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Arizona Nurse vs Big Pharma & AIPAC | Elizabeth Lee · Breaking The Meta

• Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Elizabeth Lee, who is running for Arizona's fifth congressional district. Hello, Elizabeth, how are you doing today? Elizabeth Lee: Hello, lovely to meet you. Thank you. I'm doing okay. It's a nice day out here in Arizona and excited to chat with you further. Breaking The Meta: Good. Yeah. ⁓ So to start out for all these people that just don't know you in general, can you just give a little background on who you are and why you decided to run for Congress? Elizabeth Lee: Yeah, absolutely. I am Elizabeth Lee. I am a board certified reproductive health and infertility nurse with over 10 years experience in advancing roles from bedside care all the way to executive operations level care. ⁓ My true specialty is I am a systems fixer. So I understand systems both from a business perspective. and a clinical perspective, and I'm able to turn that into operational improvements that expand access to healthcare. So, and I came into that honestly, I was born with a rare genetic disease that plagued me from ⁓ the age of five because I was born and raised in a rural area with not a lot of access to care. I didn't have any way to figure that out unless I fought really hard and I ended up fighting. and solving the mystery on my own as a nurse. But I say that because I come by the fight that I have for other people stuck in broken systems. I come by it. Breaking The Meta: Wow. Well, I appreciate you being willing to jump into this because that's something that I think most of us would be like, no, thank you. ⁓ We're good. Elizabeth Lee: That was my answer the first nine times I was asked. It was like a hard pass. Absolutely. Oh my yes. I was like, are you kidding? No. Breaking The Meta: Really? What? So what was it that kind of flipped that switch and said, OK, this is the time? Elizabeth Lee: Thank You know, what ultimately became clear to me after in 2023 and 2024, I spent a lot of time meeting with different lawmakers in different capacities from local, like the mayor up to members of Congress about infertility, care and access. And I, as the current presidency has unfolded, you know, we've seen things go off the rails more and more. And it became clear to me that, you know, as I met these members of Congress, I would be there lobbying for my thing, but then I would say kind of on the side to like, Hey, like, what's the plan? ⁓ how are we going to stop this train that's derailed? And they all started their answer with the same sentence. And it was, well, first we have to flip the house. And then. There wasn't a lot of and then after and then the incumbent Andy Biggs is, you know, announced that he was going to seek the governor's office and he's been the representative in congressional district five, which is the East Valley of Phoenix. It is a once more rural area turned much more young families, but it is the whole sort of Eastern suburbia and then out into Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: the more rural areas of Maricopa County over into Pinal County. And anyway, so I kept hearing, you know, we got to the house and then we hear that Andy was retiring. And it was a shock to me that there was nobody like on deck, so to speak. I guess I, as a systems operations person, I assume we prepare people for this. Like, who do we have in mind? And everybody was kind of like, well, you'd have to find somebody crazy enough to run. ⁓ And over time that turned into if if not me then who and if not now then when like our democracy is on fire and Somebody is going to have to pick up the torch because there's nobody that's coming to save us. There's just not Breaking The Meta: Yeah. And that is a very common response from all of the people that I've interviewed, ⁓ which just shows how strong that feeling is across the country. Because a lot of people are like, was never going to run. I'd never considered running. But I just felt like I had to. Elizabeth Lee: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And when the issues that, are threatening other people are issues you have literacy and already advocating for specifically healthcare, obviously being a nurse, healthcare is what I see as a primary focus and they get a little flack for it. You're like, you always talk about healthcare and health is what else are you going to talk about? But in my, in my view, solid healthcare policy is the foundation of every other kind of policy. can't have solid economic. policy with productive humans if they're sick. This is very simple, right? ⁓ So because I had really fought, I learned to fight systems early on, and then I got a chance to use that in different scenarios and realize that most systems level problems, whether they're in a hospital or they're at on a baseball team or they're in a school, they're all pretty similar in terms of their underlying ideology. And Breaking The Meta: Yep. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: ⁓ so having, you know, the lived experience with the professional experience and then looking at this problem, which was the biggest gut punch. And I think that a turning point for me in terms of like, ⁓ my gosh, I can't deny this anymore. People keep asking me and I see a clear problem, but the big, beautiful bills passage last year on July 4th, I was in DC. My ⁓ extended family lives there and, ⁓ our kids go to summer camp in DC every summer anyway, which is kind of fun. Breaking The Meta: Ninth time's the charm. Mm. Elizabeth Lee: But we were there and I remember having this, you know, because I fought so hard for my own health care over the last 37, 30 plus years that I've been fighting for it. I've had over 30 surgeries. I mean, I am a very, and I've cracked codes that no doctor had yet been able to crack. But because of that, I'm like between that and I'm not willing or I'm not afraid to stand up to anyone. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: really, I think part of the problem that we see, or at least that I see in politics is this like strongly worded letter class of folks that seem to think that like, that's the mechanism by which you stand up to authoritarianism. And I'm over here like, no, I mean, you know, my party or not, I mean, we have standards that... Breaking The Meta: Right. Right. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: The rule of law matters, due process matters. There's things that have been enshrined in the rules and in the constitution. And whether my own party is failing at that or it's the other party. And I think career politicians have just grown very accustomed to they show up to the bowling alley, they're on the red team and they always throw their ball down the red, the right hand gutter. They just, that's their role. And I think Breaking The Meta: Yep. Yep. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: What I love and you probably have such a cool perspective on is that there's like this new generation of folks running for Congress, right? We look a lot different. We look a lot different as a cohort than I think ever before. And it is, it's because everyday ordinary people, but who have extraordinary talents in different areas have looked at each other and said, this is crazy and we can do better. Breaking The Meta: You Yep, absolutely is. Yep. Yeah. Yep. So I would love it if you could give us a little picture of the fifth district and what kind of stuff people are telling you as you walk around and talk to them how they can use your help in Congress. Elizabeth Lee: Yeah. Yeah, so the fifth district as I briefly alluded to was once a more farm and rural area. So when Andy Biggs first took office 10 years ago after he won the Publishers Clearinghouse sweepstakes and bankrolled his way into Congress, the district was, it was much more farm town rural red. I moved to Gilbert, Arizona, which is kind of right in the middle of the district. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Lee: in 2011 from another city in Tempe, closer to Phoenix. And when we moved here, in fact, our middle daughter was just three. And when we would take her to daycare every day, she would always say, that cow's stinky. When we would like go into the garage and get into the car, because it was, it was truly a very rural area. And over the last 10 years, this just morphed into a really wonderful place to raise the family. So Gilbert, Arizona is often ranked. Breaking The Meta: Yeah, yeah. Mmm. Elizabeth Lee: one of the best places to raise a family. We have a lot of young professionals. We have a lot of ⁓ college students that live in our district. Given housing costs and costs of everything, a lot of students are electing to stay and live at home and commute to ASU, which is just 25 minutes down the road. And we've got a number of amazing community colleges here within, across the district that Breaking The Meta: Yeah. There you go. Elizabeth Lee: are a great breeding ground for students to sort of get their collegiate experience. So you really have this broad swath of folks. I knock on doors, the things that I hear primarily, I like to ask this question, what keeps you up? Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Lee: Because the things that I lay stewing about at night are probably very different than things that you do and the things that other folks do. But when you start to talk to people and ask that same question over and over, you start to see these things bubble up. And one of the biggest things is that healthcare has become so expensive. And also now, harder to get. I remember talking to a woman who said she had a very rare, I want to say an autoimmune disease and that she had found this infusion, this IV infusion, it's given once a month and it truly changed her quality of life. And as a result of the big, beautiful bill and a lot of the changes that were made in the commercial insurance space, Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: especially with the onslaught of AI, that's another concern I hear a lot about here. And I'll talk about that in a second, because it's a little bit more an environmental concern, but we know that ⁓ we're using AI now to deny people's healthcare claims. And so people have this heightened sense of fear that, they can't afford the care they need and that you're really one car accident potentially away or one accident away from total bankruptcy. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: And in the richest country on planet Earth, the very minimums, especially because every other industrialized nation has figured it out. But what I think career politicians have failed to keep the reins on is this corporate billionaire oligarchy that has been building and growing. And that's another huge concern. And people say, why am I paying more taxes than Elon Musk? Why? Breaking The Meta: Right. Elizabeth Lee: Why is a school teacher, my son's second grade teacher, who cannot afford to live in this district? So we want her to commute to this district. We want young teachers to commute to the district. You can't live here. You're good enough to teach your kids, but you're not good enough to live here. And also we're going to chronically underfund the schools. So we actually are going to give each kid in Arizona around $5,000 less per year than the national average. Breaking The Meta: Right, of course. Elizabeth Lee: we will expect you as the kindhearted teacher that you are to meet, make up the difference. So teachers in Arizona are spending a thousand dollars out of their own pockets every single school year and still commuting into the district. so folks are frustrated by that when, when they see that the money that we say we don't have is actually just being lavished in other directions, AKA, you know, the Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: the ballroom and the East wing and the arch and the private planes and you know, on and on and on. And, people are like, right, right. And folks are like, okay, wait. So you told me, and I hear this, it's interesting. You knock on, I think, I don't know people, I don't know what people assume, but canvassing is a wonderful thing. I liken it to the way I would take on a new patient at the hospital in the morning. And I would like, okay, that's my list. I'm going to knock on this door. have absolutely no idea what's on the other end. Breaking The Meta: Right, all the things that we really need. Yep. Yep. Elizabeth Lee: And we're going to make the best of it. And so, but I do talk to a lot of ⁓ people who I go to the door for, let's say Sally, but Sally's husband, John comes to the door. Well, Sally's a Democrat, but John's a Republican. Which I love these doors because I love having the, like the full breadth of the conversation. But regardless of party, people are tired of watching, of struggling, of watching their kids struggle. They're tired of Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: hearing that now the average first time homebuyers 40 years old, that the American, if you're lucky, yeah, exactly. And I do, I talk to a lot of people in the district that are living, multifamilies are living in single family homes. So we actually noticed that starting to take place in our neighborhood around COVID. We started noticing just a lot more. Breaking The Meta: If you're lucky. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: multifamilies were having to move in together. Of course they were. mean, when 50 % of your income is going to housing and yet corporate interests and special interests own 30 % of American real estate, I think, you know, as much crap as technology gets, it has really given people a lot of like information, like, no, you're actually getting hosed by these billionaires and they think they gotcha. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: And right now they do, but, but, um, if 2025 six has really taught us anything, my goodness, it's the power of people organizing. Breaking The Meta: especially the power of social media, you're seeing that everywhere nowadays. Yep. ⁓ Elizabeth Lee: Yeah, yeah, yeah, recently we said, hey, tell us where you're seeing this message from. And I was just mind blown at countries all around the world. And, you know, the world is paying attention. And as much as many of us go, ⁓ God, we must look like total jack-o-lanterns the eyes of the world. I think many people are easily able to see that there are some of us that are fighting with everything that we have. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: to try to hold on to the American ideal that I think we grew up believing was ours for the taking. Breaking The Meta: Absolutely. I've been surprised as of late because you were talking about how the world is watching. ⁓ As someone who does a podcast as well, I look at my analytics every once in a while. And the biggest rise in people watching have been people overseas. most of my content is interviewing people that are running for office. So we've got people literally Elizabeth Lee: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Breaking The Meta: everywhere from the Southeast Asia to Europe to every literally worldwide that are so that so care what's going on here that they're listening to me interview people that are running for office. Elizabeth Lee: Yeah. Thank Yeah Yeah, I mean that should tell us a lot of things. But it is comforting to know that not everybody conflates us with. Because I think initially, I want to even say even during Trump 1.0, think people were like, are you guys cool with this? For a while, I think folks were like, ⁓ that's just what America is doing now. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: And then it started to go so far off the rails. Well, and then we thought we saved ourselves. And then, we let the guy, we brought the trash back in the house. You never do that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Breaking The Meta: Right. No, no. ⁓ You mentioned AI, and I know some of the problems that a lot of other states deal with. I'm assuming with Arizona, especially with the well-known water issues that Arizona already deals with, that is one of the biggest fears for a lot of people when it comes to AI data centers potentially coming to Arizona. Elizabeth Lee: That's right. Yeah. I think that I think the biggest concern is that that environmental piece of we already have doubts about our water security and we have seen counties across Arizona sort of be oversold on the way water rights work and the way water transfers between owners is a very strange thing that I'm just sort of now learning about as a politician, but You know, I just think that we are already ⁓ in a precarious position as a state. mean, we see the temperatures rising. see the summers are getting hotter and they're staying hotter for longer. think last year we broke a record this March in Arizona for hottest day earliest in the year. mean, and each year that continues to rise. So you combine that baseline with we want to use all of this water And the developers are not forthright with the parties that be the stakeholders with the actual draw of water and power, but also the sort of falsity that is the job creation. So here in this district in Chandler, Arizona, I think this was sometime in the middle of last fall, there was a really big push to the city of Chandler. Breaking The Meta: Right. Elizabeth Lee: and ordinance that you couldn't put data centers, thank the Lord. ⁓ And yet I think, I don't know for what reason they were trying to make an exception, but these developers had really convinced some people that the economic output of it, the job output was so much different than it actually is. And so you combine, you've got these big data centers that are ⁓ consuming precious resources. Breaking The Meta: Right. Elizabeth Lee: We're seeing that the burden of added energy costs is not appropriately being reflected to the businesses who, by the way, are making all the big dollars off of these energy expenditures. And then now I'm seeing recent data to suggest that the ambient temperature around data centers can be up to two degrees warmer, that the noise affects. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yep. Yep. Elizabeth Lee: People here really fought hard. ⁓ In fact, we were really excited. We got ⁓ a big shout out from Bernie Sanders because we showed up and we held that city council in session for five hours of public comment. And the council was like, okay, I guess we're not doing it. I mean, it was just, ⁓ I mean, it was just such a show of community force. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Wow. I think we've got our answer. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: And people really did a lot of research and understood what the problems were and then kind of held the developer's feet to the fire so that folks could see that it was kind of an empty promise. So that's concern here with, you know, with data centers, primarily, especially when we have groups like turning point, ⁓ trying to take over the boards of the electrical company, utility company. So that just happened last week in Arizona turning point. ⁓ of money into the Salt River project, the SRP board, which is one of the largest electrical companies in Arizona. And they poured tons of money organizing into getting ⁓ folks that would be super pro data center and very pro corporation. And we were very thrilled because we want a majority, the clean energy team. fought, we turned out. Breaking The Meta: Right. Elizabeth Lee: three times as many people that had ever voted in that small little utility board election. But people really said, like, let's teach people about this. Let's show them the absurdity of this. And I think, you know, folks are waking up to being like, oh, we might have a little more power than we thought. Yeah. Yeah. Imagine that. Breaking The Meta: Wow. ⁓ That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ I think one of the other issues that a lot of people have with politicians, politics in general, regardless of the side of the aisle you're on is an idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to ⁓ when it comes to their representatives. What what does accountability look like to you? What does it look like to be held accountable by your constituents? Elizabeth Lee: Yeah, I'm really glad you asked this because this is a central theme of our campaign. And that is that part of the way that we've gotten into the position that we are has been a very slow burn of a lack of accountability and a lack of people holding people's feet to the fire. So I have already demonstrated this in terms of being willing to stand up to my own party. We have The state of Arizona has clear requirements for what it takes to make the ballot. And, you know, there's some folks that are really upset with me for calling attention to the fact when we held our own selves accountable and said, because I didn't know this, might find surprising until just two days before we turned in our signatures. I learned that no one actually double checks that these are valid signatures. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ really? Elizabeth Lee: And I was mind blown because we had spent ⁓ several weeks at full capacity and we got 500 more signatures than we needed because I was like, you know, we need to be sure. And in the process of checking that we were still solid, you know, we discovered that another candidate wasn't and just bringing that information, you know, and I guess maybe I naively assumed that, you know, we are the party of doing the right thing. But. Breaking The Meta: Wow. Right. Elizabeth Lee: You know, hands had to be forced and rather than seeing the person who failed to meet the requirements as being, you know, like this is it sounds like that's something that you should work on meeting the requirements, you know, but no, instead, we're mad at the person who called for accountability. And I have said since day one that accountability matters if we cannot stand up to our own party. How on earth should our constituents expect us to stand up? to ⁓ the other party. And I think also an accountability, part of accountability is transparency. And that's where I've tried to go shine the light of transparency on things, for example, like ICE detention centers and the heartbreaking social realities that are now happening because of these things. There are... literal teenagers in the Phoenix metro area and even in over here in my district in the East Valley, there are teenagers raising toddlers because the breadwinners in that family were abducted by ICE. I have seen ICE abductions take place. I have walked a mom to and from the bus stop with her children because they were being yelled racially, you know, hateful things ⁓ with ICE staging in the neighborhood, you know, like Breaking The Meta: Hmm. Mm. Wow. Elizabeth Lee: these are the things that this is part of accountability is the transparency of no, is this let's set the records straight on the actual facts because if we've learned anything from Donald Trump is that he has an uncanny ability to twist facts very quickly into something that sounds kind of good and you're like, how did I fall for that? But accountability to me means just that I think that, you know, Breaking The Meta: Yes. Elizabeth Lee: Today, more than ever before, Americans are waking up to the influence that special interests have on our elections and on our Congress specifically. And they're seeing that ⁓ directly through the influence of APAC and how it has bought and paid for politicians who you wonder why they don't vote your way. And then you dig deeper and say, where is your money coming from? As a grassroots candidate, who has pledged not to take corporate PAC money and ⁓ certainly not APAC money, it's hard work to spend three hours a day calling people and asking them for money. That is very, very hard, sometimes soul-sucking work. ⁓ And so I can understand how the grip of special interests became so strong and also Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: We are seeing, like I said, public polling is showing that more people disapprove of the effects of APAC on our government than approve of it. And that's something, right? That's something. and listen, taking that stance, was easy from a personal perspective. It was like, well, duh. But politically, you know, like it is, you you watch a lot of, and I think that the, Breaking The Meta: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: politicians that are going to find themselves in a really sad place on, ⁓ you know, the day after election day is those folks who did not realize how people are tired of this riding of the moderate middle, you know, lane. People want you to take a stand and stick up for something because it is all of the things shrouded in the, well, maybe and it's complicated and then, you know, it's more to it than you realize. And it's like, no, there's really not. ⁓ but that's, hard to stand up to power that way. If, if you're not used to it, I always give the example. If I am your nurse and your doctor, who I am great friends with rights and order for me to give you five times the safe dose of blood thinner. And I look at the order and I go, you know what though? I love doctors. So and so he is so cool. And I, I'm probably just going to do it. Sorry. That's what. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: our representatives are doing to us every single day. They are selling out. are looking at that friend of theirs and saying, yeah, you know what? I pick you, not my constituents. And we can change that if we elect people that don't take that special interest money. I'm proud to be a part of a coalition of candidates across the country that have pledged to file articles of impeachment on day one and then actually move to pass real legislation that addresses the affordability crisis. Breaking The Meta: Right. Elizabeth Lee: that's unfolding in this country on everything from gas to food to healthcare that addresses the public education crisis that we have in this country, especially in Arizona. We have a billion dollar mess of this voucher system that went wild. We gotta pull those things back, but we have to start by, I think, just bringing in a new generation of leaders. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. So speaking of an administration that likes to ⁓ spin things to make things seem really good, ⁓ in the last 14 months, ⁓ this administration, despite its many, claims of ⁓ being great again, ⁓ has failed in many, ways. ⁓ Tariffs. Elizabeth Lee: you Mm-hmm. Breaking The Meta: the ACA subsidy lost, the government shut down, invasion of Venezuela, threatening our allies, and now a war in Iran. Needless to say, after these 14 months already, America is really no longer in the same place on the world stage that we were for the last 80 years since World War Two. How do you see America moving forward? Knowing that our allies don't trust us, our enemies don't trust us, pretty much no one trusts us. Elizabeth Lee: Yeah Breaking The Meta: to do anything, especially now that we've voted back in a guy who tried to overthrow the government. Elizabeth Lee: Yeah, I mean, and I think that I would say like, yeah, I understand why you don't trust us. And I think, and also that lack of trust is, is due in, in full part to the just wild west nature of this administration. And I would like to believe that if we can do what we need to do, which is organize the hell. out of this election. I mean, we have to knock every single door in every single community. We have to be all hands on deck. But if we are able to flip the house, not as a mechanism to defeat the Republicans, but as a mechanism of checks and balances to slow the bleeding. If I have a patient that comes in from a motor vehicle accident and they're bleeding, the very first thing I need to do is control that bleeding. Because if I'm over here just making sure that their pillows comfy the whole time, this is not going to be a great outcome. Right? So we really do. I think the folks that are elected to the 120th Congress, which is the next Congress, last several Congresses have been the least affected, the least efficient Congresses in the history of the country. But the 120th Congress, which commences this coming January, if we are bold, if we are brave, if we Breaking The Meta: No, no, I don't think that would be good. Elizabeth Lee: Do not do the same thing that we've done in past elections and expect it to work. So that starts with messaging. I find that folks want to talk values. And when you start with values, you start on a building up, not tearing down. ⁓ I'll even ask people if I'm in a conversation and something potentially divisive comes up, I'll say, can we table that for a second? And let's Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Lee: focus on building a little bit of goodwill here. And people want that. They want somebody who's going to build a bridge. So I think the folks that are elected to this next Congress are going to have maybe the hardest job yet because we're going to have to slow the bleeding. We're going to have to slow the swing of the pendulum down. That's something else I talk about a lot is that we have lived through those of us who are like, I don't know, 30, 40, 50 right now. I sort of lived through this dystopian last decade of Trump's control. And I think a lot of the things that we thought were going to happen or we thought we took for granted in life just did not come to pass. And so I would like to believe that a courageous group of new leadership to come in to slow the swing of that pendulum down because it's not doing Democrats any good. to pull the pendulum so far to the left because where does it go when you let it go? It does not go back to the center. So I have this mental picture in my head of the next Congress and the courageous folks that were gonna elect that Congress. I have this visual of like a bookend where we're sort of just all working together as a unit to slow that down and that. That's everything from how we message. Again, more on not, we're not against these, this. We're not trying to defeat this. We are for healthcare that doesn't bankrupt you and that you can count on. We are for, I think that's what folks are really, especially because the days of Trump have put people in a very other this versus that, good versus bad, left versus right. And my sense, especially from the 2000 doors or so that I knocked on to get on the ballot, was that people we really do surprise each other by how much more we have in common than we think. It's when you apply the partisan lens or the partisan construct that both parties kind of feed. And I see this huge lane just across the country. And you would know better than I because you've interviewed so many candidates. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Lee: You you see, when you see a first time female candidate who's a Democrat win the Mar-a-Lago Florida House seat, when you start agreeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene, this is how you know that the tides are turning. Or at least I'm going to hold on to that. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ yeah. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. So this this brings up an interesting point. Normally, at this point, I ask you the first things you're going to do when you go into office, but you actually kind of already talked about one of the least a couple of the things you wanted to do. But that's OK, because I think you talked about some things that are worth going into a little bit more. So, yes, there is. a division going on. And I think I agree that ⁓ in general, we agree on more than we disagree. I think there is this overarching issue where our fundamentals, ⁓ there isn't an agreement on the fundamentals, even if we may actually, if we can get to a point of looking at it from a higher tier, I think we can find a level of agreement. But right now, There is this idea for too many people that certain people don't deserve the kind of rights that a lot of us on the left. And I think that's where the division really comes in. that's allowed us to, that being said, so let's assume that you guys win, the Democrats win the 120th Congress, but it's. Elizabeth Lee: and it's Right. Right. Breaking The Meta: you know, let's say like a 10, 15 person thing. But we also we potentially are still dealing with the problem of a Senate that let's say it's dead even a 50 50 or something like that. It's not it's not the 60 that you need to get past a filibuster. How do you see how do you see working in a Congress like that, knowing that there are things that do have to get done, like passing a budget every year? Elizabeth Lee: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Breaking The Meta: And we already know that this president is going to want to ⁓ increase our DOD budget by an extra $500 billion and a lot of other things that Americans don't want. But we've got a president who's got veto power. How do you see working in a situation like that, knowing that there's a lot of people that want change and you want to promise that change, but you know you can't promise that change? Elizabeth Lee: Mm-hmm. Right. Well, I think we have to be very disciplined and realistic about what it will look like to only control power in one chamber. Right. So my personal view on this is, you know, I look at Ro Khanna and Thomas Massey as a wonderful beacon of how to do this, how to come together with somebody across the aisle on an issue that really matters to you. It's a must pass item for you. And I think that was one of the best things, especially for the victims themselves, that those two legislators could have done was to come together across the aisle. ⁓ And so I think that's the first vehicle is, you know, again, I think Democrats are going to have to do stuff differently, they're going to have to approach problems differently. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Lee: And I think folks coming into the next Congress who are willing to sit down and have a genuine off record conversation about, listen, what do we care about here? And oversight pressure helps as well because the House is in charge of oversight. the more that, and this is where I will joke sometimes, like what House committee do you want to be on? I'm like, ⁓ my, I am. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Elizabeth Lee: I am manifesting my role on the House Oversight Committee because, again, that is what I'm already doing as your candidate for this role is I'm doing oversight. I'm going in and looking and seeing and sharing. I go to the city council meetings after I hear certain things at the door a couple of times. I'm like, these legislators need to hear that. So I think in Congress, if we control only the House and Breaking The Meta: You Elizabeth Lee: You know, we can't get past the 60 vote threshold in the Senate. That coalition building across the aisle, you're not going to get big sweeping ideological wins, right? Because that's not where you're going to build coalition. But I think you can deliver real policy change. Look at the theme that changed Marjorie Taylor Green's whole perspective pretty much on all of this. was that her adult children. received word that their healthcare premiums were going to skyrocket. And we were like, Marge, yeah, that's kind of what we've been saying for a hot minute. But that was the thing that woke her up. so I think you focus on things that places where politics forces kind of forces bipartisan movement, things like lowering drug prices, that is a winnable or that's a winnable fight. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: focusing on taking care of our veterans. That's a pretty winnable fight. ⁓ And we look even at like things like water infrastructure out West here. Those are things where if you focus first and that's part of what I'm so excited about with this coalition of other candidates that I've been working with is that we've caucus on 70 plus different issues. So we know where we have some really solid numbers to make some things move. And if Senate members, especially from swing states, start feeling pressure, they will move, especially if we deliver Donald Trump the lame duck Congress that he deserves. mean, Mike Johnson himself said that if the Democrats win back the House, it's the end of the Trump presidency. Folks, if you're not supporting a congressional candidate right now that's trying to force change, you better find one and do it. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: because ⁓ Mike Johnson himself, they tell us the quiet part out loud. So yeah, I really do think, and that's where you use things like must pass kind of legislation on things like the funding bill ⁓ on debt ceiling packages that control our spending. mean, that could not be a more tried and true Republican value. And yet we've looked at the debt is just. Breaking The Meta: Ahem. Right. Elizabeth Lee: skyrocketing. I think that you use oversight as leverage to shine the light on places where failures are happening. You subpoena records, you hold hearings, but the power to do that in the House is going to be so much more powerful because you're actually going to be able to pass things out of committee. ⁓ And then again, you're building coalitions. Remember, there's a Breaking The Meta: Yes. Elizabeth Lee: heck of a lot more lobbyists than there are members of Congress. So the coalition building cannot just be within the Congress. It has to be within and to the organizations, the patient groups, the business leaders, the farm communities, the local governments, the places where that coalition truly matters. And then really embrace a co-governance model of as your representative, Breaking The Meta: Yes. Elizabeth Lee: I want you to tell me how and what kind of we're fighting for. And then you also, you you don't have to start with a perfect bill. ⁓ I remember hearing Tammy Duckworth, who's one of my political heroes. She's been a huge advocate for IVF legislation, but heard her talk about, you don't start with a perfect bill. You start with what you think. Right. And I think, but I think a lot of, Breaking The Meta: Probably no such thing as a perfect bill. Elizabeth Lee: teams try to like, you get that perfect thing and instead like looking for areas even where at a state level you may be able to get a legislative win here in Arizona. We're working very hard to flip our state legislature. The Arizona state legislature. If you ever are bored one late night, just read some of the legislation that there that paid members of our legislative bodies here believe should be lost. Breaking The Meta: Ha Elizabeth Lee: ⁓ And so some of that as well. So I've built coalitions already as a candidate with school board candidates, city council candidates, and city legislature candidates, because we're all going to actually have to work together. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Right. does ⁓ that, does getting to that point and getting past the point, because I think one of the other issues that I've seen is also this desire by people in Congress to get wins and not lose. I think there's this loss of we're working for the people and really it's just a desire to look like you've won them. Elizabeth Lee: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think people really dislike being told to disbelieve the things that they see in here. And so I think we only lose folks trust when we fail to call it as it is. ⁓ And as a politician, that can be hard. You're never ever going to please everybody all the time. You're never going to make the decision that's going to make everybody happy. ⁓ But what you can do is you can stand firm in Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: your decision making process, the fact that you did have a process and came to a decision with a certain group of experts. That's one thing I find we do it. We've almost done it to ourselves because we have this conflated idea or this weird view of what a congressperson should be. When you realize and you meet a lot of elected officials, you realize that they're people just like you and me. And so I think more Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: know, embracing this idea that again, we can bring in a new generation of leaders once again, that the strongly worded letters is the thing of the past. It's kind of, I always say it belongs the same place as the gentleman's agreements and that's in the garbage because we have, I believe, a pretty short runway left to really change this. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Yeah. ⁓ Elizabeth, for everyone that's listened up until this point and heard everything that you and I have talked about, what are one or two things that no matter what you would want them to come away with knowing about you and your campaign? Elizabeth Lee: I think the number one thing that I can share is that I actually deeply believe everything you just heard. This is not about a title or power. This is about something I've always tried to do in my life is embrace my own hardships and turn those into things that make other people's lives easier. And it literally was a dozen people coming to me saying, really are so on fire when you're fighting for other people. Why don't you take that to the next level? And so I just deeply believe in fairness down to my core. ⁓ And these are things I actually stay up at night worrying about on other people's behalf because ⁓ because it is a deeply held belief and it's one that I've had to go through a lot, a lot of life trauma to get to. And you know, your parents always said like they wished you would learn from their struggles, you know? ⁓ throughout many of the struggles in my life, like I mentioned, I've had 30 surgeries, right? But it's always been, how can I learn something or glean something from this to make someone else's journey easier? And that is just what, it's what gets me up in the morning. It's what fulfills my soul. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Elizabeth Lee: Just like. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. For anyone that wants to learn more about you and support you, whether it's through volunteering or donations, where can they find you? Elizabeth Lee: Thank you. Yes, absolutely. So you can find us on all the social media platforms at nurse Lee, the number four AZ. So that's nurse L E E the number four AZ that's on all the socials. And then that's our website as well. So nurse Lee, the number four AZ.com. have 80 volunteers and counting. ⁓ we want to quadruple that in the next month and a half. So we would love anyone local that wants to feel like they have an outlet for all of that passion and desire for change. We have a place for you in our campaign. And if you're not local and you can even give us 10 or 15 dollars a month, I promise you it makes a huge, huge difference. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Elizabeth, thank you for coming in and sitting down with us and letting us get to know you a little bit. I appreciate that. Elizabeth Lee: My pleasure. Thank you so much for the opportunity and thank you for what you're doing to shine a light on this new group of us that's coming to fight for everyone. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. And for everyone that has listened up until this point, also thank you. Please like, subscribe, hit all the buttons down below. It makes it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is interview amazing people like Elizabeth and hundreds of other people around the country. ⁓ These people are doing exactly what we've been asking them to do. ⁓ We want the status quo broken. want them to be able, they want them to be willing to be held accountable. We want them to not take corporate PAC money. Elizabeth Lee: Yes! Breaking The Meta: That means they need your support to get visibility and name recognition in ways that are against the norm. So please watch, share, comment on their stuff, on my stuff. Everything that you do increases the chance that their name will be seen, especially in their district. So please do all of that. And for any of that might be new to this podcast, just so you know, Breaking the Met is about having hard conversations when necessary, fighting to break the status quo, and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity, deserve rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Again, Elizabeth, thank you for being here. For everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys.