Latest / Breaking The Meta / She Won In Texas, Now She's Fighting to Keep It | Chelsey Hockett TX-05
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Quinson. We have our very special guest back. Her name is Chelsea Hockett. And if you have seen any of my openings, you know that when Chelsea's on, there's a lot of laughing that goes on. So right before we started, she decided she was a little too tall in her chair and decided to just drop herself a little bit, right as we were about to hit record. So hello, Chelsea, how are you doing? Chelsey: you I'm good. Sorry for the weird visual right before we started. No, I can't stop giggling. Breaking The Meta: No, you're good. It's all it's all good. ⁓ So the reason we're bringing Chelsea back on is Texas had their primaries. Was it two weeks ago now? March 3rd. So, about two weeks ago, exactly. And Chelsea, while she won her district for the Democratic Party, she did not get enough because Texas does a runoff situation where if you don't get over 50 percent, you have to do a runoff. So she's got Chelsey: March 3rd, 14 days, exactly. Breaking The Meta: her next runoff happening, huh? May 26th, there you go. So we wanted to get back in here and help give her a little more push so she can get right over that edge and actually win the seat because the person she's running against is kind of cuckoo-cachoo and we don't need that. But obviously, I want to start off by saying if you have not, if this is the first time you were seeing Chelsea, Chelsey: May 26th. May 26th. Yep. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: go watch the first interview we did with Chelsea. I will put a link in the description below and we'll link it here so you can go see it. this is, we're going to go a little more in depth with this one and give, ⁓ try and ask some questions that didn't get asked the first time. but ⁓ first off, how did it feel to, even though you didn't get quite enough, you couldn't get quite over that edge, how did it feel to win your district? Chelsey: That was, it was amazing. Anderson County was the only one that I didn't win. was about, by about 200 votes. But I think I got about 2,300 over second and then a significant amount over the third place. It was amazing. We were. It was a fun night. So we went to this beautiful place in Heath. It was like, they've got pickleball course. They've got a big screen TV. Like they've got like a theater thing. I don't know. It's just a really cool like outdoor place. We sat on the patio. We watched the results come in and everybody was like, ⁓ my God. Cause I just kept stacking up. Cause I'm like the fresh, fresh face, a little newcomer. I haven't been around and I was just stacking them up. And they started closing around nine and I'm sure you saw the Dallas fiasco. ⁓ So that was, yeah. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ yeah. We were live the whole time, so... Chelsey: That was absolutely insane. So we're like, okay. So we went to a bar by my house and we just like hung out. Cause that was the one place that was open. was either the bar by my house or Twin Peaks and everybody just so small town stuff. and we ended up doing karaoke while we were waiting for results to come in. We were laughing. Everybody was having a really good time. I was with at least two other candidates. Um, yeah, it was two candidates by that time we got to that point. Um, and we just. Breaking The Meta: There you go. Yeah. Chelsey: We had a good time. waited for the results to come in. They still didn't come in until all of two, like what, 2 a.m. And they were still going the next day. So it was an interesting watch, but I maintained my lead and I was really excited about it. Breaking The Meta: Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like I said, congratulations and hopefully we can help get you over that hump and get you to November. ⁓ Chelsey: Yeah, the worst part about our election being on May 26 is we have municipal elections on May 3rd. So we have to get some people out to vote on May 3rd after they just voted two months ago in the primaries. And then again, on May 26 for the runoff because Texas is the voter suppression state. Breaking The Meta: And it doesn't help. at least. No, you'll still have to worry about it, won't you? I was about to say you wouldn't have to worry about the whole problem that they had in Dallas, but they're still going to have runoffs on the Republican side, too. So you're still. It won't. Chelsey: It won't be quite the same. No. So the Republicans, I don't know if you saw the announcement from the Republican chair, but he was like, if we can attack the Democrats, we're going to do it. You know, that ⁓ lovely man. ⁓ But we're not going to have, we don't have Jasmine and James on the ballot. We don't have the Carcatallarico run off. Thank God, because that was horrible. ⁓ And then... Breaking The Meta: Yeah, that was was wild. ⁓ Chelsey: We have Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and we have one other statewide, and I cannot for the life of me remember what it is. ⁓ And then we have quite a few congressional races. So we're hoping that we can get people out for that, but it's not a ton. So we're not gonna have the same full disaster. And we only have five days of early voting. It's not two weeks. So it's the Monday through Friday and then the Tuesday after. So we're gonna get. Breaking The Meta: Okay. Chelsey: volunteers, the people in the place, everybody at the polls wearing shirts, handing out chips and water and whatever we need to do. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Gotcha. What has been your biggest surprise ⁓ other than winning? Not that it was really a surprise you were excited, but like what was your biggest surprise? Chelsey: It was still a surprise though, because with everything going on, had a lot of people showing up that have never showed up before. We had no idea what was going to happen. We had no idea who would have the lead, who would ultimately have the best platform, whatever the case is. And then with redistricting, we had people showing up to the polls that had no idea who any of us were. Um, so afterwards, because they thought that they were still in Julie Johnson's district, they thought that they were going to be 33. They had researched their old district and they were literally a street away from their old district. So like we had a ton of people showing up and they're like, I had no idea who you were. I voted for you by accident. I like you. Um, I sent out, uh, my very first fundraising text and I got a nasty response back. Breaking The Meta: Right. Gosh. . Chelsey: And I was like, I am so sorry. I know that redistricting threw a lot of people off. was like, I, she was like, you've never even like made it to my house. You haven't made an effort to be out in the district. And I was like, I've been everywhere all the time. And she was like, really? And I'm like, yeah, but you weren't paying attention to five. You were paying attention to 32. And she was like, I am so sorry for being harsh. She apologized. And she's going to be one of the first doors that I knock once I get back out. Just because I just don't. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Chelsey: want her to continue to have like a bad taste in her mouth because she went to the polls and she was upset with the redistricting and she did take it out on me totally fine I get it it's been rough but we had 54 000 people turn out when typically it's 17 000 so it was a surprise not that I just maintain my lead but policies were strong enough to push it push me over the edge because I'm the most progressive Breaking The Meta: Wow. Chelsey: out of the three. And since we're seeing other progressives fail to incumbents because the incumbents have that lead, not having incumbent in the district, I'm one of the few progressives that might actually have a chance to make it through in Texas. Breaking The Meta: Was that, so when you said 54,000, is that just on your side? Is that just the Democratic side? Chelsey: ⁓ 52,000, yeah, it was 52,211. Sorry. I like numbers. Gotta get specific. ⁓ Because 51,000 showed up on the Republican side. It was more than 51,000. It was 10K undervote ⁓ for Lanscredin because I checked that out. more people voted for the Democrats. ⁓ Why not? I mean, we also had undervotes. I think we had about 9,000 undervotes in the district, which that means people just went up and they were like. Breaking The Meta: We've got to get specific here. Okay. Of course you did. I would expect nothing left of less of you. Chelsey: Telerico and Crockett and that's it. ⁓ But most people just went in there like I voted for a female. First female that I came across was who I voted for ⁓ on like whatever ticket it was or they would vote for minority names, ⁓ which I don't judge anybody for any of that because I understand what it's been like ⁓ in Texas. But the people that were able to check us out, they were like, hell yeah. And they got really excited. I've gotten a lot of really nice emails. I've gotten phone calls. I've gotten a lot of cool stuff. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Nice. Chelsey: But it was a complete surprise to be that far in the lead when we had targeted maybe 2000 people and 52,000 showed up. So yes, surprise. Breaking The Meta: I yeah, I'm not going to go into it. I'm just sitting here. just want it every time I hear those numbers. I just know that there are that's still like 100,000 people out of three quarters of a million. I know some of those three quarters are children, but still, that's still there still could be so much more. And I just sit here and I go, ⁓ I wish more people got involved. Chelsey: Yeah, we have about 796,000 people total in the district based on the 2020 census, which is definitely significantly grown since 2020 because Coffman County is one of the fastest growing counties. but I mean, like they showed up and showed out. went from 900 in Coffman County to over 5,000 people voting in Coffman County just on the Democratic platform. So there's always a significant, like, you know, just gap on the primaries to the generals. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. You gotta start somewhere. More people grew, grew in people, that's always a good thing. I just always wish there would be more people that would- Chelsey: Yeah, the general's gonna be insane. That's all I have to say. Breaking The Meta: Yes. So let's let's do ⁓ a couple small things for people that potentially, you know, we'll assume not everyone is going to go watch the other video. ⁓ So you grew up in Maryland, then you went to school in Texas and now you're living here. So for people that haven't watched, didn't watch the video before, haven't seen you, what brought you here and what made you decide to run in the first place? Chelsey: Mm-hmm. So my parents got divorced when I was seven. We had a really rough, we're going all the way back. It was a really rough divorce and I ended up not speaking to my dad after about the age of 12. And so when I was 15, we moved down to Texas. Because I don't say in many ways might as well go ahead and go. It was a fresh start. So I started high school here in my sophomore year and I graduated from Texas Women's University. And then we moved on a little bit for my husband's job. But when we got back to Texas, I was still going through a good bit of stuff between miscarriages, high risk pregnancies, all of the things. I was in severe depression. I was paying attention to stuff, but not involved like I should be. ⁓ So when I finally came out of that postpartum haze, I was furious. I had quit my job because child care was too expensive. Roe B. Wade was overturned. Women were dying in hospital parking lots. ⁓ And of course, affordability was going through like out the window. mortgage was increasing. Groceries are absolutely insane. And I was, I couldn't hold my tongue. I saw my congressman. ⁓ what? I saw my congressman just in the middle of where we're all like failing in life ⁓ because we can't keep up with anything. Just being hateful to every minority that he possibly could. So I was like, you know what? We're going to focus on that. think I caught him out. Breaking The Meta: What? Chelsey: ⁓ I found about 40 different ways to call him racist, confronted him, ⁓ pulled, ⁓ pulled together multiple, you good? Multiple protests. know it glitched. Breaking The Meta: Sorry, my screen just went all wackadoo on me for a second. Chelsey: So the other reason that I fight for what I fight for is for these children that drive me insane. I want to make sure their public schools are fully funded so I can get the free. No, I'm kidding. I do want the schools to be fully funded though. Yes. The voucher scams are awful. Breaking The Meta: Yep. Yes you do. Chelsey: having public school and education funded is a top priority for me because keeps my kids out of my hair. ⁓ Spring break is rough. also, ⁓ so the voucher scams that they've got on, ⁓ 75 % of people that have applied for them are already in school, just like we said that they would be, ⁓ and they're fully pulling all that money from public schools. So we are Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Chelsey: I'm of screwed. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. we mentioned this before that that your district is a Republican ⁓ has pretty consistently voted Republican for a while now. ⁓ And obviously, things are changing in Texas, which is great. ⁓ But ⁓ as a who is ⁓ very openly and loudly progressive, ⁓ what Chelsey: Yes. Breaking The Meta: What challenges have you noticed since you started running and how has the response been now that you've been doing this for a bit? Chelsey: Is it challenges with the Democratic Party or challenges with everything? Breaking The Meta: Potentially both because we're also dealing with some very moderate, especially now after the primaries, there's ⁓ there's a kind of a new riff that's that's forming at least. Chelsey: Yeah, I've got, I had quite a few Republicans. ⁓ that I've spoken to in the district, outside of the district that have voted for the first time in the Democratic primary and not out of maliciousness, because they're done with the Republican party. Some lady, she got out of her car. was like, I talked to her, she went in, she came out, she's like, that is the first time I've ever voted against my party. And she just like took a deep breath and she was like rattled. I was like, do you need a hug? And she goes, yeah. She was like, that was crazy. And I was like, I promise we're super nice. Breaking The Meta: Aww. Yeah. Chelsey: And so she talked to me a little bit and she kind of was like, okay, okay. Because I'm a very big, I'm a populist, which is, you know, what they want, but not, I'm not a populist for show I am, you know, at heart. And I had another woman come up to me. And ⁓ we gave them the literature and she was like, well, I'm a Republican, I'm going to go vote Republican. And she came back out, she walked past us and went to her car and said bye to the person that she was with and then came back. And she was like, well, let me ask you about this. And she was like, I know I'm a Republican, but we need universal health care. How do you feel about that? And so I was like, I'm Medicare for all. We started talking about other stuff. And she was like, well, you just want open borders. And I was like, I do not. So that's a whole conversation for another day. And I was like, but we have a broken system. And we have people that are getting ⁓ their legal statuses revoked by the department. And then they're having ICE sent after them. And she goes, ⁓ Breaking The Meta: No ma'am. Chelsey: She changed the subject super quick because she didn't want to talk about it anymore. And then she just kept asking me other questions. And I had my hairdresser and she was like, we need a change. And I was like, yes, ma'am. So they have slowly been making their way out. So we had a few of them continue to vote in the Republican primary but are looking for Democratic options. And they came to speak to us. They're just a changing representatives. ⁓ But my congressman. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Chelsey: is not popular in the district. He is hated by a lot of people. But and then within the Democratic Party, like we do still have a very big moderate bunch and they still aren't trusting of like the Muslim caucus, like the caucuses. They're not trusting of a lot of that stuff with the Islamophobia. It's still very heavy with the older Dems after 9-11. It's still is very like close to their to their like mindset. And there's still a lot of transphobia. So I'm very open about the fact that I love freaking everybody and I'm going to fight for every single person. And so I'll bring up that stuff and you can tell like they get visibly uncomfortable and I'm like, you're to have to get used to it. Like we need to keep progressing and we can't progress if you keep holding back other people that you don't think are worthy of it or you think that they're controversial because their existence is not controversial. They're here, they are a person and we're going to fight for them no matter what. And so we've, it's been... Surprising, there are problems that we're definitely running into, but there are a lot more people that are very open to the way that it goes. Breaking The Meta: two weeks ago. ⁓ This is a bit ⁓ We started a war with always fun ⁓ Killed know killed their supreme leader ⁓ We are spending billions of dollars ⁓ every day every week ⁓ And you know the news came out also that Chelsey: Mm-hmm. Breaking The Meta: They were probably within a day or two of actually signing a new nuclear deal before this happened. literally an hour or two before this recording, ⁓ the news came out that the director of the counterterrorism center in Trump's administration resigned over the war because He said that we shouldn't have been in there and the only reason we went over there was because of Israel pressuring us to do it. If you were in Congress on the 28th or even now, ⁓ what would you have done and what do you think Congress should be doing right now? Chelsey: you Well, I definitely would have signed on to the War Powers Act. That is a big thing that needs to be used anyways because they're trying to use it against Mexico and other countries as well. So that was already an issue and that's already something that I said. Yep, hands down, I'm four. ⁓ I am an agitator ⁓ by nature. Breaking The Meta: Again, surprise. Chelsey: I would have been like, capital steps, talking to as many people as I could, kind of thing, and continuing to just push out the information. I haven't done a very good job of it on my own currently, but that is something that I would have 100 % been out there for, especially after the elementary school incident. ⁓ I don't want to trigger any filters, but because of the elementary school incident that happened, I've already been upset and ⁓ cried a lot, but. it would have been first and foremost, but that War Powers Act I think needed to be signed onto by a lot of people that it did not get signed by. ⁓ I don't know how much you can pressure other people to do. with the congressional representatives not, and the Senate's not acting in any of our best interest at all. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. For some reason, Chuck Schumer just keeps just enough Democrats going the other direction to support his favorite country. Breaking The Meta: especially lately. So it's come out in the news also that there is a giant data center that is being built in the panhandle of Texas that is supposed to be using ⁓ double the power of the rest of the residential buildings in Texas ⁓ times two. What? What do you think of that? mean, I know what you think of that. But what do you think of that? And and Chelsey: Think of the Panhandle. And I'm not saying that in another way. They're trying to build two data centers in Henderson County, 45 minutes south of me. They're trying to build a sustainable city 30 minutes east of me. ⁓ An AI sustainable city funded by Elon Musk in Saudi Arabia. And then they, which, everybody's just Islamophobia, not like Saudi Arabia literal terrorist ones. Alexa, shut up. That was our faster video. Breaking The Meta: I'm so leaving that in. Chelsey: And then off! And then, so Corpus Christi, have you heard about Corpus Christi? So Greg Abbott gave whatever company to have the power to be ⁓ all of the water rights. They are 90 days from running out of water. Breaking The Meta: No? Chelsey: because the companies that he brought in, nobody is making them make their own desalination plants. And they've got tax breaks. So they're literally all coming in and completely wiping out our water. And we still have the ⁓ aquifer that they're trying to drain with a whole other billionaires trying to get rights to the aquifer to drain 15 billion gallons on top of all of that. And then we had Hutchins, ⁓ which was the warehouse that they were going to house 9,500 immigrants and ⁓ unhoused people. Sorry, I forgot my words for a second. So 9,500 of them, they were going to clean up the streets of Dallas and put everybody into this after destroying all of their property that they have managed to maintain. ⁓ And that would have more than doubled the capacity of the town that they had zero infrastructure for. So it does not shock me that that's going on in the panhandle, but we are in crisis, like literally. within 45 minutes of me in multiple ways. So it's not that I don't care about it, I deeply care about it and it's the same struggle that we're facing here in East Texas. Breaking The Meta: Yeah, and I think the reason that I brought it up was only because Texas already has a very fragile ⁓ electrical grid and Chelsey: Electrical grid and water. Our water is gone. Breaking The Meta: Yes, and water. Yep. Yeah. And I just, is that, I mean, how often are you hearing that from people too? Chelsey: So the energy grid after the 2021 storm where Ted Cruz went to Cancun, I have to throw that in there. Joe Biden's Infrastructure Act that he sent money to Texas for increased the solar capacity of our state up to about, it was like 30 % of our energy was coming from solar. So we do still have that infrastructure and the energy is getting better, but we are still paying for the energy used during that storm with the power failure. So ⁓ our costs are still increasing, but we have an even bigger. So we're a little worried about the power going. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Chelsey: we are getting a little bit out of the woods with what was able to be built here. But Trump has a war against solar panels and ⁓ wind turbines. So we don't know how long we're gonna have them for. And if those get taken away from Texas because they were built with federal funding and they refuse to continue funding whatever projects are midway through, we're gonna lose that power. So it's a little scary. The energy grid is doing better than it was. But infrastructure act that Biden had in place also was supposed to go to the ⁓ camp mystic alarms for the floods for the river that wiped out the entire girls camp. So and that was not used responsibly as we all know at this point in time. So Texas, Republicans in charge in Texas. Great. Breaking The Meta: Yes. As we know. So obviously there are a lot of issues and there are a lot of things that that Texas is struggling with. What What do you hope to be able to do, if anything, especially in your... Because Congress doesn't work fast. unless magic happens, and we're talking magic unlike anything this country has ever seen, and there's a flip in the Senate unlike anything anyone has ever seen, It's going to be very difficult to get anything done over the next two years. ⁓ What do you hope to be able to do in the next two years? Chelsey: just want to be able to advocate for my district. I want to be able to advocate to cut the tax breaks for these companies that are massive and are absolutely killing infrastructure and require an investment in the infrastructure. So if they're going to be doubling the energy, if they're going to be ⁓ using a lot of the water, whatever the case is, they need to build their own infrastructure. for that or make a massive investment into the town's infrastructure because the citizens of that town should not be paying for their energy, for their water, for whatever that is. And they should not be drinking water out of pipes that comes from El Paso with minerals and hard water and a lot of sulfur in it, which is what tends to happen. ⁓ So we have a lot of buildup in everything in our water because they're draining everything from our resources close by. So I just want to be able to bring that choice back to the municipalities and to the citizens of those towns and at least push for actual reform in those tax breaks for businesses and billionaires, which I feel like is more doable now than it was, but I don't know how far we could get with that and like the budget resolution. Luckily, that is the one thing that has to go through the budget and that has to go through Congress. So maybe it's something we can fight for. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. We talked a little bit about it last time that there are some things that you believe in that you would consider non-negotiables in regards to voting on things that are happening in Congress. What are those and what things are you willing to negotiate on if you get in? Chelsey: you So the things that I'm not willing to negotiate is anything human rights related. If we are criminalizing people for being who they are, if we are ⁓ allowing horrific things to happen to people because of who they are, like a base identity, skin color, ⁓ trans, LGBTQ. just any of those qualifiers, that's something that I'm not willing to negotiate on, whether it's the treatment of immigrants by ICE, whether it's the putting trans people in prison, whether it's ⁓ putting people in a warehouse because they don't have a home, like that is not something that I'm willing to negotiate on. And no matter who calls me and is like, hey, like we wanna build this facility and we wanna house people that don't have homes in cages. No, it's not something I'm gonna negotiate on. Things that I would negotiate on are things like, infrastructure and I'm not saying negotiated down infrastructure but that's something that I will 100 % like listen to other sides of because you know I don't know everything nobody knows everything and I'm willing to listen and if it's something that would hurt the constituents then it's not gonna be something that I'm willing to do but it is something that I'm willing to listen to multiple sides of. Breaking The Meta: just because it always interests me. ⁓ What is a position or belief ⁓ that you have held maybe even a year ago that you genuinely reconsidered or changed your mind on and why? Chelsey: if there's anything that I've reconsidered. There's a lot of things that I hold my opinions much more strongly on and a lot of that is the international conflict is where my opinions have not like they have strengthened. ⁓ There's a lot of stuff that I've realized Breaking The Meta: Mm. Chelsey: there were good things happening in the government. And the reason that other countries have been attacked is not because they're dictating and ruling over their entire countries. It is because they are just, you know, suppressing. It's because they overthrew the US and they instilled their own direct, like their own presidents and leaders and a nationalized massive resources. And I knew that I didn't realize how deep it went. in how many countries it went through. So I'm learning a lot about a lot of different countries currently. ⁓ I'm also very sure that all of the Nazis that fled from Germany have fled to Argentina and Israel and are ⁓ kind of colluding because mean Javier Malé and ⁓ Bibi are related. They're cousins. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Chelsey: So I think that there's a lot of stuff that is happening globally that we're not aware of, but I think it's a lot of people that have fled. And I think the organizations have kind of rebranded and moved on. And I think that's a lot of what we're seeing now. We're seeing the South rise. We're that part of Germany rise. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Chelsey: sounds super controversial and very like, it doesn't sound controversial anymore, but it sounds very conspiracy oriented. after like reading history of everything, where people went, what people did, ⁓ the Heritage Foundation, like the base, core base of that with the other policies around the world and those, and those countries that we knew people fled to. ⁓ It's scary, like you have the same stuff, it's really happening. You have the same stuff in Japan happening right now. You have the same stuff happening in Argentina. And it's those, it is those countries that it's happening in. So. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Chelsey: I don't, my history lessons have strengthened. Yes, and that's a root position on a lot of stuff, not revised, but it's strengthened my positions heavily. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. You've also talked about supporting term limits. ⁓ Who is somebody in the Democratic Party in Congress that you think has been there too long and should retire? Chelsey: Hmm? You want ask me who I think shouldn't resign? No, shouldn't. There are about like seven of those. No, I mean, there are a lot of people that are over there. I think, don't hate me, Bernie's been there for too long. I think Bernie should be outside of, I mean, I know he's technically an independent, but I think he's been in for too long. He's older than Trump at this point in time. And if we're going to hold one accountable, then we need to hold everybody accountable. ⁓ Who said the lady with the purple hair? Breaking The Meta: Should. ⁓ shouldn't. Okay, fine. Who shouldn't resign? I don't hate you. Hmm? Mara? can't remember her name. Chelsey: know she's been there for a while. I believe she's House of Representatives. I keep seeing her pop up, but she's got the black and white cap with the purple. Okay. Yeah, yeah. She's just, I don't know how long she's been in, but she's too old to be in. Okay, yeah. was like, we have a lot. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: She is house. She's Connecticut. A long time. I do know that. Chelsey: I don't pay attention to the terms as much as I do the decisions that are made. Okay. I was like, there are a lot of decisions that are made by people that have been in power for a long time. I don't pay attention to how long their terms have been, but I know I've seen their faces many, many, many times. It's more the policies that I disagree with that I think they should be out. I do, I mean, I think eight to 12 years is enough. A lot of people say four terms for congressional representatives, I'd be okay. Breaking The Meta: Rosa her name is Rosa I can't remember her last name but I know it's Rosa. Yeah, yeah. Chelsey: with like six terms, ⁓ as Senate is also 12 years. But after that, I think you either need to like move on, move up, go find something that you really enjoy doing and put your mind to that. I know Beto didn't make it into ⁓ the Senate, but what he has done in Texas is phenomenal. He took something that he was really passionate about, made it a statewide thing, and we have more people voting than ever before because of Beto. ⁓ So I mean, there are a lot of other things that they could be doing if they're passionate about it besides legislating when they're very out of touch with what's happening in their district. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ The internet has caused a lot of changes in this country and a lot of problems in this country. ⁓ Chelsey: Mm-hmm. Breaking The Meta: What kind of changes, if you could, would you make to the way regulation or something like that regarding the internet to try and make it better for society? Because internet's not bad per se, but I think... Chelsey: How do we outlaw bots? That's for me. So the way, I just heard them on me, so be prepared. ⁓ The way that my Facebook page is solely just on my congressional one, I don't follow a lot of people. ⁓ The content that I get pushed is out of country content, and it's the same topic over and over and over again. And you can see how heavy they're pushing the Republican. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: I, you know? Chelsey: the shitty Republican points of Islamophobia, of pro-life, of all of the worst things, all of the immigration. They push it heavily and they'll push it from like 80 accounts to like each one. So I'm sitting there and I have to constantly block pages because it is horrifying the stuff that's coming through and it's so uneducated. ⁓ Like the viewpoints and then you look at the comments and you have so many people agreeing and I'm like, if we could figure out how to get... Breaking The Meta: Mm. Chelsey: the foreign involvement on like bots into the US politics. I have no idea how we would do that. I'm pretty sure it's just a regulation, but trying to figure out where those people come from, they need to go away. But also the AI generated videos and pictures are extremely detrimental. I still remember seeing stuff from the LA protests about people tearing up the sidewalk and they had people with three arms and four legs thinking that it was real. And so they were putting it on the news. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Chelsey: that people were tearing up sidewalks and throwing chunks out. So while we are getting to see firsthand what's happening in other countries, because we get live streaming, we get everything else, we know that what the government is telling us is not true. We actually get to see it firsthand and I really am enjoying not enjoying it because I don't like seeing the pain and the suffering, but I like the fact that I can tune into other countries and specifically see what's happening in those countries. ⁓ But then I don't like the getting pushed a bunch of propaganda. Constantly and I have no idea how to regulate that but I want to Because I mean you have the First Amendment rights, so if they're not in this country though, they don't they're allowed to be blocked, right? Breaking The Meta: well There are people in your district who obviously won't vote for you for whatever reason, not because of a policy, but because ⁓ of you are, because you got a D next to your name, whatever. ⁓ Do you, ⁓ how you interact with them? Do you spend time trying to reach them? What, what, how do you Chelsey: We're too polarized. I don't think there's gonna be any logical outreach to the people that aren't willing to already come over there. So if they're like, yep, you're a Democrat, I'm not voting for you, you're piece of crap, I'm good. But we do have a lot of Republicans that are willing to come up and speak to us and they're like, change my mind now, like, please. So those people I will 100 % talk to. If I have Republicans coming up to me, I'm gonna be completely honest. I'm gonna be straightforward with all of my policy points. Again, I'm a populist. They like the populist. They know that they're not getting it. That's what they voted for. ⁓ So typically they're pretty happy ⁓ talking to me once they get to that. And they do challenge with the culture wars though, because they want you to fight back on it. And they don't like when you fight back with actual facts and logic and stuff that backs it up. And like, why would that matter? know? ⁓ I mean, even my mom has come to me about like the bathroom bills and stuff. And I'm like, do you want a trans man walking into the bathroom with an actual, like the full like man that's plans to assault you coming in right behind you, ⁓ or right behind him because that's what you're gonna get with the original. And she was like, I didn't think about it like that. So stuff like that, I'm just like, let's use some logic. Let's fight back on the culture wars. ⁓ And so they will try to enrage you. ⁓ Even if they want you to change their mind, they're still in that mindset that you are wrong and they have to fight you and they don't wanna agree with you. But then you start making sense to them and they kinda go. Because they sit there, they're like, what about the immigrants? What about all of this? And that's very... So if they're gonna come talk to me, I'll talk to them. If they wanna rage bait me, if they wanna fight me, whatever, I don't mind, but I'm not gonna go out of my way to seek out people that have been voting in Republican primaries for 30 years. It's just not gonna happen. Breaking The Meta: So you said that there was some drama that has been happening since the primaries. you wanna let people know what's been going on? Chelsey: Yes. ⁓ I had an opponent ⁓ that I had one full conversation with on the phone for like 30 minutes ⁓ that then came out with like an eight to 10 page essay about why I was wrong for the position, why I should not be supported, how everybody is either racist or misogynist and that's why they're putting stuff behind me. ⁓ We're both females. Breaking The Meta: Wow. Chelsey: So I mean, one or the other isn't, you know, it's not one female over the other. You want a popsicle? We can do that. So we've had a lot of emails that have just been going back and forth. So that was the first one and I took it and I sent it to the county chairs and I sent it to the other opponent, the third in our race in case they were going to experience something similar. I wanted to prep. And then I sent it to the Texas Democratic Party. like, I don't need you to do anything. I just want you to be aware and have record of what's happened. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Chelsey: I didn't to email. And then I got two more emails ⁓ that were sent ⁓ to other people that me cc'd in them. ⁓ The fourth email, ⁓ I finally something. I was like, these are lies. I don't know where you're getting information from. We've had one 30 minute phone call. ⁓ I've been told that I worked on a Republican campaign, which I never have. ⁓ I think I told her that my family, like my immediate family was very conservative when I was growing up, but everybody around them was not. So I grew up in like a little bubble with like a very liberal education. So I was told, hey, this is what we stand for. And then I like voted and I was like, that's not what we stand for. And I was like all the way back over. ⁓ So I went back to like my full upbringing and my education very quickly, but it was you know that first one, you know right out of the gates you're like... So I was like I telling her about that and how I do have family that's still very like pro-life even though I've told them my story repeatedly. I'm like I could have died because of what you're putting in place. So I just was continuously told all of this of stuff and it's somebody who ⁓ feels like deserve everything without having to work for it ⁓ because they've been around. ⁓ And there's been ⁓ fraud ⁓ stuff ⁓ I haven't looked so far into the claims that are being made about what has actually been uncovered and what difference has been made by this individual person. ⁓ But I know that everything that's being spouted about me has been a lie. I had my LinkedIn page thrown back at me, which who updates their LinkedIn at this point in time unless they're actively looking or just really likes to be on LinkedIn. I've not been asked any questions about myself. I've Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Chelsey: had lies spread about me that I have taking money from PACs that are refusing her help because I'm a white woman when I have not taken any money from any PACs at this point in time. So there's a lot of stuff that has been pushed out about me repeatedly to multiple members of the district. And luckily, it's working in my favor. ⁓ But I have only responded once and I've ⁓ said, these are blatant lies. There is literally nothing in here. We've had one conversation. And so I haven't heard anything since, which I don't know if that's good or bad. Hopefully. Hopefully good. But we did have an incident too where we were at the, we were at a candidate meet and greet. And remember where I said that I sent the information over to the other candidate as well. I was like a heads up, like, hey, this just came to me. I don't know if you're going to get it. ⁓ And so I sent that over to them, talked to them. They went to the Edom event and he said, Asked questions like had his wife the campaign manager of the other candidate asked had his wife asked about the email So I got blamed for that one It's like I have nothing to do with this. I wasn't here. I wasn't even in the room I was standing outside talking to people and then I was working on my signs because I wanted to give everybody, know privacy in space where I could still hear it, but I didn't want to give pressure especially when there's been a lot of back and forth like and I'm just I'm don't want any part of it. on the same team. We're all, you know, focusing on the same goal. ⁓ But my issue is like, it feels like the congressional position is revenge for either not having been elected previously or revenge against the other people that are in the areas because we have a Texas state senator that's being attacked via these emails. The Texas Party Chair, county chair in Henderson County, and the Dallas County Chair have all been attacked repeatedly in these. Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Chelsey: So I'm like, I don't know if it's a revenge tour. I don't know what's going on. I don't want to be a part of it. This is not me. I will talk about it at this point in time because it's just gotten insane and I'm kind of done with it. Breaking The Meta: Wow. Yeah. Chelsey: I don't know. I was like, I'm just going to keep here smiling. So we'll see. Breaking The Meta: Well, Chelsea, it is never a dull moment anytime that I come in here and have a conversation with you. Chelsey: I do my best to be entertaining. Breaking The Meta: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's... Hi! Chelsey: No up. Here, do like a close-up? ⁓ yeah, that was exciting. Breaking The Meta: For anyone that wants to learn more about you or support you in any way as we go up to this runoff election especially, where can they find you? Chelsey: You can find me at ChelseaHawketForCongress.com. ⁓ All of my social links are on as well. ⁓ You can sign for a newsletter ⁓ and you can also, there's a number you can call. goes directly my phone. So I'm gonna answer it. I might not it right away, but I'll call you at least. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: There you go. Elsie, thank you so much for being here. And for everyone that listened this far, thank you so much. Please hit all those buttons below. And if you're in Texas, in any district, especially where there is a runoff, get out and vote. Get out and vote May 26th. Yep. And ⁓ again, for anyone that doesn't is new to this podcast, just so you know, this podcast is about having hard conversations when necessary, fighting to break the status quo and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity, deserve rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Chelsey: Day 26. Breaking The Meta: Again, Chelsea, thank you for being here. For everyone else to see you next time, I'm breaking the meta. Bye, guys.