Latest / Breaking The Meta / She Googled How to Run for Congress, Then Moved Her Family to the Front Lines | Esther Kim-Varet

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She Googled How to Run for Congress, Then Moved Her Family to the Front Lines | Esther Kim-Varet · Breaking The Meta

• Breaking The Meta: I don't know if I can feel like this for four years. And I told my husband, we don't have to feel like this. All we got to do is go flip a seat. ⁓ then I Googled how to run for Congress. And also being the dumb dumb that I am, aside from Googling how to run for Congress and deciding to do it, is people were like, you don't have to move into the district to run. But what we didn't realize was that the two incumbents. would stay fighting each other for the same seat. When you're on the Democratic side, like, you see how, a shit show it is on our side, you're like, ⁓ they're probably super organized over there. They're both at it with each other, trying to out-MAGA each other. you Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Esther Kim Verrett, who is running for California's 40th district to get into the US Congress. Hello, Esther. How are you doing? Hi, Mike. Nice to speak to you. It's great to speak to you too. This has been a wild beginning of 2026. know you guys just officially turned in all of your stuff to be able to just to start running for Congress. But there's been a lot going on in this world and especially in California, you got some crazy races going on over there. Yeah. This has been literally one of the most messed up journeys of my life. I didn't know. Well, first of all, I'd never run for anything before I ran. ⁓ it was a call to action after the November elections where we got our butts whooped and I felt so terribly, you know, like the feeling that we all had and Trump 1.0 and that we have now, but I was like, literally when that feeling hit me, I was like, I don't know if I can feel like this for four years. Yeah. And I told my husband, cause we have, you know, it's, he's also, ⁓ And unfortunately for him linked to me and all the decisions I make. I said, we don't have to feel like this. All we got to do is go flip a seat. only three seats away and we can put some brakes on it. And, ⁓ and then I Googled how to run for Congress. And, and I decided, you know, I started running in the nearest flip seat to LA, which actually happened to be the last Republican seat in Orange County. And so. ⁓ And also being the dumb dumb that I am, ⁓ aside from Googling how to run for Congress and deciding to do it, is people were like, you don't have to move into the district to run because a lot of people don't live in the district and it's not required by. California doesn't have that requirement. No state does. ⁓ Yeah, you don't have to live in that you only have to live in the state of the district. Yeah. Fun fact, not a lot of people know that. That's why. Yeah, this is why a lot of people in Congress, actually, if you look it up, if you look up these kinds of controversies, a lot of people in Congress that represent their districts don't live there. I was like, you know, that doesn't feel right to me if I'm going to do it. I don't I don't know if I can lie like that when I'm talking to people. Like I wouldn't be like, hey neighbor, like drive back to LA. I understand everything you're feeling. exactly. Like I just, it just wasn't, it was also so antithetical to everything that I am. And it was ⁓ that I like literally convinced my husband that we were going to take our young kids out of their schools and move to Orange County. We're going to do this patriotic thing for our country. and go flip a seat and this was gonna be our 1935 moment and we were gonna take a stand as American citizens and so we just did it. We did it and then when you're you know when you're like running towards a goal and then you look around and nobody else is running with you and you're like, where is everybody? Like why aren't people freaking out the same way that we are? And so yeah, I mean this is again like. I haven't met another congressional candidate that has uprooted their lives and moved towards the front lines of where democracy is fought. I expected more people, honestly, to be doing stuff like that. And what I see around me still are career politicians running in these races. And I'm just like, no, how come we can't get this? Like, how come we can't figure this out that we don't want those people? That's the problem. ⁓ And so I decided to continue running even after Prop 50. And ⁓ this race has gotten harder, but different. ⁓ So much. when I first started running, was running against one woman, Young Kim. She's a mega Korean American woman. I'm also Korean. If you're only hearing this on audio, I know that you can't see me. ⁓ nor do I really have an accent. I have a Texan accent, which is going to throw you really off if you watch the video, that I'm Korean American and I was like, I'm going to go unseat this woman who in many cycles should have been unseated previously because Biden carried this original district by two points in 2020 and Trump only carried it by two points in this last cycle. Wow. And ⁓ the reason why she has kind of held on to this seat is because she gets so much dirty money. Like she is literally by NCTizens United, you know how they give grades to all the different people in Congress? She gets an F, okay? And like, as an Asian American that's super shameful first and foremost, like who gets an F? And secondly. Her parents would be horrified right now. Disappointment. So much disappointment. The League of Conservation Voters gives her an F minus, and I keep on saying, and the only great she does get an A in is with the NRA. So I was like, okay, you know what? Let's do it. Let's get this, like, let's get her out. And I started running and it was an R plus five when I first started running last year. And then I ran for six months and then they like, you know, the Cook's political report, they like then recategorize it as a toss up. ⁓ Yeah, were like, people were like, okay, if you just raise a lot of money, you can do it. I'm the third highest raiser in the country as far as Democratic challengers go. Wow. I like figured out how to do it. I literally was like, if there's one thing that I can do is kind of mobilize and fundraise. I come from the art world. So ⁓ I come from a background where I represent and support artists. that don't have safety nets. I am their breadwinner, I am their therapist, I am their financial planner, I am their everything from like ages 24 to 84. So I'm like, I'm literally that person. But in order for me to do that, I have this other side of me where I have to then travel across the country promoting their work and basically being friends with multi-millionaires and billionaires that are left-leaning and philanthropic. And so I have this interesting network that pre-existed and that most candidates like first time candidates don't go in with. And it's largely an untapped network that even seasoned politicians don't have access to. So I'm like a very unusual candidate in that sense. And then also I've been working a lot on growing my social media and so many of my donations come in through small dollar donations, but I've had 50,000 donations. And so that's wild. That's amazing. I know. I'm like, again, first time candidate. A seat that I think we should really be able to win. But then bam, Prop 50 happened. And what they did is they merged my like Republican ish seat with the other Republican seat in Riverside next door and like smash them together. And basically the the idea was that it would bop one of the Republican, it would retire one of the Republicans automatically. So I was like, oh man, now it's gonna get like, now the numbers are harder and blah, blah, blah. But what we didn't realize was that the two incumbents would stay fighting each other for the same seat. We just thought, you know, cause I think when you're on the Democratic side, you're like, you see how, what a shit show it is on our side. You're like, oh, they're probably super organized over there. on the GOP side. like I, I mean, my team too, we all kind of expected one of them to run in another seat or do something else, but they both stuck with it. Wow. And now they're both at it with each other, like out trying to outmaga each other. So they're the they're the Cornyn and Paxton of of Texas, of of California. Absolutely. That's that's that is the right metaphor. And ⁓ that Texas race was super interesting because Jasmine Crockett had endorsed me and I love Jasmine. But actually half my team is Talerico's team too. Really? Yeah. You really? This is going to be one of my favorite interviews of all time. You got it. This is amazing. And ⁓ yeah, I just did a Zoom town hall yesterday with ⁓ Chuck Rocha, who's on CNN all the time, led Tellurico's team, who's on my team. And we did a, let's break it down, let's break Texas down and see how many parallels there are actually with this race here. ⁓ And so that was fun. I'm glad that ⁓ they were both very good candidates, Jasmine Crockett and Tellurico, for very different audiences, obviously. ⁓ But I, ⁓ I mean, I don't know. What can I say? Like going back to your original question of like, ⁓ how am I doing? I feel like I've aged by like a century inside. You know, this face looks pretty good still, but it's like. It does look pretty good. I'm kidding. I'm like, the Korean skincare routine is really keeping this up. But ⁓ no, it's been. And I keep on saying like this district is such an interesting district because it has ridden out all of the seizures of our democracy as we are living through them in real time over the last, like since Trump, you know, with the redistricting and then like, ⁓ and what's also really interesting about this district is that it's, it's over 40 % independent, which is actually a pretty accurate reflection of where America is. so this district is not your typical California district. is literally a microcosm of America as a whole. And I do believe that the headways that we can make in this district will be reflective of ⁓ headways that we'll be able to make in presidentials. Yeah. One of the things that I like asking all candidates, because I think it's really important in 2026, probably more than it's been up until this point. Because I think it's something that I'm hearing from pretty much every voter that I've talked to, especially on the, on the left, but even on the right is this idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to our, ⁓ our politicians, our representatives, how, how do you see accountability in your life? How do you see accountability moving forward with, as, as a, as a representative of your district? Yeah. As I mentioned, the incumbents of this district, again, let me just preface because I say incumbents, plural, it is the only race in the country that has two incumbents running in the same seat. It's such a wacky seat. But both of them are seen as missing in action. There are means about these incumbents being like as Waldo. Like, where's Waldo? The young Kim has not had a town hall in, I want to say six years. And Ken Calvert hasn't had a town hall since 1997. What? He's been in Congress since I was in second 30 years? And I'm not, I'm not young. ⁓ What I'm trying to message is that I am in the district. Again, this is why it felt really important for me to put my money where my mouth is and to be different. People are like, you need to stop replying to people on social media. You can't reply to everybody. I'm like, telling you, I want to reply because I want people to feel heard. Like, it's such a simple thing for me to do. It's huge for the other side when you're, when you feel like your representatives have not been listening. And it is something that I am so dedicated to changing. have made a public announcement that I'm going to do a town hall every month during my campaign. And while I'm in Congress on zoom, you can come and ask questions. We'll keep it to 30, 45 minutes. But I feel like that's the minimum that as a representative you should be able to do. It feels like very basic. It feels basic. Everyone should be doing that, And if you're, like as a candidate, if you are running in opposition to people that have been missing, you have to illustrate how you're gonna be different. You can't just be like, well this person never shows up, blah, blah. You have to figure out and give people tangible solutions to this and start acting on them now, not what you're gonna do later. Because we're tired of people gaslighting us, making false promises, and then not showing up again. And it's so important for me as a constituent to articulate that. And it's important for me as someone that's running that, that says that they want to represent individuals just like me to put that in action. so, ⁓ and there's so many things to talk about right now that I feel like people are not getting enough guidance from DC. Like, what are we going to do with our education system in the era of AI? mean, what about these conversations around scarcity of water, fresh water resources. Like there's so many things that we are not hearing from our electeds about that are so critical to this idea of prosperity in the future. Yeah. And do you think that part of the problem also lies that let's just use right now. you know, there's a lot of there's issues that California has, as you've already mentioned, things like water. Affordability is obviously a huge thing in California. And they're in Washington right now with a partial government shutdown where they can't, I don't even think most people actually process the fact that DHS still isn't funded, which means TSA still isn't funded, which means FEMA also still isn't funded. And they're just, they're just, they're just doing their thing. and no one's hearing anything. And do you want me to tell you something that's really sad that's happening right here I don't want to, but I think you should. I'll tell you, related to the TSA thing. It's like, oh, a friend, someone that I know, I have, okay, so I own art galleries. Okay, that's my profession, that's what I do. But I also sit on a lot of different kinds of nonprofit boards, one of which is a food equity board. that ⁓ essentially brings smaller farmers markets to food deserts throughout Southern California where people don't have access to fresh fruits and vegetables and they can use their SNAP EBT programs to buy those kinds of things. And it links small farmers that can't get into the industrial produce cycle. and link small farmers with needs in communities. Right. Okay. So that's like one thing that I do. So I talked to a lot of different people in the food and security space. Orange County alone need the largest food bank has had to triple their capacity. At the beginning of last year, they were serving 200,000 families. Now they serve 600,000. Okay. This is it's only going to get worse. And they just had, it's called second harvest had just had to since last fall, open a food bank post at John Wayne airport for all the TSA workers. Cause they have not been able to afford. Right. Yeah. Cause they've been doing a month. And, and this is, these are the things that we are not talking about enough. how these abstract things that we hear out there, we're not seeing and hearing enough the stories of how it impacts people that are, they're like, ⁓ TSA is fine. gonna get their They're gonna get paid at some point. They're gonna get paid. But in that time, do you realize that they are having to rely on food banks? Like, we don't talk about the impact enough. I don't know how we got on this, but it's like, there's so many things like this. And I'm like, we need better storytellers on the Democratic side of how this is impacting our neighbors. We don't have enough storytellers that make the connection between the pain we're feeling on the ground and the policies that are being decided on in DC. And Again, it's like, I have made it a big priority of mine to communicate. It is ⁓ something that I feel like I want as a constituent and something that I deserve. ⁓ And I think it's also a demand that we have to put that we have better communicators of a younger generation. I hate to say it, but anybody in their 60s and 70s, no matter how much social media they do, it's just not sexy. I don't even want to think about that. You're right. You're right. You know what I mean? It's just so hard to watch and to listen to. have to. I see any of those senators get on and try and do something on social media, I just, it hurts inside. It's so painful. Yeah. Again, I'm not saying like everybody should be a Pete Hegseth or Donald Trump and come from like this other world. But I do think like, let's be better about picking our storytellers. It seems easy enough. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, It is one of the reasons that this podcast actually exists is to actually get people's stories and try and understand where everyone's coming from. So I'm on your side all the way. And I would love to keep telling stories about what's going on across this country. Your your district is is two districts that are that are combined. What has been what has been your experience walking around and talking to two people that maybe have been historically conservative in their voting. This last year has the stuff with the tariffs and Iran and everything else that has gone on over the last year and a half. Has that changed any of the conversation in your district as you're going around? It's hard to tell. I think it depends on what part of the district that you're going in. ⁓ I think if you are more upper middle class, you tend to be a little bit slower to fall off the Trump bandwagon because the economic pain doesn't feel as acute yet. ⁓ And you might have delusions that you're part of the billionaire class, but you're not, which is kind of like a very American thing. is so American. It really is. ⁓ But we also have parts of this district, again, when I say this is such an interesting swath and such an accurate representation of America is that you have like suburban, quite a bit of suburban, not as much urban, suburban and rural. And once you get out to that rural, to the areas where it's like everybody's paintballing in camo on the weekends and... You know the type. I do. do. And you talk to them, it's people are genuinely cynical of any party. hate all politicians. It's like they are at the end of their rope. They have been you know, they might've voted for Obama and then they went from, you know, it's like they've been ping ponging everywhere and they hate everybody. And so also when I introduce myself, I have to be careful. basically am like, I am not a politician. I have never run before. I'm a mom that is concerned about my kid's future, the future of the people that worked for me in their twenties and thirties. I'm a millennial. Like my generation is the first generation that is not going to be as prosperous. as our parents' generation in the first time in American history. Like, there's a problem, and I feel like nobody is helping us. So I'm doing the one thing that I know how to do, which is run towards the fire and try to put it out. And when I talk to people like that, they're like, okay, I can talk to you. When you're like, when I'm like, I'm just a normal person. I'm just a normal, unhinged mom. out. True. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is. It's like, like I have like such unhinged mama bear energy where I'm like, I just, it makes me so deeply sad and uncomfortable and I cannot bear to stay still. ⁓ And so that has been a way where I've been able to be like, listen, I've been a lifelong Democrat. There have been parts of my party that have really disappointed me too. I would say at this point in my life, I am a common sense Democrat. know you can't, I can't use the word centrist because somehow that's a dirty word these days. Apparently it's a dirty word. I mean, I can only speak for myself. I don't consider myself on any part of that spectrum. And that's mostly because for me, it's just, let's just start. I've never identified. I've been voting now for almost 30 years. And I've never associated full like I have I have always leaned a direction and I've always voted. I'm not always, but I've always had a certain mindset, but I've never wanted to associate with a party specifically ⁓ because I don't think as voters, we should be about parties. What we should care about is what you stand for as a person does. And I care about. I care about my neighbors. care about my community. I care about American society. Who do I think is going to actually do that? That's the person. I don't care about a letter next to your name. Interesting. But that's me. I'm weird. You're a highly evolved individual, think. Well, good. I'm glad to hear that. You probably read too much. know, it's like, and that's, you know, it's like when you know too much. You just can't, you don't fall in any religious category. I feel that way about myself often and I want to run as an independent very much so. But I, as again, like once I started scratching the surface of how this works, how the system is laid out, how calcified the system is right now. I do think in about six years, I've been thinking about this a lot, there will be a new party in the middle that is a lot Republican and a lot centrist Democrat that doesn't identify with the socialism that's happening, the language of socialism that's happening. And then that doesn't identify with MAGA. And I think that's literally going to be the 70 % of us in the middle right now. And I keep on saying, oh, I talk to my girlfriends a lot and we have this joke going on that when we start self-identifying ourselves as centrist or in the middle, the one thing is you have this, like the people on the far extremes give you the impression that you're wishy washy. You can't make a decision, you're too pandering and da, da, da, da. And I'm like, no, actually right now this being in the middle is the most radical position you can take. And so we have this, I'm getting, I'm getting t-shirts made guys. Okay. It says bitches in the middle. There you go. And I, know, I can understand though why people may feel that way because I think in a lot of people's minds, like look at, look at Senator Schumer. He would probably be considered a centrist Democrat and he is about as wishy washy as you can get when. So I think that's the problem. I don't think there's an issue per se with centrists, because really what it comes down to is people in the center may like certain ideas from both sides, they may just not lean fully on a side. It what it's turned into is, is a, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna stand for anything, all I'm going to care about is us not getting too angry at each other. And let's let's keep the peace kind of a thing. I think that's the problem is there hasn't been a there hasn't been a fight when when fights have been necessary. Interesting. Explain more. Okay. There hasn't been a fight when fights have been necessary. So the thing that comes to my mind when I when I say that is when, when the budget battle was happening in 2025, early 2025, and they were, and it was, it wasn't budget, it was raising the debt ceiling and, and all of that stuff. And we were sitting and a lot of us were sitting here saying, There are things that are coming down the line that we need to make sure we do. And if we're going to raise the debt ceiling, we need to do something about it. And Schumer for one day said, we are going to stand up and we are going to fight. And then one day later, he goes, I'm going to write a strongly worded letter and we are going to vote for this because we have to vote for this. And it just it just freaked like everyone just got angry. Right. That's what I mean by that. just, it goes back to the use, to this idea that where you were saying where it doesn't feel like anyone's on our side. Yeah, yeah. But I think we just need that kind of support. I keep on thinking that the Republicans got to the extremist sentiment a little bit more quickly about wanting to like burn everything down through MAGA. So like Doge was essentially like people voted Trump in to do that. They were the, let's burn this all down and start over. we're gonna do new world building by tearing it up and then building it. The problem with that side is that the rabbit incompetency of ⁓ having people that know how to actually build things. and having fired all the people that know how to actually build things and maintain things. ⁓ And right now, ⁓ you have this other side of the left that also similarly wants to burn it all down, I would say. ⁓ People online are like, you need to be like Momdani. I was like, I'm not socialist. I, and I'm not saying that he wants, he's actually a lot more centrist than he presents, you know, like just. He doesn't want to burn things down. He doesn't want to burn things out, but there is definitely a sector in the, on the left that want to burn things down that would do the exact same thing that happened with those. If they in power. think right now the question is who are we going to put at the table when we're in the rebuilds phase? What kind of people do we want to see at the table? Yeah. And I think that is what we should be asking ourselves right now in the midterms. ⁓ That is, for me, one of the best arguments to have a new generation. ⁓ And you want people from diverse backgrounds. I come from the humanities. There are no people from the humanities, from the arts. The arts is one of the biggest economic drivers in America. It is bigger than agriculture. Yet we have nobody there. that is protecting the interests of our intellectual and cultural capital, which is what America is. Think about music, movies, books, you name it. And in the era of AI and creatives in our own country, our treasured capital being ripped through, there is nobody there building guardrails. The next generation of kids, what is not gonna be valuable anymore? STEM. What is not gonna be valuable? degrees in business administration, paralegals. Project management. Project management. Any of the, like literally none of that is going to be relevant in the next five years. The statistic is crazy. Like one in five, no sorry, one in two, half of entry level white collar jobs are going be wiped out in the next five years. What are we doing with our educational system? I look at what we have done to high schools all across America. 95 % of high schools in America do not have arts programs anymore. They've lost theater, they've lost all of that. The humanities and the arts is actually going to be one of the most valuable assets we have in this era of AI in order to survive. What are we doing? Who is out there advocating to restore funding to the arts? What are the arts? If you're a theater major, you act like someone else, you know how to... Emphasize, like you know how emphasize. You understand humanity. You know what it feels like to be in somebody else's shoes. All of those things. Like we have created a generation of, an entire generation that does not have the skills to decode visual imagery, the difference between propaganda and truth. That takes vocabulary. That takes building. have an entire generation that is ready to be submissive to an authoritarian regime. That is true. And we systemically did it by getting rid of the arts. Yeah. I mean, as someone who was a theater kid and a music kid and. Yeah. Doesn't it hurt your heart that 95 % of kids don't get that in schools anymore? They have to stay at an after school program that their parents pay for. the statistics are. If there is an arts program at your school, at your high school, you are five times more likely to graduate, three times more likely to get a job. These are the things that we have been ignoring. And again, so for me, like a part of my desire to have a seat at the table is really rooted from my particular perspective and worldview on these, on the issues that we're coming up against in the very near future. So speaking to the idea of your humanities background. Yeah. What? Assuming you win, what are the first things that you want to do once you are sworn in? I'm sure you ask that question a lot. I'm sure it changes based on what urgent matter feels the most pressing. I mean, we can't do anything without protecting the Constitution, So reinforcing that. mean, I would really love to sit on committees that work on protecting small businesses because it is the backbone of the American economy, the middle class. And we have gutted and squeezed as a small business owner myself, it is a dire situation. ⁓ And then education, again, I have to go back to that mostly because it's like, are the two areas that are the most pressing, not only for me, but also for people in this district. ⁓ social mobility, dealing with the cost of living again. ⁓ Really, I mean, I am such an asshole. Like literally, I will call out anybody that owns multiple homes, okay, and are running for Congress because they are the problem. The big myth that Democrats try to push is that the housing crisis is often caused by big corporations buying up homes and walking in homes for, it's individual micro-boarders. And the number of people that are in Congress or running for Congress that have multiple homes, rental homes, it's crazy. And it's all because of federal tax loopholes that enable this kind of behavior. And so once we can stop those loopholes, you release the grip on inventory. It's also the fact that we've turned housing into a commodity instead of exactly. Yeah. And that's, that's how we treat it. And so, ⁓ it's again, being very specific about policies that we can implement to release the grip. so many politicians again, run on problems, not on solutions. And for me, You look at my website, I have spent about four months writing in my own words, all the policies that I would enact on seven major categories that range from women's reproductive freedoms to the environment, to the housing affordability crisis, to AI education, all that stuff. Tangible things that we can do and they're bipartisan. It's, I have cherry picked, you know, again, Ideas on both sides, there are good ideas on both sides. It's sometimes the ⁓ extremism of what parties want as a package that kind of blurs the potency of certain ideas. ⁓ so I definitely do think once I get to Congress, I won't always vote down party line. I don't want to. Nope. ⁓ I just, I don't think that's why I'm there. Yeah. I think one of the best things that could come with this new batch of people across the country that are running is an ability to bring back, ⁓ working together, finding a way to get things done that you don't agree with, but what could be best. for the country as a whole, finally, as opposed to just tit and tatting everything. And I think people get confused because they're like, you can't always be about anti-Trump. And I'm like, that's correct. And you have to be very specific about what about Trump that you're against. I'm very much against Trump because his platform is divisiveness. It is division and it has led to us hating our neighbors, da da. And you can also at the same time be like, well, I think this policy that he implemented was okay. That was for the better of, like, you know, as far as an American first platform, whatever it is. but at the same time, you have to then provide an alternative. There it is. You have to give a solution. It's like, again, like if you don't, then you just become like Trump. Like running on a one-sidedness. Two weeks. I'll give you something and then you don't give anything. Yeah. And so I keep on saying, if you're looking at candidates, go to their website, go and see what they have put because see if they put their money. See if you... walk away from that website with some semblance of answers of things that we can do. And I will promise you 99 % of candidates that run don't have it. They don't have a plan. They don't know what they're talking about. They either haven't done the research, they either haven't tried, they're too busy trying to run on problems, trying to run on anti-Trump message, all that stuff. But honestly, we have to be better as we have to provide a better alternative. if that's what we say we are. For anyone that's listened up until this point and heard everything that we've 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? This is a campaign that was born out of Trump 2.0. I am an everyday citizen that is taking a stand. And this is my stand. That's it. And I just would hope any other person that identifies with wanting to take a stand at this moment, that we can do it. We can band together and do it. And not all candidates are like that. They have been running forever. They've been trying to fail up forever. This is a career move. All of those things. This is not a, this is career suicide for me, honestly. I've given up. I have really good life. You shouldn't Google like what my life looked like before this. was very, very relaxed. That's this. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ And it's, you know, my poor family, like I'm getting told the NRCC has written 30 articles attacking me. I mean, I am a big target by the Republicans because I hope, because I am a big threat. I keep on, I just chuckle, right? None of it is true. I keep on going because I know my core. know, I know what it, like I, I... I feel like I'm doing this because I have integrity and I am ironclad because of that. Otherwise I wouldn't be doing it. is not something I actually need in my life. No, this is not fun for most people I've talked to. Yeah. It's terrible. It really is. Like a lady came up to me and was like, I don't think I'm going to vote for you because I saw you putting in your chapstick. And I was like, what? I was like my little... were dry. I'm like how could you Esther? It's like anything else that you didn't like about me? How I parted my hair? For anyone that wants to support you, learn more about you and what you stand for, where can they find you? Well go to my social media pages because that's where I'm probably really active as far as the communication goes. I'm very communicative. Go to at Esther for Congress on all sorts of platforms out there, especially Instagram, because I am a millennial. So that's my platform of choice. And it's so funny. Someone said to me before, they're like, you know, when you say you Google, that you Googled how to run for Congress, you sound like such a millennial. And I was like, really? It was a Gen Z-er. They were like, you didn't say you TikTok'd how to run for Congress. I was like, that's so funny. Or you can go to my website. Esther for Congress, super easy. ⁓ All my policy stuff is there. DM me. I will respond or I will try to respond. I am, you know, one of those people that ⁓ I'm pretty unfiltered. ⁓ When something's a lie, I'm like, that's a lie. Go get your facts straight. Come back to me when you have some receipts. ⁓ Heck yeah. I'm that person. if you are interested in, you know, just also doing something for democracy today. I know that there are a lot of races going on in this country, but don't forget that this midterm is going to be about flipping seats from red to blue. That is critical for us to win back the house. That is the number one priority. And I am disappointed that the Democrats are not messaging on this enough because they, because most of the Democrats in power are so self-interested in trying to hoard money for their own races that are safe in their own campaigns that they do not put the focus enough on where we should be investing right now for our democracy and to put up a front line against this administration, which is again, gonna have to be winning back the house. Esther, thank you so much for sitting down with us. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. And for everyone that has listened to this, this far up to this point, thank you so much. Please hit all those buttons down below. It helps to make it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is interviewing amazing people like Esther and other candidates across the country. ⁓ These people need our help. They need visibility, name recognition, That's how it works these days. So please watch, share, do all the stuff that's necessary. And for those of you that might be new to this podcast, 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, get rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Again, Esther, thank you for being here. And for everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys.