's kind of like how the timeline played out. You have a now I'm for Congress. ⁓ You got a signature a signature dish. that we made there at that restaurant. Me, I like making like an eggplant parmesan, honestly. I really love making this. one of my, but I was like, kind of like with it, like a chicken on the side, like a chicken parmesan, like a pan split, half eggplant parmesan, half chicken parmesan. I really like, I like making like a meat, so like a meat sauce and pasta too. I really like a choppy ice, like juice. I like to use like a veal, a beef and like a pork. like mixture of me almost for the meat sauce and also a meal of I would make the meatloaf with the same kind of ⁓ Combination of meat as well. I really like doing that ⁓ Those are those are kind of like my favorite things to make for sure I'm half Italian. So like I like Italian food a lot. ⁓ and I like making is I love a eggplant Parmesan is definitely one of my favorite things to eat and make for sure ⁓ I love making a good sauce. I like cooking. I like being in the kitchen. It's something that I do. As an artist and as again, as somebody that like works in that field, I'm very creative. very, I like flavors. I'm really into like cooking. I mean, look at the size of me. I do like cooking a lot. It's very fun. I love cooking too, man. Yeah. I like it. I'm not much of a chef, but. Nah, I mean listen if you like speed the end customer, yeah you can imagine something like flavorful like And also keep in mind like don't always overdo salt but salt will unlock the flavor of everything 100 % just like a little bit of salt on something will totally change the way something tastes entirely and just bring it out so much more a Little bit of bit of water melon will change your life. Yeah Little bit of salt on anything actually will change your life I really like I also like I like make I sometimes make Gatorade especially in the summertime Which is like actual lemon and salt and water and sugar like that's all you need and as you make your homemade Gatorade I really do enjoy doing that over the summer just like squeeze some fresh lemons and sugar water and a little bit of salt Mmm, and it's Gatorade. That's how you make it right? Yeah, just do yourself, and it's so it's so easy You can actually just look like a quick recipe in case you're like oh my god. Am I using too much salt? And just even you can start with a little bit if it's not tasting like how Gatorade should taste, yeah, add a little bit more. But that's the, that's the trick. You could do like sugar, the lemon and water and then it's just be like lemonade. Throw a little, throw a little salt in there and then that's how you get the electrolytes. That's what'll make it the Gatorade. That's all it is. I'm about to bring that to all my son's wrestling tournaments. Yeah, no, do it. Do it for sure. 100%. You could just do it yourself in the house. Like do how you would make lemonade and then throw some salt in there and then. And all of a sudden it'll add the electrolytes. So that's all electrolytes as a salt. Yeah. Yeah. That's what's up. So let me say, if I want somebody representing me, I want somebody that that's worked that knows how to work and grind, maybe get a master's degree in like five years, which means that they're driven, right. Has like 16 jobs, which means that he knows the value of hard work. ⁓ So we know he's not racist. Right. Who knows how to cook? That means he knows how to man. He knows how to please people, right? These are the qualities, right? And can also listen to a good tone because they know how they like music. They don't just bullshit with a quote from Biggie and think they're cool. ⁓ the you about had, you about had Vance's eyes roll out of his skull just now. But you know, these are qualities that I want not only just as a leader, but as a person that I would like to conversate with. Right. And these are, these are why we have these conversations with people because they're right. You guys are regular people. And, and I think before we talk, we talk ⁓ before you got on Carlos and I were talking about how the people that are out here trying to do all these politics and all this bullshit, they forget to realize that they're actually regular people. ⁓ They need to come down a little bit and realize what the grass feels like. You know what I'm saying? whatever you need, we're all on board, You're good. No, thank you so much. And I think for me, at the core of everything that I'm doing, it's about remaining a real person. ⁓ And not losing myself in the process. That's something that I'm constantly just trying to remember is just stay true to who I am Don't try to be somebody I'm not like and that's why I'm so adamant about not putting on a suit or not molding myself down for Republicans or moderate Democrats like it's I don't want to change who I am. I trust who I am I trust my my core beliefs in the world. I want that's what I want to see in government I want to be the change I want to see in the world Like that's what I'm doing this for. I'm not trying to mold into somebody that I'm not. I'm not trying to pretend to be something that I'm not. ⁓ This is about being me and being me in government. another thing, is like, ⁓ Carlos, how you talked about the progression of like Hakeem Jeffries, how he thought it was this. And then all of a sudden the consistency in your message. Right. It's it. The people that you're you're attracting to to your campaign. are going to grow with you. They're going to grow with I've used one to see blueberry real quick, but blueberry. ⁓ you want to see Rosie? Rosie came for a visit. ⁓ look at that. Look at the dog. You got your animal in there. Damn it. Rosie's upset now. She was just sleeping. ⁓ What the hell? But yeah, you'll see that you'll you'll see the people that are gravitating towards you are going to be with you for the duration. Cause you'll see that consistency and all the things that you're saying and all the things that you're doing, you're not conforming to anybody. And that's where leveraging social media becomes important because people will know you. So they will know that if something happens in the black community, you're not going to clown them by coming out with a kente cloth. Because you staying true to who you are Yeah, and hopefully when you do get into comfort into Congress and some of these goofies start to do goofy shit like that You can be like, hey, hey, no, no, no, no, do that. No Big part of is about calling out other people and their bullshit too It's about stopping all the fake shit like we need realness in politics so bad so bad It's all you guys. How are you gonna walk around this planet talking about? We're the best country in the history of the world and we are just struck with poverty Literally, but what's but we're still trying to get some Mars for some reason It just makes no sense to me or what to take more hungry people Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm It just has to stop. I don't know just the whole thing changes here now Yeah So with that being said. What is your last? whether it be a question, comment, concern, whatever. What are your last thoughts that you wanna share with folks that are watching this video? And then after you give us that, let us know where we can find you online. Yeah, I think ⁓ the one thing I always wanna point out to people is we all breathe the same air. We all walk the same ground. We all bleed the same blood. We are all a part of the human race. We are all a part of the village of Earth. And like they say, it takes a village and it does take a village. It will take all of us on this planet to elevate humanity into a new level. We are at a place in time where it's time that we work together. And that's just where we are. We have to change it now. Again, change is here now. No more asking, no more waiting, no more wanting. It's about doing, taking. No regrets about it. Zero tolerance for any of the bullshit. That's where we're at. But you can find me on my website, VanceB4NYA.com. You can also follow me on my socials. I am the most active on Instagram and particularly threads, ⁓ which is Vance.b.nyc. ⁓ TikTok, fuck them. ⁓ Twitter, fuck them also. ⁓ Facebook, double fuck them. That's where we're at. I love it. I love it. When I say I want New York representation to be like that, that's exactly what I them to be like. Hakeem Jeffries, I want you to talk like that. Because when it comes to them talking to us like that, they don't hesitate. They call us dumb. They call us stupid. They call us lazy. They say that we're not worth the effort. We're not worth the money. And want someone to stand up and be like nah fuck you Yeah, fuck the corporations fuck your billion dollars all of it And I'm coming for that money Don't make no mistake about that. We are coming for our money. That's that's what's happening We will be refunding it back down to the people. ⁓ Yeah, and with that y'all we out