Latest / Breaking The Meta / Evan Turnage: Fixing Mississippi’s Broken System
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: you you Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Evan Ternage who is running for Mississippi's second congressional district. Hello Evan, how are you doing? Hey Michael, I'm happy to be here. It's great to have you. ⁓ So the way I always start all of these is for people that don't know much about Mississippi. Could you let us know what area of Mississippi is encompassed by the second congressional district? Yeah. Absolutely. This is an enormous district geographically. We've got 30 different counties that are touched, 28 entire counties, ⁓ portions of two. I am based in Jackson, Mississippi, which is in Hines County, but this district also includes the Mississippi Delta. I spent about six years of my life in Cleveland, Mississippi in the Delta. We're in the car right now. We're in the Delta in Belzoni, Mississippi, but it also includes over in Vicksburg along the river. Southwest Mississippi, including Natchez, amid Wilkinson County, we've been all over. So we've got a lot of ground to cover, a lot of great people all over this district, and they're ready for change. Could you give us a little background on who you are? Sure. Well, I'm a son of Mississippi, born in Jackson, Mississippi, also with deep roots in the Mississippi Delta in Cleveland, Mississippi. I am an antitrust lawyer. I've spent my career thinking about and fighting for ways to redistribute power from the oligarchs at the top, cheating corporations at the top, and disperse it to people in a fair and equitable way. So I spent my political career working in the United States Senate, first with Elizabeth Warren, then with Chuck Schumer. Being at the forefront of the affordability crisis, I wrote Kamala Harris's plan to tackle grocery prices. And I also wrote the No Kings Act in response to the crazy Supreme Court decision. where the justices made up this idea that presidents have immunity for crimes that is not America. They just pulled that out of thin air. And that is what led to all of the no Kings protests across the country, including here in Mississippi. Yeah. And why in the end did you decide to run for Congress? Like what, what was the, what was the, obviously you've been a part of, ⁓ politics for a while having worked under ⁓ two senators now, but what made what what made you decide to run ⁓ at this moment in this race? Yeah, so so many people in Mississippi and across America Understand and feel that we have a broken and rigged system that has been working great for those at the top Working great even for politicians who themselves are bought and paid for by cheating corporations not so much for people in Mississippi In my district, we have so many persistent issues. This has been the poorest district in the poorest state in the country for 33 years straight, my entire life. That also maps on to the tenure of the incumbent as well. We have had issues of healthcare. You know, we never expanded ⁓ Medicaid down here in Mississippi, but also we have an infant mortality crisis and a maternal mortality crisis. We hear these heart wrenching stories of women trying to make it. to Jackson to the hospital because of complicated pregnancies, and sometimes they don't make it. And the mother and child die on the side of the road, even in one case that we read about recently. And those sorts of deaths are preventable. They are preventable. We just have to have more resources here. But you know what? It starts with having a plan. We have some crises down here in Mississippi for which we don't even have a congressman and proposing plans to fight for. Back in the civil rights era in the 1960s, nobody cared about the racism, the discrimination, the violence that was happening here in Mississippi and in Alabama until people started making it the crisis that it was. Television, media, protests, getting loud and aggressive about it. We need that sort of representation here in Mississippi. I am used to being on the front line. of fighting against cheating corporations, of tackling the affordability crisis, of standing up to Donald Trump, fighting for healthcare. We haven't had that sort of representation anywhere in Mississippi. I'm fighting for my home district. For people that are, that just haven't experienced much of Mississippi, what are the, what are the pain points in your district? What are the things that most people talk to you about? Yeah. Top of mind. prices, starting with the grocery prices. People cannot afford to keep up with the rising price of eggs, of milk, of bread. mean, a box of my favorite cereal at Kroger today costs $4.89. You know, that was not the case even one year ago, let alone, you know, two or three years ago. And so, you know, the president promised he would lower grocery prices on day one. That was obviously ridiculous. It's going to take real plans, real activation and fight against cheating corporations like Kroger. mean, the CEO of Kroger admitted that a little bit of inflation was good for business a few years ago. That's price gouging. Tariffs have also contributed to these higher prices. Seniors here are particularly also worried about prescription drugs. And we can no longer tolerate having a congressman who has taken so much money from the pharmaceutical industry. Yeah. One of the things that ⁓ also often comes up and you sort of hinted at it. ⁓ And I think it's a problem that is regardless of the party that we're talking about right now, at least when it comes to many in our government, and it's this idea of accountability or the lack thereof. ⁓ What does this idea of accountability mean to you? What does accountability look like to the people of your district? our congressman ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. And that's the case for half of these primary cycles. So nobody has been able to take him to task for the fact that he was the only Democrat who voted against Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's voting rights bill before the People Act. And we still haven't passed that legislation. And this is Mississippi. Of all places, our black Democratic congressman voted against 15 days of early voting, voted against getting rid of gerrymandering, restoring voting rights to those who have served time in prison. He has not had to answer for that, but people are talking about it now. He has not had to answer for his corporate donations. He hasn't had to answer for the fact that he has zero plans for how we're going to reverse brain drain and get new job opportunity and growth here. He likes to brag about the fact that he's delivered so much appropriations to Mississippi for water, but we were just in Canton on Martin Luther King Day, brown running water in the bathroom. And so, you know, it's time out. for taking credit for things you haven't done. It's time out for pretending to be a voting rights activist while voting against the voting rights appeal that was Democrats' top priority. We need new leaders, new blood, new ideas, because what we've been doing for the last 33 years is not working for Mississippi in this district. Yeah. Obviously, and I'm going to split this into two different questions, one local and then one ⁓ more ⁓ global. ⁓ How has a lot of the recent decisions by this administration, like the loss of the ACA subsidies, the changes to SNAP benefits, the big, beautiful bill that is going to change the way Medicare, Medicaid, forget which it is, works pretty much two weeks after the midterm elections. How is that affecting the people of your district? Yeah, a lot of people, I mean, look, we just had this shutdown episode, you know, a few months ago, back in October, a lot of people are terrified about losing the benefits that they're entitled to, that they depend on. We're talking about a state that has never really received everything they're entitled to at the federal level. You must be familiar with the TANF scandal we had down here a few years ago, where it was uncovered that millions of dollars for needy folks. has been going to Brett Farf for speaking fees, going to the construction of a volleyball stadium. Mississippi already had imposed so many hurdles, dehumanizing hurdles and work requirements and showing up and filling up all sorts of paperwork. They don't have to do that in other states. ⁓ We were never getting the benefits anyway. And now we're seeing that millions were spent on Brett Farf. And so we have a huge problem with that ⁓ SNAP benefits were threatened, those ACA subsidies were threatened. Thankfully for a lot of folks, they still were able to get that money since the shutdown ended. But everybody's always on the precipice of a disaster here. If you depend on SNAP money, if you depend on ACA tax subsidies, whenever those sorts of things go away, you're one ⁓ paycheck away, you're one benefits check away from not being able to feed your family. or not being able to get the prescriptions that you need. And that's the reality of Mississippians for far too long. You know, and I just want to add, Michael, before we move on from that point, it's about failed leadership in this state, both at the federal level and at the state level, because the people in Mississippi are not just dependent upon benefits. We need new job opportunities. So many people who want to work, there's a lack of industry here. There's a lack of public sector opportunities here. And I think it's incumbent upon a congressman to work with the state and local level, work with local industry, work with the public sector to figure out ways to get more of these folks employed. Because I'm here in the Delta, which is an agricultural area. A lot of those jobs have left. A lot of those jobs have been taken up by agribusinesses that have consolidated over the years. We need to reverse that trend, but also we need to get new opportunities here. to help our community take care of itself because we can't keep racing to the bottom to depend on out of state corporations. Yeah. I actually heard, I cannot remember who it was off the top of my head was talking about, uh, one of the biggest arguments for a single payer healthcare, especially when we're talking about things like healthcare is it allows for the creation of small businesses because right now who can afford to start a small business knowing you're not going to get any healthcare. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And there's so much talent here. There's so much entrepreneurial spirit here, but we need resources. know, so many folks face discrimination just getting a startup loan. And when you can't get those resources to get your business off the ground, well, sometimes you don't even try. Sometimes you do try. It gets ⁓ squandered before you even get off. going good. And so we need so much more for our business folks here in Mississippi. Yeah. So on to the global. ⁓ Obviously, ⁓ since World War Two, since the end of World War Two, this country has kind of been at the head of the table globally. ⁓ In the last year, thanks to things like tariffs, and Venezuela and Greenland, and threats against NATO and leaving the WHO and a myriad of other things and now the most recent war in Iran. ⁓ We, this administration has summarily ⁓ destroyed our place at the table. ⁓ How do you see America going forward when in terms of foreign policy with the knowledge that for a lot of our closest allies, this is supreme lack and trust in our ability to be good allies. Yeah. Trump has made us a laughing stock on the world stage and it's sad, it's despicable, it's shameful. He's somebody who said that we would stop endless wars if he were reelected. He's somebody who has bragged about ending seven wars. We know that was a lie, but now all of a sudden He has ramped up attacks in Iran, putting us all in danger of slipping into another war. He's done all of this without congressional approval. He has been blatantly disrespectful and has had blatant disregard towards our troops who deserve so much more from their ⁓ commander in chief. And now we don't know what's gonna happen next because he's not communicating with us. He's not letting us know what his plans are. He's just kind of willy-nilly taken an approach to foreign policy. In truth, just avoid talking about the Epstein files. I mean, we all know that this is just about distraction right now because of his own political troubles here at home. It's despicable and sad when you have somebody putting all of our lives in jeopardy over some petty political nonsense and his own criminal behavior from the past. And what's more concerning to me is how Congress's role is being overstepped and sidestepped here. It is Congress's duty. and power to begin wars, to declare wars, to announce attacks of that nature. And he has not been in communication with Congress. He did not get approval from Congress for any of this. And so it's sad that Republicans right now are just ceding it to him. definitely feels as though our Congress has in many ways ⁓ just given up a lot of its powers. the presidency, you've seen more and more throughout the years presidents running based on executive orders. It's not even just Trump, even Biden was doing more executive orders than was considered normal as time has gone on. And it would be nice to see Congress taking some of that power back. And it's not just to the executive branch, it's also to the judicial branch. Congress has allowed the Supreme Court and other courts to make up doctrines of presidential immunity, to strike down campaign finance laws that were in existence for decades, and that's not acceptable. And we're on the precipice now of the Supreme Court striking down the Voting Rights Act, which I would say is the most important piece of federal legislation ever enacted. We can't stand for that. If we are a co-equal branch, if Congress is a co-equal branch, then it has to put itself back into the constitutional game. And I'm not talking about passing a constitutional amendment. A hundred years ago, 200 years ago, Congress would have just passed a statute to overturn some of these crazy Supreme court decisions too. Yeah. ⁓ I want to do a little bit of a future casting. So let's say, ⁓ you get through the primaries, November comes along, you win. Congratulations. ⁓ January 2nd comes along and you're sworn in as the representative for Mississippi's second district. What are the first one or two things that you do? Yeah. So I would ask folks to go check out evanturnage.com because we've put out a whole plan of the bills we would introduce on day one. It's called a fair deal for Mississippi second district, which includes specific legislative solutions for five persistent issues we faced here in Mississippi. I'll just run through them quickly. Number one, the brain drain issue. So we've had a plan for what we call a come home agenda to incentivize young folks in underserved areas to stay or to come back as a package of federal benefits, including ⁓ canceling student loan debt. The second piece is broadband for all. And I'm reminded every day here in Mississippi that we do not have the high speed internet that we deserve. that is necessary in the 21st century. The third piece is no moms left behind to tackle the maternal mortality. The answer cannot just be too bad to women who have complicated pregnancies. There are too many counties that don't have a single OBGYN. The fourth piece is a working family's tax credit. I mean, come on. Trump gave trillions of dollars in tax cuts to billionaires who don't need help. We have to have ⁓ steady tax benefits. that go to working families in this country. And the fifth piece is a works plan, Mississippi Works, getting more resources for public sector jobs, getting more resources to nonprofits and small businesses. And so I would introduce on day one, those five bills, but also we've got to work on cleaning up our government. I'm never gonna take a dime of corporate money. We should ban corporate PAC money. We need to overturn Citizens United through a federal statute. It doesn't take a constitutional amendment. And we have got to ban stock trading in Congress. For everyone that has listened this far and heard everything that we have talked about up until this point, what are one or two things that no matter what you would want to make sure they come away knowing about you and your campaign? I love this district. And that's why we are going across every single county here in this district. The most important thing about being a member of Congress is you have to be accessible to the people. Have to be accessible to the people. We are going to communities who've never seen a congressman show up. We are going to communities and listening about their specific concerns because what's going on in the mid county in the South is different than Jackson is different than tuna cup in the North is different than the Delta. And we are meeting folks where they are at grocery stores at restaurants. We're knocking doors and people are thrilled about the prospect of having a congressman who's actually going to show up to them. ⁓ for anyone that wants to know more about you or wants to be able to support you, whether it's through volunteering or donations, where can they find you? Yeah, we would appreciate that. Check us out at evanturnage.com. If you want to get involved, ⁓ there's links there for that. If you want to chip in a few dollars, there's links there for that. But also this is about policy and we have the only website in this campaign. I'm the only candidate who has actual legislative plans for how we're going to improve Mississippi and how we're going to, you know, really take America in the future when it comes to economic rights and economic prosperity. That's been my bread and butter throughout my career. ⁓ Evan, thank you for sitting down and talking with us. ⁓ For everyone else that has listened this far, thank you also so much for listening. Please hit all those buttons down below. It helps me be able to continue doing what I'm doing, which is interview some amazing people like Evan. And just so you know. One of the reasons that I'm doing this is people like Evan and all these other hundreds of people that I've interviewed, they are doing it right. They're doing it the way we keep saying we want people to do it. They're not taking PAC money. They want to be held accountable. They want to break this status quo problem that we have in our government, whether federal or state. So they need things like visibility and name recognition because that's how they get past whether it's a primary or even a general election. So please watch and share and make it possible for people like Evan to get the kind of visibility and name recognition necessary in order to ⁓ help and do everything that we keep saying we wanna do and we've been saying for decades. So, and for those of you that are new to ⁓ what this podcast is all about, just so you know, Breaking the Met is all about ⁓ having hard conversations when necessary. breaking the status quo and fighting for the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender or identity, get rights, respect, dignity and safety. Evan, thank you again for being here. I really do appreciate it. ⁓ And for everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye guys. Thanks, Michael.