Latest / The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen / 497 - Can An Independent Vietnamese-American Actually Win A Seat In Congress? - Nina Linh

Transcript

497 - Can An Independent Vietnamese-American Actually Win A Seat In Congress? - Nina Linh · The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: He is running for Congress in California here.
• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: This is something that I never do.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: I never interview anybody who's running for office.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: But I decided to take a risk on this conversation because I feel like you popped up in a lot of my different circles and very conservative circles, very left-leaning circles.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's popped up.
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: Your name's popped up.
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I wanted to take a chance on just getting to know you as a person of Vietnamese American and somebody who's sounding like they want to change the world that we live in and we're living in a really turbulent world and time now.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I hope that we get to your issues as we are in conversation.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: So welcome to the podcast.
• 0:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Kenneth, and thank you for having me.
• 0:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's such an honor to be here with you, you are, you know, you've been a very consistent voice for the Vietnamese people.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And again, honor to be here.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Nina.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I, when I read about
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: your life and your work and this idea being just a voice for our community, I can't help but think about how divided we all are today.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: And if you're going to have to run on some Republican ticket or Democrat ticket, it's just so divisive.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I think my first question is,
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: Lean out of that.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: How do you stay clear of these things that are dividing us?
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: Because when I do meet about your platform, it seems rather balanced, you're an independent, and how do we navigate the political structure today without caltowing to either too far left, too far right,
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's a really good question, and I will start with this.
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: So democracy, I believe that democracy begins with communication.
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if we don't have communication, we have exactly what we have now, which is hyperdivisiveness.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I, in my adult life, have never experienced the type of polarization that we are living through and watching the two parties system.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: calcify any progress that, you know, like a real progress in the past decade, you know, people are just simply exhausted and, you know, 80, 80% of us can't enter in the middle, you know, and in fact, a Gallup poll just dropped a few weeks ago that 46 of American voters now identify
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the heisen in modern history.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: But how do we really get voted into office if we don't take a political party stance?
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: If we don't follow a political party as a candidate, how do we expect to win if you don't have a party's backing?
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's a misnomer.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that question I think would have been valid even in the last cycle.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it's this moment in time that it's very unique.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just me, right?
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's an emergence that we're seeing across our country, as I mentioned the Galliple.
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: But emergence of independent candidates that are viable.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the people, ultimately, the people are going to
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: they're going to speak.
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when they go to the polls, because so many of them are just exhausted, as I mentioned, and they know that both parties are accountable and responsible.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: where we are and the fact that so many people are struggling, so many people are trading water and so many people that I speak to in the district, they're just filling up a sense of hopelessness.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I trust that if they know that they have an alternative choice, they will vote for that alternative choice.
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And there is that has to be reformed.
• 4:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I've been able, fortunately, to raise enough support, to be able to do voter outreach, right?
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, but I think that the model,
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: because we live in modern days.
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So gone are the days of malers and gone are the days of, as you're here in your podcast but gone are the days of traditional media.
• 5:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And there are so many other avenues to be able to communicate with directly with your constituents.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And being strategic and smart about how you do that and utilizing the technology that we have today that we didn't have four years ago
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: even two years ago in some cases.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: So there are ways, Kenneth, and like for example, being here with you and connecting with you and connecting with influencers in our community that allow for a platform so that people can actually tune in themselves and just see real, real talk, not
• 6:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: sound bites and not political party talking points.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I just refuse to do it.
• 6:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that misnomer would have been true, I believe, even in the last cycle, but not this one.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: This cycle is it's it's a special moment in time.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that you will see not just in
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: getting elected and not just on the federal level, which is the downtake as well, right?
• 6:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: You have mayors running, you have governors running, you have city council people running.
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that the people, I trust in the people and I trust that they're going to make their voices hurt.
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: You mentioned campaign finance reform, which is such a hard and sticky topic to kind of get out of.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: But I think another thing that is difficult is that the nuances of issues is hard to separate.
• 7:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: So when you think of political parties like the Democrats and the Republicans, you think that
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: there are issues that are like just die hard issues that we are trained Pavlovian style.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: They ring that bell and we're like, ah, abortion by and then we think of like, you know, second amendment gun rights and then they ring this bell and we all like we're like magnets that get activated and we have to like go to our party.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: The real life of like a human being in America is not really like that.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: We don't, it's weird that we have to like follow these extremes.
• 7:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so when I've learned that there is a candidate running in the independent lane, how do you separate that bell ringing that Pavlovian
• 8:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: trait that we have, you know, because now you're not saying that I'm leaning any which way, so it's a lane that's sort of like, I'm not saying that it's like it's not in hard fast lane, but it's sort of nebulous to think about like an independent and how do people today with their minds so extreme, how do they understand what an independent person is doing?
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, that type of, I will say, programming, that type of mentality is already further to the left and further to the right.
• 8:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And usually, those people are driven by ideology, right?
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, again, most of us, that's not where we live.
• 9:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Can it, you know, every day people, they're not political people.
• 9:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: what the gas prices are.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, money.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: What what the margins affordable affordability.
• 9:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, they care about pocketbook issues.
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, they care about the fact that when they go to the grocery store right now, everything is 20% higher than it was six months ago.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: The gas prices as we know.
• 9:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Due to a a war of choice, which I worry about, I worry
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's what real life people care about.
• 9:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: They care about being safe.
• 9:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: They care about peace.
• 9:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: They care about human dignity.
• 9:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: They care about the freedoms that our Constitution provide, the everyday life that we live without thinking about, the freedoms that we have.
• 10:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: They care about those things.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: politics, unfortunately, the game of campaigning.
• 10:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I just refuse to do this.
• 10:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's an emotional brain where an emotional brain is the political brain, right?
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so most campaigns know that if you rouse someone up, they're going to react.
• 10:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so when they react, that's how you're able to influence
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm the way that I see this is.
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: If I speak to my constituents, the voters, and just people in general, as I do every day, just be real with them and connect with them and to know that, listen, I understand your play.
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've walked it, I've lived it, and here are some real solutions that we can actually create and work towards.
• 11:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when you connect with people like that, Kenneth,
• 11:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: They know that people aren't stupid.
• 11:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: As much as campaigns will try to make them, if you are authentic and real with someone, they will know if you have their back on that.
• 11:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's all I can do.
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: I can just be authentic about what my intentions are.
• 11:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: have a smart game plan in terms of what are the policies that we can put in place realistically speaking, not just talking the talk, because we have so many officials that tell you what you want to hear, but they don't tell you the truth.
• 11:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: They tell you that they will do certain things that they know they can't do, and they tell you certain things that they will do, they have no intention of doing.
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, how would you affect gas prices and egg prices?
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that's like something that's way out of anybody's control.
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: I even think the president of the United States can't control what these big corporations or sort of like the plan to go to war is, you know, something that's been brewing for a year, way before we go to Iran.
• 12:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's been in the works for many, many years.
• 12:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so what can a Congress person do or what can a mayor or anybody do to like affect lowering the gas price for egg prices?
• 12:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I, you know, I can just stand how you would feel that way.
• 12:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And yes, one person in Congress cannot change.
• 12:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: everything, right?
• 12:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: You need a consensus.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's why you need someone that can go in and build, you can build a coalition, and you can connect with people on both sides to be able to communicate and create a balanced solution so that everyone, because you have Republicans, you have Democrats,
• 13:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: the cost of everyday living, they're struggling people are struggling and they know that this is what's happening in their communities.
• 13:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: But why aren't they?
• 13:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Can if why are they not working together?
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: To change this.
• 13:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is the question.
• 13:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: What?
• 13:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because if they do work together, come together.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: we can have a solution, we can make a change.
• 13:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that is the problem, is because the solutions are there, the will is not.
• 13:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I think Nina, I'm be honest with you.
• 13:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think if we're talking in 1950s, we're politicians, we're still corgio to each other.
• 14:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: We can reach across the aisle and we can fight in a way that's not dirty.
• 14:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think we have as a society, we've gone so low with the rhetoric, on both sides.
• 14:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not like point of finger at one party.
• 14:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm just saying, we have eroded
• 14:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: Our decorum has been disintegrated to nothing, and I think that the fight
• 14:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: Nina, you haven't been in the pit with these, you know, like these fierce, you know, old school politicians that are now ready to take the gloves off and do anything in there to get re-vote to get, you know, vote it back in and you sound like such a wonderful human being, but like when it gets dirty, what happens to Nina Lynn as a congressperson?
• 14:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: with someone else says and does.
• 14:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I can only control how I respond and how I behave and if I continue to walk my line and stay within my values and be focused on what my intentions are, which is the highest good for the people, my district and this country as a whole.
• 15:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: if they throw, if they start to mud slaying, it's expected, unfortunately, Kenneth, and that was a question that I asked myself, are you willing to go into this, as you say, this Viper pit?
• 15:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the answer is yes, why?
• 15:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because I went on a listening tour in my district.
• 15:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I was asked to run, I was asked by a mentor of my informal congressman who is just in a credible human being.
• 15:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: he asked me if I would consider running why is because we sat on an education subcommittee to together.
• 15:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's by partisan.
• 15:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: He's a major mentor.
• 16:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: Who is he?
• 16:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Congress, a former congressman Mike Honda.
• 16:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we sat on this education subcommittee together and I was able to bring the right
• 16:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: and really talk out balanced solutions.
• 16:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he saw how I was able to navigate that.
• 16:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so when he asked me to run the first time, I said absolutely not, no way, had no interest.
• 16:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he asked me again a year later.
• 16:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I was at an inflection point in my personal life and I said, you know, let me consider it.
• 16:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And before I did, I went on a listening tour, open up a exploratory committee, and I went on a listening tour in the district for about three months.
• 16:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I talked to Republicans, Democrats, independents.
• 16:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: I spoke with veterans, teachers, labor union, labor people.
• 16:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: I spoke with everyone across the spectrum.
• 17:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I use this analogy a lot.
• 17:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to use it here today.
• 17:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: I like to describe it as they were all
• 17:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: The tune may have been a little different, but the lyrics were the same.
• 17:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it was, again, basic survival economics.
• 17:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it was a grandmother that I was speaking to.
• 17:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: And she, you know, asked you, you know, what's heavy on your mind?
• 17:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's concerning you the most?
• 17:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, she started crying.
• 17:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And she tells me, she's petrified of losing health insurance because one of her grandchildren has a disability.
• 17:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I,
• 17:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: found myself comforting her.
• 17:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And by the time we were done with our discussion, she said to me, you know, I woke up depressed this morning, but after speaking to you, I feel a sense of hope.
• 17:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that word hope was something that I heard consistently throughout these discussions that I would have with people.
• 18:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And but it was that moment with her that I said,
• 18:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: and the answers, yes.
• 18:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: So going back to your original question, when someone is mud slinging Kenneth, that's their prerogative.
• 18:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know what my truth is, and I just stand in that truth, and I stay focused on the mission at hand.
• 18:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I was a big fan of Rock or Obama.
• 18:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I know that,
• 18:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: how I felt about Brock going into the presidential race and years after he finishes eight years, the change that he had to endure in terms of picking always the lesser of two evils and who knows
• 19:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: the lesser of two evils.
• 19:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that is going to happen to you, no matter what we think and say, how do we know that you can keep this all under control and not be bought?
• 19:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like how do you know that?
• 19:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I'd love to hear that your thoughts on when the lesser of two evils come up
• 19:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you have no way to explain it to the public, but you have to make these backdoor deals.
• 19:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: How do you figure out how to deal with that?
• 19:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that is such a good question in the way that you frame it.
• 19:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: And speaking of Obama, big fan of his, and met him before he became president,
• 19:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: He said something that has all the resonates so deeply with me and he says that he is willing to look in the eye of evil and connect with that light, that little flame, and that is where
• 20:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: what I stand for, and the value is that I stand for, but if I can connect with that light in that person, and if that will help to benefit our people in this country, then that is the light that I will connect with.
• 20:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the best answer I can give you.
• 20:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
• 20:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: We have to figure out when those deals come, we have to figure out how to make it work because without these deals sometimes, the things that we want to get accomplished does not work, does not happen.
• 21:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I get that, I mean, this is a money game, politics is a money game, all of it.
• 21:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: I don't care if you're talking about the Vietnamese government in Vietnam right now or the US government or Congress
• 21:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: in California.
• 21:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's all a money game and it's all a shell game and you've got to figure out how to bring in that money to make your constituents' lives better.
• 21:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I just wanted to hear what your inner workings were when it comes to that.
• 21:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: representatives from really doing their job is the fact that they're more interested in keeping their jobs and doing it.
• 22:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: So they make a lot of decisions that are more of self-interest opposed to the interest of their people that they're representing.
• 22:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the difference between me and those
• 22:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to always do the job and make decisions to do the job and my people will decide whether or not I stay there and they will know based on my transparency and my performance.
• 22:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: whether there's millions of dollars that are impacts that are being, that will be opposition to my election.
• 22:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: The bottom line is that it's the people that are gonna vote.
• 23:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if I've maintained communication to my constituents and let them know that this is what's being done.
• 23:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And these are the challenges that I'm coming up against.
• 23:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And what are your continued on that needs, right?
• 23:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the way that I do that is that I will have whether it's Zoom or in person quarterly town halls, but even more so, I plan on having a roundtable of community leaders from each city, and we will have a download,
• 23:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: every quarter to understand, this is what's being done in DC, this is how it's gonna affect our cities and our communities.
• 23:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: What do you guys need?
• 23:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's happening on the ground there?
• 23:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And how do we work together so that you guys can empower me to represent you?
• 24:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that is
• 24:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: you know why?
• 24:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: Because nobody wants to be transparent once they get into office.
• 24:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's against their, it backfires though.
• 24:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: Why would you be transparent?
• 24:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: Why would you open up the gates to let the regular people into kind of poke at your weakness or at how difficult things are and decision making.
• 24:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's the the next question I want to ask is like,
• 24:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: When we as regular people voting people are asking these questions to our politicians, we never get a straight answer.
• 24:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: We never get the answer that we really wanna hear.
• 24:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Just give us the damn truth.
• 24:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: Why is it so difficult to get the truth from a politician?
• 24:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I thank you.
• 25:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 25:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: At the end of the day, we just want to hear the truth.
• 25:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: And your plan is, accordingly, to bring all the city, the mayors together as a, it's the 40th district, right?
• 25:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Is that, what, right?
• 25:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: Sorry, I'm like trying to hold a lot of information.
• 25:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you're trying to bring, you know, Villa Park, you're trying to bring all of these, you know, cities of your in Orange County together to sit and talk.
• 25:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: But the truth is, sometimes the truth is very dark and heavy that we don't want to let our constituents hear about.
• 25:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: How do you get around that?
• 25:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's going to be tough.
• 25:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: I disagree with you, Kenneth.
• 25:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that people
• 25:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: need to hear agree they need to hear they need to know the truth because that way they again we it's a collective that we can work together and i'm not talking about when i say the round table i don't mean other elected and the cities i mean people millions represent the representatives
• 26:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Do you know anybody who's done this?
• 26:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: Do you think any, I've never heard anybody do that?
• 26:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: There might be a reason because people, politicians are chicken to air all that out and to be like having guns pointed at you figuratively to say, you know, what's the problem here?
• 26:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: Why are you not doing this quick enough or, you know, and it's terrifying to have a town hall meeting and I think it's a very difficult thing to do.
• 26:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: It can be challenging when you have people that are angry, when you have people that feel neglected, when you have people that are feeling disenfranchised.
• 26:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that is the whole point of this, right?
• 27:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's the whole point is that when you communicate with them, and you let them know, here's the issue.
• 27:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I understand your issue, I've knowledge or issue,
• 27:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And here is the solution.
• 27:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And here are the steps that we need to get to that solution.
• 27:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: So help me, help me get there.
• 27:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when you engage people that way, most people can is want to do the right thing.
• 27:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: They want to help to do the right thing, especially if it's going to benefit themselves, their families, and their communities.
• 27:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so if you, like many politicians,
• 27:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: She's to not communicate to your people that you're supposed to be representing and that you're supposed to be a voice vocal.
• 27:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you're not communicating to them, you shouldn't be there.
• 27:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: So we're gonna start with this.
• 27:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: This is a commitment.
• 28:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: Every quarter, we're gonna hear from Nina Lynn when you get into office, not if, but when you get into office, that's one major metric that I can hold over
• 28:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: we're recording this right now that we're going to get that quarterly town hall and we can hear what's really going on and we'll get it straight from you.
• 28:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
• 28:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
• 28:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 28:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
• 28:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to expect my people to talk to me and they and tell me what they think
• 28:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: I like that.
• 28:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: I genuinely think that that's a, you know, what do I know about politics?
• 28:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, but I can say that I haven't heard anybody say, you know, every quarter will get together.
• 28:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: We'll talk about the issues.
• 29:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
• 29:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: But how do we know when you have actually given up
• 29:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: And this is what I mean by that.
• 29:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's a clunky and clumsy way to ask this question.
• 29:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: But how do I know?
• 29:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: How do we as the people know when you're like, oh my god, I can't beat the system.
• 29:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like this is terrifying.
• 29:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: I really don't know.
• 29:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: Would you be honest with us?
• 29:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: And would you tell your constituents that this is,
• 29:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: an unbeatable game.
• 29:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: And here's why it's unbeatable.
• 29:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm I'm I'm really at my with end and because I think politicians don't show that side and it becomes it becomes a like again a shell game of like it's a performance yeah yes and then they just give up and then they run again and they lie some more and it's a vicious cycle.
• 29:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well number one
• 30:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: If I feel, when I'm there, and if I feel candidates and people, I can't make a difference, then I won't run again, right?
• 30:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the whole point of me running as the independent is to bypass that system, because
• 30:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: not clock a scene with either party will really allow me the freedom to reach across the aisle to work with anyone that cares about the same issues and this goes back to about building coalition right and when you when you are signed up with the party in the way that it is today
• 31:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: And even when I was just a candidate, because I started off as a Democrat, I'm not sure if you know that.
• 31:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: I started initially running as a Democrat, although I have always traditionally been registered and voted as a dependent.
• 31:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: And running as a Democrat initially,
• 31:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: was a struggle and it was a struggle because I was only, you know, just, I haven't even been elected yet with a type of party pressure that you have to support certain, you know, certain property that came up.
• 31:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't agree with property.
• 31:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't agree with Jerry Mandarin at all.
• 31:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think it disenfranchises
• 31:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: populations and subsets that are vulnerable and having the party pressure to vote for that to promote it to advocate for it.
• 32:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: I refuse to do that.
• 32:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I refused.
• 32:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that was why I left and moved to the independent party.
• 32:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: So as a result of you now moving to the independent party,
• 32:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: What is your true measure of your legibility from where you stand right now?
• 32:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: Because you don't have the support in the backing of either party, what's the reality of you getting in the seat?
• 32:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the press enterprise did an article about the state of our race a few weeks ago and they acknowledged me as one of the first
• 32:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: and competitive independence to make it to the top row, too, and to actually win.
• 33:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Again, it's about voter outreach, making sure that the people know that I'm here and that they have a different alternative than the two-party system.
• 33:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: In combat, Republicans that are fighting each other.
• 33:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: You have four Democrats, five Democrats, that will be splitting the vote.
• 33:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: None of them have been endorsed by the party.
• 33:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then you have Nina Lynn.
• 33:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in my district, there is a substantial independent constituent.
• 33:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you have many,
• 33:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: disenfranchised Republicans and Democrats that are disgusted with the two party system.
• 34:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you have, they don't feel represented.
• 34:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: We call them the politically homeless.
• 34:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when I went into the district, you have to, in order to qualify the value, you have to go and
• 34:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I introduced myself as running as the independent, so many people can it were elated, they were so happy to have an alternative.
• 34:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think, again, two cycles back, that this would have been running as the independent, would have been viable in this,
• 34:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: where we are, where we were, but we are a very different place now, a very different place for years later.
• 34:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, the way that I'm running my campaign is very strategic.
• 35:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: We know our win member, we know who our voters are, and we communicate with them.
• 35:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: When people hear that you're
• 35:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: What do you think they must misunderstand about you the most?
• 35:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think they misunderstand.
• 35:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I can't tell you what someone's impression of me is, you know, if they haven't spoken with me, if you were to guess what they misunderstand about you.
• 35:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you know that if I'm running as an independent that oh, she's neutral, she doesn't have a strong stance right, but what they fail to realize is that it takes so much more courage to be in the middle and that is where true leadership happens that's where real solutions happen and that's where things get done so because it's so much easier.
• 36:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: to go to the left, or go to the right because that's where that's, that's where the bell is ringing and that's easy to do.
• 36:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's not easy is to stand your ground in the middle and radically be in the middle and to know that this right here is where long term,
• 36:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Solutions are going to happen because we can create policy on the left or the right and as soon as the other becomes in power, what happens, they repill it and then what happens to the people we it's, you know, we we are the ones that suffer from that, you know, and any real long term policy that is going to make real change is almost always.
• 37:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: bipartisan.
• 37:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: Right now, up to now, what have you learned about your constituents, about your community, that you didn't know before?
• 37:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I, you know, I have to say,
• 37:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: that I'm everything that I've intuitively know was confirmed when I talk to every day people.
• 37:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know, because I grew up in a working class company, a country family, like you, Kenneth, I'm first generation immigrant, right?
• 37:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And working class is where
• 38:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: what I know.
• 38:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when I'm speaking to the people in the community, you know, I talk to say, for example, I talk to a Vietnamese young husband, former Democrat.
• 38:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was so vulnerable, he shared with me that, you know, he had to go back to school because he wasn't in making enough money
• 38:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: a law enforcement officer and that his wife is a nurse that's working 12 hours a day.
• 38:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he's now turned Republican because he felt like a democratic party failed him and that the democratic party didn't protect his parents when they were attacked in the street by criminals.
• 38:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And now he's discussed with the Republican Party because they've made things worse.
• 39:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: And speaking to him and seeing this young man that was so like a proud Vietnamese wanting to be the provider for his family and having to feel like he's not
• 39:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: but doing enough because his wife is the breadwinner and seeing him so defeated and encouraging him that, you know, listen, this is a moment in time and we have to we have to hold
• 39:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: a way that was forged through fire, where we're stronger on the other side of this.
• 39:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he will be stronger on the other side of this.
• 40:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that story is just one of many stories.
• 40:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: So my point in answering your question, Kenneth, is that I haven't found out anything
• 40:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: When I hear your name 10 years from now, what do you want me to think of?
• 40:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: When I hear Nina Lynn and you're done with office or you're still in office, what is it that you want etched in my mind about who you are?
• 40:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, a bit leader.
• 40:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: But 10 years from now, I will not be in office.
• 40:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I don't believe you should be there.
• 40:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: I believe it's really nice.
• 40:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that as a representative of the house, eight years is enough, you can do a lot of good work and eight years.
• 41:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: But 10 years from now, I would have moved on to more philanthropic work, but I would always like to be seen as the servant leader that people have trusted me.
• 41:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: to allow me to lead them and to serve them in that way.
• 41:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: Nina, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me today.
• 41:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I do look forward to talking with you once you get voted in and let some time pass and we can catch up and find out, you know, what has changed and the things that you've learned along the way and what you can share with us in a year or two.
• 41:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's make a pack that we do that and that once I'm there, I will make sure that you and I are connected at least quarterly or by annually to have downloads for our people.
• 42:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's big.
• 42:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's huge.
• 42:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 42:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to have Tracy hold you to it.
• 42:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
• 42:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: She's a hard charger.
• 42:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
• 42:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: So, thank you so much.
• 42:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for spending the time with me today.
• 42:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's my pleasure.
• 42:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And thank you for all that you do, and being that consistent voice.
• 42:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: My pleasure.
• 42:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
• 42:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening to the Vietnamese with Kenneth Wynne.
• 42:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Special thanks to Brittany Tran, to Jane Wynne, Catherine Wynne, Tina Fam, Sydney Jamie, and Crystal Tran.
• 42:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Please find us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at the Vietnamese podcast.