Latest / Pod Save America / The Wilderness Chapter 6: Young Black Voters in Atlanta

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The Wilderness Chapter 6: Young Black Voters in Atlanta · Pod Save America

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: We would have neighbors and churches and different communities come out.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: And so we try to program the talent around the
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: interests of people in that community.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: And play music and have dancing and pass out food
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and water.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Party at the polls is like a fully nonpartisan program.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: We're not pushing any agendas. We don't connect to any
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: specific candidates. For me, it's really just the culture and
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: like the action of voting. Let's hang out together.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Let's party together.
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  Speaker 2: And if we happen to have to stand in line
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  Speaker 2: for two hours, we have this great vibe, you know?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Which is why that line criminalization within SB 202 was
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: such a huge blow. But we're still trying to navigate
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: that even beyond some of the limitations that we have.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: Tiffany Mackey and Jonna Grant are organizers with the New
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: Georgia Project. which helped register and turn out tens of
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: thousands of mostly black, brown, and young voters in the
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: last election. This year, Tiffany says their work has been
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: a lot harder because Governor Brian Kemp and the Republican
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: state legislature passed a law known as SB202.
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  Speaker 1: If I could describe voter suppression, it is subtle and
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: not subtle all at the same time. So what that
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: bill has done is limit drop boxes in certain communities.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So that puts more pressure, of course, on Election Day,
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  Speaker 1: where we have those long lines at the polling precincts.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: So we serve as a presence at those precincts to, one,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: offer them information. But we also have to follow SB 202.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: We have to do that outside of 150 feet from
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  Speaker 1: the precinct. We can't pass out water within those parameters. Otherwise,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: we could be arrested, and so can the voter that
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: we're trying to give that water to.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be fully honest. Transparent and honest with you.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Like, I had no idea that votes as oppression was
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: this insane in Georgia. Like, I am a green card holder,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: so I can't vote until I'm naturalized.
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  Speaker 3: We have to get out. There's these things that will
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: block the roads.
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  Speaker 2: And then a lot of the voters could no longer
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: go to the precinct that they used to vote at.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: They'll do these things to stop people. It was really
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: eye-opening for me personally. Another person on my team is
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: from London, also Black. We had to have like a
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: heart-to-heart about it. We heard them talking about this all
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: the time, but like now we're really seeing it.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: This is Georgia in 2022. Brian Kemp, who signed the
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  Speaker 4: new voter suppression law, is running for a second term
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: in a rematch against Stacey Abrams, who founded the New
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: Georgia Project and Fair Fight, two organizations that helped register
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: more than 800,000 voters in the lead-up to 2020.
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: In the end, those new voters made all the difference.
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: Georgia has certified its election results.
• 2:55
  Speaker 7: It happened about an hour ago.
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  Speaker 6: And President-elect Joe Biden is the winner of the state's
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  Speaker 6: 16 electoral college votes.
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  Speaker 5: But it was Black voters who put Democrats over the top.
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  Speaker 4: They're a third of Georgia's population, but made up more
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  Speaker 4: than half of all Democratic voters in the November election.
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  Speaker 4: And in the January Senate runoff, Black voters absolutely shattered
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: all turnout records. This year, control of the Senate could
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: once again come down to Georgia. The race between Senator
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: Raphael Warnock and ex-NFL player Herschel Walker might end up
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: being the closest and most expensive in the country. The
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: winner of the governor's race will either be the first
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  Speaker 4: Black woman in American history to ever hold that office...
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: or a man who assign laws to ban abortion, discriminate
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: against LGBTQ students, and make it harder to vote. Once again,
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: Black voters could make all the difference. But as we
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: head into November, the open question is whether Black voters,
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: especially younger Black voters and Black men, will turn out
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: for Democratic candidates at the same levels we've seen in
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: the last few elections. And the problem isn't just suppression,
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: but exhaustion. The same feeling of disconnection from politics that
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: we heard from voters in Pittsburgh, Orange County, and Las Vegas.
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  Speaker 8: We are watching Black voters as an electorate become more sophisticated.
• 4:14
  Speaker 8: And as they become more sophisticated, as they tap into
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  Speaker 8: the power of their vote and understand those consequences, they
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  Speaker 8: have more expectations and more demands that are not being
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  Speaker 8: met by candidates in campaigns and the major political parties.
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  Speaker 4: That's Nse Ufa, an activist who's currently the CEO of
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  Speaker 4: the New Georgia Project and deserves a lot of credit
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  Speaker 4: for what happened in her home state last election cycle.
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  Speaker 8: And so there's a gap between the rhetoric about the
• 4:41
  Speaker 8: importance of Black voters and their role as like the
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  Speaker 8: base of the Democratic Party and the investment in actually
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  Speaker 8: mobilizing and defending the vote.
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  Speaker 4: I wanted to learn how big that gap is and
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: what Democrats can do to close it. So I stayed
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  Speaker 4: in Atlanta for a few days after our last Pod
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  Speaker 4: Save America live show in August and sat down with
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  Speaker 4: one final group of voters. They were young Black men
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  Speaker 4: and women between 21 and 35 who identified as moderate Democrats.
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  Speaker 4: Very few of them were particularly excited about politics or
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: Joe Biden, but just about all of them showed up
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: to vote for him in 2020. Afterwards, I got together
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: with one last group of experts that included Nse.
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  Speaker 8: I tell people I'm a Southerner twice, was born in
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  Speaker 8: Southern Nigeria. and immigrated to Southwest Atlanta and, yeah, try
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  Speaker 8: to be smart about moving young people and people of
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  Speaker 8: color to action, if that's in the streets or in
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  Speaker 8: the polling booth.
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  Speaker 4: Also joining us were two other strategists who know INSEE
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: and each other quite well.
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  Speaker 3: Greetings.
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  Speaker 9: I am Simone Sanders-Townsend, and I am a host on INSEE.
• 5:43
  Speaker 9: MSNBC of my own show, Simone. Then I worked on
• 5:46
  Speaker 9: President Biden's presidential campaign as a senior advisor and chief
• 5:49
  Speaker 9: spokesperson to the vice president. Before that, I've advised all
• 5:52
  Speaker 9: kinds of gubernatorial campaigns, state legislative.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Races, mayoral races. I've done races on reservations.
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  Speaker 9: And in 2016, I served as Senator Sanders' press secretary
• 6:02
  Speaker 9: for his first presidential run.
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  Speaker 10: Hi, my name is Terrence Woodbury.
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  Speaker 11: I'm a pollster and partner at The research firm Hit Strategies.
• 6:10
  Speaker 11: Prior to starting Hit Strategies, I was a researcher at
• 6:14
  Speaker 11: Brookings Institution. And prior to that, I like to joke
• 6:16
  Speaker 11: that I worked every job on a campaign except the candidate.
• 6:20
  Speaker 11: But in doing those jobs, I often noticed that all
• 6:22
  Speaker 11: decisions were being deferred to the pollster. And I wanted
• 6:25
  Speaker 11: to look behind the curtain and see who was pulling
• 6:27
  Speaker 11: those polling strings. And when I look back there, I
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  Speaker 11: didn't see a lot of people that looked like me.
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  Speaker 11: And I'm glad to be here with friends.
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  Speaker 4: When we come back, we'll hear from Insay, Simone, Terrence,
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: and nine Black voters from Atlanta. All right, so my
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: last focus group was with young Black voters in Atlanta,
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: and they had more to say about politics and said
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: it with more passion than any other group of voters
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  Speaker 4: I talked to. Again, these were mostly Joe Biden voters,
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: and they all said they're likely to vote in the midterms.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: But wow, were they disappointed with our political system at
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: every level, and that includes the Democratic Party. Later, I
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: had a fascinating conversation about the group with our panel.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: INSEE is one of the best organizers in the country.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: Simone has worked at the highest levels of American politics.
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  Speaker 4: And Terrence is a pollster who focuses on young voters
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: and Black voters. So, perfect group for this. And as
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: a bonus, they're all friends.
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  Speaker 8: We're so proud of you, Simone, down here in Georgia
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  Speaker 8: and in, like, Black Girlandia.
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  Speaker 3: I appreciate y'all. Georgia is watching.
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  Speaker 5: And we're so proud of you at Crooked, your old
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: family at Crooked.
• 7:34
  Speaker 9: I appreciate you all. Yeah, I'm in Nebraska right now, actually.
• 7:37
  Speaker 9: They're naming the street I grew up on after me today.
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  Speaker 5: So that's why I'm here.
• 7:43
  Speaker 11: That is so cool.
• 7:43
  Speaker 12: That is awesome.
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  Speaker 4: I started by asking Inse, Simone, and Terrence what they've
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  Speaker 4: been hearing about the Georgia midterm races.
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  Speaker 8: I'm deeply concerned that with 77 days left to go,
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  Speaker 8: that we're still talking about the mythical moderate white voter
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  Speaker 8: that will vote for a Warnock and a Stacey, as
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  Speaker 8: opposed to talking about a deep investment and a prioritization
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  Speaker 8: of young voters and Black voters, because we know that
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  Speaker 8: we need at least 30% of the electorate to be
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  Speaker 8: Black voters if we plan to be competitive.
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  Speaker 4: It's like you were sitting in the focus group with me.
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  Speaker 3: She talks to the people, so she knows.
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  Speaker 10: Yeah, you do.
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  Speaker 8: And you should know, we literally knocked on a million
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  Speaker 8: doors in six months.
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  Speaker 10: We know what voters are saying.
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  Speaker 4: Simone, what are Democratic campaigns doing right when it comes
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: to mobilizing Black voters for these midterms? And where is
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: there room for improvement, shall we say?
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  Speaker 9: I think some of the things that Stacey has done
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  Speaker 9: should be a model for other campaigns, particularly her conversations
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  Speaker 9: with Black men. It's a series that she does and
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  Speaker 9: has gone to different spaces and places across the state.
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  Speaker 9: And this is an electorate much like the rest of
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  Speaker 9: the electorate, right? Like you need to talk to Black women,
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  Speaker 9: you need to talk to young Black voters at large,
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  Speaker 9: but Black men can be a key part in turning
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  Speaker 9: the tide. I'm preaching to the choir here, but when
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  Speaker 9: it comes to Black men and specifically Latino men in
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  Speaker 9: the Democratic Party, those are not reliably Democratic voters. I'm
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  Speaker 9: not saying they're Republican voters, but they are independent voters
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  Speaker 9: that the Democratic Party cannot necessarily rely on. And I
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  Speaker 9: do think that investing early and often is key.
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  Speaker 3: And I do feel.
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  Speaker 9: Like some of the entities have not invested early and often.
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  Speaker 9: They're going to invest right now.
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  Speaker 4: Terrence, Simone was talking about these sort of like less
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  Speaker 4: reliable voters, especially Black men. This group, there's some women
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  Speaker 4: in here, but predominantly men. How important is it for
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  Speaker 4: Democrats to keep these kinds of voters if they want
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  Speaker 4: to keep Georgia blue?
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  Speaker 11: Men of color have become amongst the most important swing
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  Speaker 11: voters in the Democratic electorate. When we look at what
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  Speaker 11: it took for Joe Biden to win in 2020, he,
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  Speaker 11: in fact, didn't do better than Hillary Clinton did with
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  Speaker 11: Black men, Latino men, AAPI men, any men of color.
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  Speaker 11: Where Joe Biden did better was with white men, white seniors.
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  Speaker 11: white college educated. And let's just be honest, Stacey Abrams
• 10:05
  Speaker 11: and Raphael Warnock are probably not going to do better
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  Speaker 11: than Scranton Joe did with white seniors in Georgia. And
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  Speaker 11: so while Joe Biden was able to win Georgia with 83,
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  Speaker 11: 84 percent of Black votes, Raphael Warnock and Stacey Abrams
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  Speaker 11: are going to have to hit Obama numbers, 91, 92, 93%.
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  Speaker 11: And we're seeing the same thing as we continue to
• 10:26
  Speaker 11: nominate diverse candidates across the country in places like Florida, Wisconsin.
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  Speaker 11: They're going to have to hit Obama-level numbers with men
• 10:32
  Speaker 11: of color. And so we've got to figure out how
• 10:34
  Speaker 11: to talk to them about some of these issues. Just
• 10:36
  Speaker 11: because they are more moderate, just like some of the
• 10:38
  Speaker 11: folks that you had in your focus group, doesn't mean
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  Speaker 11: they're not our voter.
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  Speaker 4: So I usually start by asking voters and all these
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: groups which issues are most important to them and their community.
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  Speaker 5: Let's take a listen.
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  Speaker 4: What are some of the biggest issues affecting Atlanta, in
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  Speaker 4: your view?
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  Speaker 13: The gun policy. There hasn't been a strict plan as
• 10:59
  Speaker 13: far as trying to make guns off the streets. And
• 11:01
  Speaker 13: so far this year, I think there have been a
• 11:02
  Speaker 13: number of deaths because of gun violence here. So I
• 11:05
  Speaker 13: definitely think that's something that needs to be addressed to
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  Speaker 13: me personally, because I've lost someone due to gun violence
• 11:09
  Speaker 13: as well.
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  Speaker 6: I'm sorry.
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  Speaker 14: Cars getting broken into seems to be a thing here.
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  Speaker 5: I got my car broken into six times.
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  Speaker 11: So not to scare anybody here, but it seems to
• 11:19
  Speaker 11: be an issue that I've noticed.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: I'm going to say the revenue. I want to know
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: where the money going.
• 11:23
  Speaker 15: Because our state regulates a lot of revenue for movies
• 11:26
  Speaker 15: and people coming in town.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: The hotel tax.
• 11:29
  Speaker 15: Supposedly they had a plan in action, I guess, with
• 11:33
  Speaker 15: the infrastructure of everything that they're building around town.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: But it's like, we still got potholes everywhere. The streets
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: are still tore up.
• 11:39
  Speaker 15: So it's like, where is all this money going and
• 11:41
  Speaker 15: y'all bringing in millions of dollars?
• 11:43
  Speaker 16: I work with youth. I'm into community and economic development.
• 11:47
  Speaker 16: There's a huge issue with kids just running around with
• 11:50
  Speaker 16: nothing to do, nowhere to go.
• 11:53
  Speaker 12: The children are the future.
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  Speaker 10: The money is not going to them.
• 11:56
  Speaker 12: How do you all feel about the cost of living
• 11:58
  Speaker 12: in Atlanta?
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  Speaker 3: It's super high.
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  Speaker 11: I know it's not high in California, but it's still high.
• 12:03
  Speaker 16: And minimum wage is $ 7.
• 12:04
  Speaker 10: 25.
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  Speaker 17: But you see the gentrification happening real fast.
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  Speaker 6: I feel like COVID has made it worse in a sense.
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  Speaker 15: I feel like the government took advantage and nobody paid
• 12:12
  Speaker 15: attention to what they was doing.
• 12:14
  Speaker 6: Because when you really think about it, Atlanta was one
• 12:15
  Speaker 6: of the only cities that was open. And we've been
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: branded the Hollywood of the South or Black Hollywood. And
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: so everyone trapped in the house, oh, I need to
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: get out, just holding in rage. And just everybody, the
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: ante came down to Atlanta and it seemed like Crime
• 12:26
  Speaker 6: went up. Cost went up. Everything seemed to go up
• 12:30
  Speaker 6: as soon as everybody just shifted down to Atlanta.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: Inse, you live and work in Atlanta. You've been knocking
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: on doors for a long time now. Do these answers
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: line up with what you're hearing from voters about the
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: issues that matter most to them right now?
• 12:41
  Speaker 10: Absolutely.
• 12:42
  Speaker 8: One, let me just say that I love my city
• 12:45
  Speaker 8: and the people in it. Two, they're absolutely right. But
• 12:48
  Speaker 8: I think the thing with the gap for me, the
• 12:51
  Speaker 8: misstep for me, is that people are not connecting these
• 12:54
  Speaker 8: to actual decisions that have been made. Brian Kemp decided
• 13:00
  Speaker 8: to open this state up on June 1st, 2020, despite
• 13:04
  Speaker 8: everything that we've known about COVID. Georgia is now a
• 13:06
  Speaker 8: guns everywhere state that Brian Kemp and the Georgia GOP,
• 13:10
  Speaker 8: in a most cynical move in advance of these midterms,
• 13:14
  Speaker 8: got rid of concealed permit, carry permits in the state
• 13:18
  Speaker 8: of Georgia. And so you no longer need a permit
• 13:20
  Speaker 8: to carry a concealed weapon in Georgia. These are predictable
• 13:24
  Speaker 8: consequences of policy and political choices that are made by
• 13:30
  Speaker 8: our current Republican leaders.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: And so that's where the gap is.
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: Simone, cost of living has come up as the top
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: issue in every single focus group I've done. This is
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: the first where crime and gun violence were mentioned quite
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: a bit. And I noticed we interviewed Stacey Abrams for
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: Pod Save America a few weeks back in Atlanta. I
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: brought up her comment about Black men needing to vote
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: for her, and she went right to public safety.
• 13:52
  Speaker 18: Those challenges are safety, justice, and opportunity. On the safety side,
• 13:57
  Speaker 18: it's making sure we make our community safe, but that
• 13:59
  Speaker 18: we also hold police and law enforcement accountable, that we
• 14:02
  Speaker 18: don't have to choose one or the other. That on
• 14:04
  Speaker 18: the justice side, that criminal justice reform is critical because
• 14:07
  Speaker 18: Georgia has had and continues to have one of the
• 14:09
  Speaker 18: highest mass incarceration rates in the nation. And as people
• 14:13
  Speaker 18: are returning citizens, they deserve to be reintegrated into society
• 14:17
  Speaker 18: and to have real chances at success.
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: What do you make of that? And how do you
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: think Democratic candidate should handle that issue?
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: To be very clear, I think that we got caught up.
• 14:27
  Speaker 9: We, I'm talking about the media apparatus, okay, got caught
• 14:30
  Speaker 9: up into a conversation about defund the police a couple
• 14:32
  Speaker 9: years back. And it would make you think that black
• 14:34
  Speaker 9: and brown people don't want to be safe in their community. Like,
• 14:37
  Speaker 9: my mother wants to be able to call the police.
• 14:39
  Speaker 9: When she calls them, though, she wants them to not
• 14:41
  Speaker 9: treat her as she is the assailant, okay?
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: Public safety is an issue across the country.
• 14:47
  Speaker 9: If you heard in that focus group the talk about
• 14:49
  Speaker 9: these kids essentially don't have anything to do, jobs programs
• 14:53
  Speaker 9: make a difference. And so that is where the rub is.
• 14:56
  Speaker 9: And so how do you bridge the gap so that
• 14:58
  Speaker 9: they understand that if we really want to do something
• 15:01
  Speaker 9: about the guns, we got.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: To vote for Stacey Abrams?
• 15:04
  Speaker 15: Yeah.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: And I also think in the media, there's this artificial
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: division between kitchen table economic issues and cultural, racial issues
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: and social issues when something like gun violence, as you mentioned,
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: deeply intertwined with economic issues as well. So after talking
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: about issues, I asked the group how they're feeling about
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: politics and the state of the country.
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: Here's what they said.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: I'm concerned, but I'm optimistic.
• 15:33
  Speaker 16: I think the future generations are going to be a
• 15:35
  Speaker 16: little bit more mindful about the choices that they're making.
• 15:39
  Speaker 16: Politics is really interesting right now, but I think we're
• 15:42
  Speaker 16: starting to shift away from, oh, my vote doesn't matter.
• 15:45
  Speaker 13: I'd probably say dissatisfactory with the country. Just not satisfied
• 15:49
  Speaker 13: with everything. I just feel like Congress let us down,
• 15:53
  Speaker 13: the government let us down. Just the way we're headed,
• 15:56
  Speaker 13: this is really not the land of the free, technically.
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: I'll say ticking time bomb. I feel like as a people,
• 16:02
  Speaker 6: There's a clear lack of empathy. There's lack of trust.
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: There's social media where people don't think for themselves and
• 16:08
  Speaker 6: everyone's staring at their phones 12 hours a day. I
• 16:11
  Speaker 6: struggle to see how things get better significantly.
• 16:13
  Speaker 15: So I'm just going to be like, fuck this country.
• 16:15
  Speaker 9: I don't care.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: I don't care.
• 16:18
  Speaker 15: At this point, I don't give a fuck.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: I don't care.
• 16:21
  Speaker 15: And my hope is in the future because my son,
• 16:23
  Speaker 15: he's going to be 15. So I feel like I
• 16:25
  Speaker 15: have hope. that the future generation behind us and even
• 16:30
  Speaker 15: with us, the country's going to take a shift. But
• 16:33
  Speaker 15: as of right now, the old heads and where we
• 16:35
  Speaker 15: at right now, fuck y'all.
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: This might sound a bit radical, but for black people
• 16:39
  Speaker 6: to get what we truly want, we have to tear
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: the system down. I don't think there's altering of the system.
• 16:45
  Speaker 13: For African-Americans, we don't really have a say so into
• 16:48
  Speaker 13: certain things. And I could come back to your point
• 16:50
  Speaker 13: of where you say we feel like our vote don't
• 16:51
  Speaker 13: matter because we may say we want these things done.
• 16:54
  Speaker 13: And if you look at government They all said they're
• 16:56
  Speaker 13: going to do things for us, and we still, low-poverty communities,
• 16:58
  Speaker 13: still the same decades later. It's very important to still
• 17:01
  Speaker 13: have government in place. It just needs to be a
• 17:03
  Speaker 13: total reform of it.
• 17:04
  Speaker 12: Like, I used to actually feel a little passionate about politics.
• 17:08
  Speaker 12: Barack Obama, of course. Like, I was actually there for Washington, D.C.
• 17:11
  Speaker 12: when he was inaugurating, and that made me feel like
• 17:14
  Speaker 12: I was a part of something.
• 17:15
  Speaker 17: But then, nowadays, it feels like taking out the trash.
• 17:18
  Speaker 12: Like, it's something that you've got to do every day.
• 17:22
  Speaker 10: So.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: Simone, I've heard this kind of anger and despair about
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: politics and other focus groups. What I found interesting here,
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: and this was to Nse's point at the beginning of
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: the conversation, is that all these voters still seem to
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: think politics and voting are important, right? There is this
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: level of sophistication and expectation. Talked to some disengaged Democrats
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: in Pittsburgh, mostly white voters, and they had similar anger
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: and were dispirited about politics.
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: This was like, we've got to vote. They're taking out
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: the trash line. Really got me. A lot of people can't.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: Afford not to.
• 17:55
  Speaker 9: And I think, first of all, I love focus groups
• 17:57
  Speaker 9: because I think focus groups allow people to have that
• 17:59
  Speaker 9: dialogue and talk. And there is no filter of the
• 18:02
  Speaker 9: bubble in the box on the piece of paper. This
• 18:04
  Speaker 9: is what people are saying. And I do think that
• 18:07
  Speaker 9: it is important for the media apparatus, strategists across the
• 18:11
  Speaker 9: country to understand that when we say things like our
• 18:14
  Speaker 9: democracy is under attack, when we say things like we
• 18:17
  Speaker 9: are living in a climate crisis, people of color, particularly
• 18:20
  Speaker 9: black people in America, are hit first and worst by
• 18:22
  Speaker 9: all of those things. Just how Uvalde is jarring and
• 18:25
  Speaker 9: Sandy Hook was jarring for every single person in America,
• 18:28
  Speaker 9: especially if you're a parent. Buffalo was like, damn, these
• 18:33
  Speaker 9: black people were in a grocery store on a Saturday afternoon.
• 18:37
  Speaker 9: And the reason that they lost their lives is because
• 18:41
  Speaker 9: they are black.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: So that is the world in which black people live in.
• 18:45
  Speaker 9: We also know that we can't afford not to vote
• 18:48
  Speaker 9: for a number of reasons. I think the question on
• 18:51
  Speaker 9: the table is, what have we gotten for our vote?
• 18:53
  Speaker 9: That's what you hear from folks. I am somebody that
• 18:55
  Speaker 9: believes in the system. It really tears me up inside
• 18:59
  Speaker 9: to hear Black voters, young people, anyone saying, I just
• 19:03
  Speaker 9: think we have to tear the system down because from
• 19:05
  Speaker 9: my perspective, the system always has a contingency plan. Heck,
• 19:08
  Speaker 9: there's something called a designated survivor. There is always a
• 19:12
  Speaker 9: contingency plan. And if I think that our efforts could
• 19:15
  Speaker 9: be and would be better spent from trying to change
• 19:19
  Speaker 9: the system from the inside out.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: That's just my perspective. I know people differ.
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: And so how do you persuade someone to engage with
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: the political system when they think that system needs to
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: be torn down, as the young woman Carissa and young
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: man named AK both basically said in that group?
• 19:35
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I think that one, we talk about it as
• 19:38
  Speaker 8: a false choice, that you can absolutely pursue reform while
• 19:42
  Speaker 8: thinking and imagining systems that don't even exist right now
• 19:45
  Speaker 8: that would actually serve our families and actually serve our communities. Two,
• 19:49
  Speaker 8: we often talk about it in terms of it's less
• 19:52
  Speaker 8: important about what's going on in the White House and
• 19:54
  Speaker 8: it's much, much more important about what's going on in
• 19:56
  Speaker 8: your house. I think that, you know, we have seen
• 19:59
  Speaker 8: a lot of success with that sort of conversation thread.
• 20:03
  Speaker 8: And that is why you can have people that are
• 20:05
  Speaker 8: deeply disappointed in the ways that they've been abandoned by lukewarm,
• 20:09
  Speaker 8: mealy mouth, ineffective leadership and still tell you that they're
• 20:13
  Speaker 8: going to show up to vote and still tell you
• 20:15
  Speaker 8: that they're optimistic about the future or actually that they're
• 20:19
  Speaker 8: optimistic about future generations taking the baton and moving it forward.
• 20:23
  Speaker 8: I'm an Atlanta public school graduate. I live and work
• 20:26
  Speaker 8: and organize in Georgia, so I can be forgiven for
• 20:29
  Speaker 8: the liberal use of King quotes. And so there's the
• 20:33
  Speaker 8: arc of the moral universe is long, but that it
• 20:35
  Speaker 8: bends towards justice. And oftentimes when that's invoked, people are
• 20:39
  Speaker 8: using it to talk about the work. What are you
• 20:41
  Speaker 8: doing to bend the arc? What does your work look like?
• 20:42
  Speaker 8: What does your activism look like, et cetera? In this moment,
• 20:45
  Speaker 8: we are definitely focusing on the fact that it is long.
• 20:48
  Speaker 8: That it is extraordinarily long, that there are things that
• 20:51
  Speaker 8: we are fighting for, for ourselves and for future generations
• 20:54
  Speaker 8: that may not be realized in our lifetimes and they
• 20:58
  Speaker 8: are worth pursuing. And again, I think three, it is
• 21:00
  Speaker 8: lastly just the idea that we are not electing messiahs,
• 21:04
  Speaker 8: that people will disappoint you. I think one of the
• 21:07
  Speaker 8: things that sort of was unarticulated is the disappointments. in
• 21:11
  Speaker 8: the Democrats, the disappointment in Biden, the disappointment in Harris,
• 21:15
  Speaker 8: the idea that people know that the Republicans are basically
• 21:19
  Speaker 8: a criminal caucus in this moment, masquerading as a legitimate
• 21:22
  Speaker 8: political party, that there's not a statesman amongst them, right,
• 21:26
  Speaker 8: in this moment. Folks know that. But what they are
• 21:28
  Speaker 8: disappointed in is that they are not seeing the Dems.
• 21:30
  Speaker 10: Fighting, right?
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: Terrence, you're a Democratic candidate campaign elected official. You hear
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: this disappointment. You want to identify with this anger and despair,
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: you also want to make the argument that with Democratic leadership,
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: things can get better. Things are maybe getting better. How
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: do you strike that balance as a candidate or a campaign?
• 21:53
  Speaker 11: Yeah, we've been encouraging a lot of the Democratic candidates
• 21:55
  Speaker 11: and organizations that we work with to pursue a message
• 22:00
  Speaker 11: of unfinished business that points to the progress.
• 22:03
  Speaker 10: That has been made, but acknowledges that it is not enough.
• 22:07
  Speaker 11: And so I One thing that we realize is that
• 22:10
  Speaker 11: we know that the only way to get these voters
• 22:12
  Speaker 11: back into the voting booth is for them to see
• 22:15
  Speaker 11: some return on their investment. They believe that nothing has happened.
• 22:19
  Speaker 11: They believe that no progress has been made, not some progress.
• 22:23
  Speaker 10: You heard them. Nothing has happened. And I'll tell you
• 22:26
  Speaker 10: one issue that was not said in that room, John,
• 22:28
  Speaker 10: and that is racism.
• 22:30
  Speaker 11: And this is why we race match so many of
• 22:33
  Speaker 11: our focus groups, because what a lot of those Black
• 22:35
  Speaker 11: voters were hinting at when they talk about grocery stores
• 22:39
  Speaker 11: and ticking time bombs was the racism that they may
• 22:42
  Speaker 11: have not felt comfortable bringing up to you in that room.
• 22:46
  Speaker 11: And we hear it in every single focus group, in
• 22:49
  Speaker 11: groups that we did on behalf of New Georgia Project
• 22:51
  Speaker 11: at the end of the 2020 cycle, that a part
• 22:53
  Speaker 11: of what they were fighting back in 2020, yes, they
• 22:56
  Speaker 11: voted to defeat Trump, but they were also voting to
• 22:59
  Speaker 11: beat back the overt racism that he brought into our politics.
• 23:03
  Speaker 11: And frankly, this administration, Democrats and Joe Biden, have made
• 23:07
  Speaker 11: significant progress on all of these issues. We know that
• 23:11
  Speaker 11: student loans are a top issue amongst young voters of color.
• 23:15
  Speaker 11: And while he had not forgiven student loans until we
• 23:18
  Speaker 11: got some relief today, no one had to pay federal
• 23:21
  Speaker 11: student loans since the man's been president.
• 23:23
  Speaker 10: We know that.
• 23:24
  Speaker 11: Racism is a number one, two, or three issue for
• 23:27
  Speaker 11: Black voters. Well, this administration has delivered justice to the
• 23:31
  Speaker 11: murderers of Ahmaud Arbery, not waiting for local prosecutions. but
• 23:36
  Speaker 11: pursuing federal hate crime prosecution by charging the Buffalo shooter.
• 23:41
  Speaker 11: We're talking about grocery store shootings. Merrick Garland's Justice Department
• 23:45
  Speaker 11: charged the Buffalo shooter with domestic terrorism and federal hate crimes.
• 23:50
  Speaker 10: Terrence, I want to be clear.
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: The bar is clearly in hell if we're talking about
• 23:56
  Speaker 8: people being charged as progress. And people know that.
• 24:00
  Speaker 11: It's not just people being charged. We were marching for justice, right?
• 24:05
  Speaker 11: For Breonna Taylor, for George Floyd, for Ahmaud Arbery. And
• 24:08
  Speaker 11: it's happening, I want to be clear, not because of
• 24:10
  Speaker 11: Merrick Garland and Joe Biden. It's happening because Black voters
• 24:14
  Speaker 11: in Georgia deliver power into the right chambers. And that's
• 24:18
  Speaker 11: how we have to reorient that you don't have to
• 24:21
  Speaker 11: wait to be saved.
• 24:22
  Speaker 10: But because you voted, things are happening.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: I think in some places that message could work.
• 24:27
  Speaker 9: I think the issue is that on one hand, we're
• 24:29
  Speaker 9: saying you did your job, you delivered power, and this
• 24:33
  Speaker 9: is what the Democrats have delivered for you. And then
• 24:35
  Speaker 9: on another hand, the president had to issue an executive
• 24:38
  Speaker 9: order about George Floyd because Congress couldn't get it done.
• 24:40
  Speaker 9: The president has had to take executive action to protect
• 24:44
  Speaker 9: women's ability to travel across state lines to get the
• 24:47
  Speaker 9: health care that they need if that health care is
• 24:49
  Speaker 9: an abortion because Congress didn't get it done. The care
• 24:51
  Speaker 9: economy pieces are not in the Inflation Reduction Act because
• 24:55
  Speaker 9: Congress couldn't get that piece done. Perhaps we oversold. And
• 24:59
  Speaker 9: I think that is very fair to say. Coming in,
• 25:03
  Speaker 9: say we were going to go and do all these things.
• 25:05
  Speaker 9: To be very clear, monumental things have gotten done. The
• 25:08
  Speaker 9: Inflation Reduction Act is a monumental piece of legislation. But
• 25:11
  Speaker 9: people were expecting more.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: When I did this podcast last season, it was around 2020.
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: And the person who, the one person I interviewed who
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: warned me about overpromising to voters, Stacey Abrams. And she
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: said it is, she goes, and she said, especially Black folks,
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: who are trying to get by and just trying to
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: live and struggling, and you overpromise.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: They feel duped.
• 25:35
  Speaker 18: Our ambitions have to be met with our capacity to deliver,
• 25:38
  Speaker 18: because for the people who are the most easily dissuaded
• 25:41
  Speaker 18: from participation, it's when you promise them the moon and
• 25:44
  Speaker 18: can't deliver a single grain of sand.
• 25:48
  Speaker 8: One, the issue is overpromising, and then two, the other
• 25:51
  Speaker 8: issue is that we are not being honest. There was
• 25:55
  Speaker 8: a failed murder plot to kill the vice president of
• 25:57
  Speaker 8: the United States, And the Speaker.
• 26:00
  Speaker 10: Of the House, folks, died.
• 26:01
  Speaker 8: And then January 6th, insurrectionists running for Congress, right? I
• 26:05
  Speaker 8: think that there's an urgency that Black voters feel. I'm
• 26:08
  Speaker 8: super proud of the American Rescue Plan, right? And the
• 26:12
  Speaker 8: fact that, you know, over 80% of American households got
• 26:15
  Speaker 8: some emergency economic relief when they needed it the most.
• 26:18
  Speaker 8: And it was Georgia voters that made that happen, that
• 26:20
  Speaker 8: they sent Warnock, that they sent Ossoff to the United
• 26:22
  Speaker 8: States Senate and made that happen. And that was important.
• 26:25
  Speaker 8: But there are absolutely other things that people want to win.
• 26:28
  Speaker 8: And the things that we can't win, people want to
• 26:30
  Speaker 8: see their leaders fight. And we have to be honest
• 26:36
  Speaker 8: about what we're up against, what we're facing, and they're not.
• 26:39
  Speaker 8: People think that Brad Raffensperger, who didn't crime that one time, right,
• 26:44
  Speaker 8: by not participating in Trump's criminal conspiracy to steal the election,
• 26:48
  Speaker 8: is an okay candidate. He endorsed Senate Bill 202. It
• 26:52
  Speaker 8: has changed over 50 of Georgia's election laws.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: It has created five new crimes. Three of them are felonies.
• 27:02
  Speaker 10: Why are we not talking about the fact that they.
• 27:04
  Speaker 8: Are playing for keeps and we are still operating from
• 27:09
  Speaker 8: a conventional playbook? We are not having honest conversations about
• 27:15
  Speaker 8: what we are up against. And this really nice, polite
• 27:19
  Speaker 8: conversation that we are having as if this is a
• 27:23
  Speaker 8: normal election is ridiculous. We had a candidate for governor
• 27:28
  Speaker 8: in Arizona talking about big dick energy for Ron DeSantis.
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: After the break, I have a very honest conversation about
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: Joe Biden with the Atlanta voters.
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: Welcome back.
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: Like all the other focus groups I've done this season,
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: I of course wanted to know what these voters thought
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: of Joe Biden. And this group had a lot to say.
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: For context, I conducted this group right after the Inflation
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: Reduction Act was passed. Some of the voters liked that
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: he passed it, some had no idea what it was,
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: but none of them were that impressed.
• 28:12
  Speaker 12: For those of you who voted in 2020, why did
• 28:15
  Speaker 12: you vote?
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: I voted because I thought that there's no way it
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: could get worse, and it somehow did. I thought Trump was...
• 28:21
  Speaker 6: For lack of better words, a jackass. I think we
• 28:23
  Speaker 6: can all agree to that. And I didn't realize this
• 28:24
  Speaker 6: until after, but he was honest. And I keep harping
• 28:26
  Speaker 6: on to that because if you tell me how you
• 28:28
  Speaker 6: really feel, I can then operate off of that. If
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: you tell me that you're racist, well, I know I
• 28:32
  Speaker 6: can stay the hell away from you. I don't want
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: you to act like my friend, get near me, and
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: then do whatever you please. He was honest. Joe Biden,
• 28:40
  Speaker 6: I voted for him again. I felt like it was
• 28:41
  Speaker 6: the lesser of two evils in a sense.
• 28:43
  Speaker 16: So I want to start by saying, unfortunately in this country,
• 28:47
  Speaker 16: people think they have far less power than they do.
• 28:51
  Speaker 16: The way we stood together and voted for Joe Biden
• 28:54
  Speaker 16: was flipping states. Is that not hard to do in
• 28:58
  Speaker 16: any other scenario? Like we were that desperate to get
• 29:01
  Speaker 16: Trump out that we were like, let's actually do our
• 29:04
  Speaker 16: job as citizens to create the life that we want
• 29:07
  Speaker 16: to live in our state and our country.
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: I feel like I know the answer to this just
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: from what everyone's been talking about, but does anyone think
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: Joe Biden has been doing a good job?
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: No.
• 29:16
  Speaker 6: Going once, going twice.
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: What do you wish Joe Biden was doing better?
• 29:25
  Speaker 10: His job.
• 29:25
  Speaker 12: He just passed a pretty dope bill.
• 29:27
  Speaker 13: Yeah, that bill is really dope.
• 29:31
  Speaker 17: So that was dope, but it took him a really
• 29:34
  Speaker 17: long time to do anything. So it's like, of course,
• 29:39
  Speaker 17: doing it now I don't know how long it's going
• 29:41
  Speaker 17: to take him to do the next thing that he's
• 29:44
  Speaker 17: supposed to do.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: He ain't do nothing but piggyback off Trump.
• 29:48
  Speaker 15: Did you not see the bill, the infrastructure bill that
• 29:50
  Speaker 15: Trump did, headed by way by Barack? The only thing
• 29:54
  Speaker 15: they doing is every president piggybacks off each other.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: So you saying that it's dope?
• 29:58
  Speaker 15: I don't see any difference in what he did.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: There's an infrastructure bill that was passed last year. The
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: one that just passed last week, it is a health
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: care and climate bill. It will reduce pollution. Greenhouse gas
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: emissions 40% by 2050. It will also let Medicare negotiate
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: for cheaper drugs. And also for the Affordable Care Act,
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: it keeps the subsidies bigger in the Affordable Care Act for.
• 30:19
  Speaker 10: The next three years. But Trump had already had that bill.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: In place, so what's the difference?
• 30:23
  Speaker 10: Not the climate change, though.
• 30:24
  Speaker 6: Yes, he did.
• 30:25
  Speaker 10: He actually took that away. He took that away.
• 30:28
  Speaker 12: Oh, he took it away?
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he took it away.
• 30:30
  Speaker 13: He was like, no, he took that away.
• 30:32
  Speaker 10: Oh, okay.
• 30:33
  Speaker 6: Well, my bad.
• 30:39
  Speaker 10: I love my city.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: So, Terrence, knowing that the provisions of the Inflation Reduction
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: Act are super popular, and I did not channel my
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: best inner pollster when I described it.
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: You didn't.
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: I was like, what is that? I was caught off
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: guard that I was going to have to describe it. Anyway,
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: lower health care costs, lower energy bills, lower prescription drug costs.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: But we know that these provisions won't take effect until
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: after the midterm. How should Democrats talk about this bill
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: on the campaign trail? As you mentioned earlier, we're also
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: having this conversation on the day that Biden is announcing
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: student debt relief. I wonder how that would play with
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: this group of voters, particularly because as I continued on
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: the conversation about Biden and his policies and accomplishments, a
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: couple people said, more stimulus checks.
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: Love the stimulus checks. Want more stimulus checks.
• 31:26
  Speaker 11: The sentiment expressed in those focus groups is not unusual
• 31:29
  Speaker 11: or uncommon from what we've been hearing. In fact, I
• 31:31
  Speaker 11: was in focus groups with NSA in Georgia, and I
• 31:33
  Speaker 11: heard sometimes these quotes could be so prolific. My hood
• 31:35
  Speaker 11: didn't get any better under Obama. It didn't get any
• 31:37
  Speaker 11: worse under Trump. So tell me what Biden got to
• 31:40
  Speaker 11: do with me. This is a part of what we
• 31:43
  Speaker 11: now have to solve for. When we poll Black voters,
• 31:46
  Speaker 11: and 73% of Black voters say that their lives have
• 31:48
  Speaker 11: not improved since Joe Biden became president.
• 31:52
  Speaker 10: But in the same poll.
• 31:54
  Speaker 11: We give them a list of progress that has been made,
• 31:56
  Speaker 11: things that have not been fully implemented yet, like $ 70
• 31:59
  Speaker 11: billion to replace every lead pipe in America. We haven't
• 32:03
  Speaker 11: ripped up the pipes in Flint, but they recognize that
• 32:05
  Speaker 11: this president has done something that the three previous presidents
• 32:08
  Speaker 11: could have done. And so we give them this list
• 32:11
  Speaker 11: and 90% say that this progress either has improved their
• 32:16
  Speaker 11: lives or will improve their lives. The same 90% say
• 32:20
  Speaker 11: that they haven't heard of any of it. It's universally
• 32:23
  Speaker 11: helping them, universally improving their lives, and they're universally unaware
• 32:27
  Speaker 11: of it.
• 32:28
  Speaker 10: And so this is a messaging problem.
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: And see, I'm thinking about what you had just said,
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: which is we are facing an existential threat. This is
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: not an ordinary election. These are not ordinary political times.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: There is the threat of political violence. There's the threat
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: that the whole thing comes down. And then Joe Biden
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: and Democrats are just doing the best they can and
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: they're passing stuff and they're trying to improve people's lives
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: and lower costs.
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: How do you close that gap.
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: Between a president and a Democratic Party that are doing
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: the best they can to improve people's lives on one
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: hand and the existential threat to democracy on the other hand?
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: Like, how do you connect that?
• 33:06
  Speaker 8: I think it's the battlefields in which they choose to engage.
• 33:10
  Speaker 8: You talk about $ 70 billion to replace lead pipes. I
• 33:13
  Speaker 8: don't know anybody on this panel today who would go
• 33:16
  Speaker 8: to Flint, Michigan today and and drink water out of
• 33:18
  Speaker 8: the tap.
• 33:19
  Speaker 10: And so that's what people are talking about.
• 33:21
  Speaker 8: I want to put my cup under my faucet today.
• 33:25
  Speaker 8: And if that is not happening, then you are telling
• 33:28
  Speaker 8: them to prepare for a future where things might possibly
• 33:31
  Speaker 8: get better. And that is no different than how people
• 33:34
  Speaker 8: have experienced political leadership before.
• 33:37
  Speaker 10: So how is this different?
• 33:38
  Speaker 8: So the battlefields in which they choose to engage, it is.
• 33:42
  Speaker 10: A rhetorical one, right?
• 33:43
  Speaker 8: They do need to continue to highlight their wins And
• 33:46
  Speaker 8: they also need to be seen as fighting. The idea
• 33:50
  Speaker 8: that we could not get the John Lewis Voting Rights
• 33:54
  Speaker 8: Act passed, when all of those people cried crocodile tears
• 33:57
  Speaker 8: on the floor of the house, when he died.
• 33:59
  Speaker 10: And talked about him.
• 34:01
  Speaker 8: Taking a brick to the face on the Edmund Pettus
• 34:03
  Speaker 8: Bridge for the right to vote, and people invoking these
• 34:06
  Speaker 8: really violent images and the sacrifices that Black voters have
• 34:10
  Speaker 8: made to move this country forward, and then would lie
• 34:13
  Speaker 8: down and tell us that the filibuster is an institution
• 34:17
  Speaker 8: Worth preserving over the right to vote while the Constitution
• 34:22
  Speaker 8: is being shredded. And what I'm saying is that that
• 34:26
  Speaker 8: people are not seeing the fight, that people are not seeing, again,
• 34:30
  Speaker 8: the idea that we are being honest about what the
• 34:33
  Speaker 8: stakes are and what they can do to make it happen.
• 34:37
  Speaker 10: It's still my colleague.
• 34:39
  Speaker 8: The gentleman, the gentle lady from the great state of
• 34:42
  Speaker 8: West Virginia, from the great state of Arizona, that there's
• 34:44
  Speaker 8: a commitment to collegiality and there's a commitment to talking
• 34:48
  Speaker 8: about things in a particular way that is literally going
• 34:52
  Speaker 8: to be the death of us.
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: So we moved on from national politics to state politics.
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: I started off asking about voting rights, just brought up
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: John Lewis and the Voting Rights Act.
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: Let's take a listen. Let's talk about politics in Georgia.
• 35:06
  Speaker 12: Do you think it's easy enough to vote in Georgia?
• 35:10
  Speaker 16: Oh, that's a loaded question.
• 35:14
  Speaker 12: I think it depends where you live.
• 35:16
  Speaker 17: It depends.
• 35:16
  Speaker 12: Actually, let's split it up. Personally, have you found it
• 35:19
  Speaker 12: difficult to vote at all?
• 35:21
  Speaker 6: No.
• 35:22
  Speaker 12: But what do you think about for Georgians in general?
• 35:25
  Speaker 16: Okay, so personally, I didn't have an issue, but I
• 35:28
  Speaker 16: had friends that were within a group chat and were like, okay,
• 35:30
  Speaker 16: who's voting?
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: Were y'all voting today?
• 35:32
  Speaker 16: Just trying to make sure everybody was good that day.
• 35:33
  Speaker 19: Uh-huh.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: Or early voting, whatever.
• 35:35
  Speaker 16: I was never unregistered, but I had two people in
• 35:38
  Speaker 16: that chat that were unregistered, and then it was a
• 35:41
  Speaker 16: whole bunch of confusions about where they were supposed to
• 35:44
  Speaker 16: go to vote.
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: Does anyone else know anyone who has had a difficult
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: time voting in Georgia?
• 35:49
  Speaker 13: Yeah, my father did. So he lives in southern Georgia
• 35:52
  Speaker 13: in a smaller county. And he told me during the
• 35:55
  Speaker 13: time when they was voting for the presidency, anybody that
• 35:57
  Speaker 13: was in line after 8 o'clock, because the line was
• 35:59
  Speaker 13: very long, they turned people away. They said, we're not
• 36:01
  Speaker 13: doing it anymore. It was predominantly black in the neighborhood
• 36:03
  Speaker 13: he lives in. And he's told us that after a
• 36:05
  Speaker 13: certain time, they were telling people that you can't vote
• 36:07
  Speaker 13: no more.
• 36:08
  Speaker 6: I basically had an inverse experience to them. I had
• 36:11
  Speaker 6: it very easy. I come from a predominantly white area
• 36:14
  Speaker 6: where everyone typically votes Republican. And they made sure that
• 36:16
  Speaker 6: we were all settled. And they had a nice building
• 36:18
  Speaker 6: for us with AC and all types of snacks. It
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: was great.
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: I also asked these voters if they had heard about
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: voter suppression law that Brian Kemp and Georgia Republicans passed
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: last year. Most had not. The ones who had didn't
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: really know what was in it. But they all clearly
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: believe it's harder for Black voters to cast a ballot.
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: What are groups like New Georgia Project doing to help
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: folks overcome voter suppression?
• 36:42
  Speaker 10: Yeah, all of the things.
• 36:44
  Speaker 8: What I will tell you is that we're in court.
• 36:47
  Speaker 9: Right.
• 36:47
  Speaker 8: So we've filed impact litigation to try to stop some
• 36:51
  Speaker 8: of the provisions from Senate Bill 202 because the Republicans
• 36:54
  Speaker 8: have cut 100 days from the absentee balloting, the vote
• 36:58
  Speaker 8: by mail timeline. There's the popular education, sort of voter education,
• 37:03
  Speaker 8: but also getting very annoying about telling people to request
• 37:08
  Speaker 8: their absentee ballots and then doing an aggressive ballot chasing program.
• 37:12
  Speaker 8: There are 3,000 polling locations in Georgia. And we aim
• 37:16
  Speaker 8: to have eyes and ears at over half of them.
• 37:19
  Speaker 8: Because there are five new crimes in Georgia's election law,
• 37:23
  Speaker 8: we are working with a number of... So the National
• 37:25
  Speaker 8: Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
• 37:29
  Speaker 8: Because there are a thousand Georgians currently who are being
• 37:31
  Speaker 8: investigated for voter fraud, which carries with it a penalty
• 37:34
  Speaker 8: of up to 10 years in prison and $ 100, 000 in
• 37:37
  Speaker 8: fines for each voter. So trying to get very smart
• 37:40
  Speaker 8: and very strategic.
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: Because also.
• 37:42
  Speaker 10: While the.
• 37:43
  Speaker 8: Candidates are enjoying historic fundraising quarters consecutively, the work of
• 37:48
  Speaker 8: the people who actually move Black voters to vote has
• 37:50
  Speaker 8: been criminally underfunded in this moment. So trying to raise
• 37:54
  Speaker 8: resources and remind people of how we actually won in
• 37:59
  Speaker 8: 2020 and how we actually won in 2021. And again,
• 38:03
  Speaker 8: even with having literally once in a generation brilliant candidates
• 38:08
  Speaker 8: like Leader Abrams and Senator Warnock, There is an ecosystem.
• 38:13
  Speaker 8: There is a formula to how we move people to vote.
• 38:18
  Speaker 8: And it's not just awesome speeches and great commercials with
• 38:22
  Speaker 8: cute puppy dogs.
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: You got to organize.
• 38:28
  Speaker 5: Last clip, we finally got to the midterms.
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: I asked about the state's two biggest races, two of
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: the biggest races in the country, Georgia governor and Georgia Senate.
• 38:35
  Speaker 5: Let's listen.
• 38:36
  Speaker 12: What does everyone think of how Brian Kemp is doing
• 38:38
  Speaker 12: as governor?
• 38:39
  Speaker 6: He sucks.
• 38:40
  Speaker 15: Yeah, he sucks.
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: He was behaving so irresponsibly.
• 38:44
  Speaker 10: So a loser.
• 38:45
  Speaker 12: What does everyone think of Stacey Abrams?
• 38:48
  Speaker 15: I don't trust Democrat or Republican because I don't care
• 38:50
  Speaker 15: if you for the people and you putting up your
• 38:53
  Speaker 15: hand and this, that, and the third black power and this.
• 38:56
  Speaker 15: We're going to get this together.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: Girl, you still part of the machine, so next.
• 38:59
  Speaker 13: How do you feel about Stacey?
• 39:02
  Speaker 12: They're good until they're not.
• 39:03
  Speaker 10: Right.
• 39:05
  Speaker 8: We're hopeful.
• 39:05
  Speaker 16: We would be optimistic if she was put in position,
• 39:08
  Speaker 16: but I'm sure we'd be very disappointed, even more disappointed
• 39:10
  Speaker 16: if she got in and didn't know how to act.
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: So then I asked who planned on voting in November.
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: Everyone raised their hand. I asked who planned on voting
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: for Stacey Abrams. Most raised their hand. A few were undecided,
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: so I asked how they'd make up their minds. Let's
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: listen to what one voter said and then what they
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: all think about the Senate race between Raphael Warnock and
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: Herschel Walker.
• 39:29
  Speaker 13: I would prefer her to do something more for the people,
• 39:32
  Speaker 13: especially like this homeless situation, maybe an executive action to get.
• 39:35
  Speaker 10: Something with the homeless.
• 39:37
  Speaker 13: I don't really care about her saying that what she's
• 39:39
  Speaker 13: going to do to defund the police and all that
• 39:40
  Speaker 13: stuff or whatever she's saying because it's something I already
• 39:42
  Speaker 13: heard before. It's something I heard before her and before
• 39:45
  Speaker 13: Kemp and all of that. So if she hasn't really
• 39:47
  Speaker 13: proven to me that she's someone I would want to
• 39:48
  Speaker 13: vote for right now, So I need to see more
• 39:50
  Speaker 13: of her policies. I don't care that she's black. That's
• 39:52
  Speaker 13: the reason I'm voting for her. I'm not voting for
• 39:53
  Speaker 13: her because she's black. So I need to see exactly
• 39:55
  Speaker 13: what her plan is and what her policy is for
• 39:57
  Speaker 13: me to really be like, okay, I can get behind
• 39:59
  Speaker 13: you and support you on that. Until she can prove different,
• 40:01
  Speaker 13: then I don't know who I'm going to vote for.
• 40:02
  Speaker 11: At this point.
• 40:03
  Speaker 10: Okay, okay.
• 40:04
  Speaker 12: How do you think Raphael Warnock is doing as your senator?
• 40:08
  Speaker 6: He hasn't done enough, and that's the reason why I
• 40:10
  Speaker 6: forgot he was senator.
• 40:11
  Speaker 16: So I definitely did vote for Raphael Warnock because he
• 40:15
  Speaker 16: was black. but Hershel Walker is just making up things
• 40:17
  Speaker 16: like I was in the FBI and I did things.
• 40:20
  Speaker 16: Definitely appreciate Warnock bringing that to light, but I want
• 40:25
  Speaker 16: you to use your airtime on how you're going to
• 40:28
  Speaker 16: fix some issues that we need fixed.
• 40:31
  Speaker 6: He's telling us why we shouldn't vote for Walker rather
• 40:33
  Speaker 6: than telling us why we should vote for him.
• 40:35
  Speaker 10: Exactly, because they got Herschel looking crazy on.
• 40:38
  Speaker 11: No.
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: To my knowledge.
• 40:41
  Speaker 15: Don't you have a bad history? Like he woman beater, drugs,
• 40:47
  Speaker 15: all this other stuff? No, I'm not finna vote you in,
• 40:50
  Speaker 15: my guy.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: You gonna sell out real quick.
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: How many people plan to vote for Warnock again this November?
• 40:56
  Speaker 6: Oh, no.
• 40:59
  Speaker 15: Oh, Rehersal Walker?
• 41:00
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 41:00
  Speaker 10: Oh, that's for sure.
• 41:02
  Speaker 12: Oh, yeah.
• 41:03
  Speaker 10: You might hate it.
• 41:04
  Speaker 20: Maybe.
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: Simone, what stuck with me is the voter who said
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: about Stacey, they're good until they're not. There's clearly no
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: love for Kemp or Walker in this group, but it
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: seems like there's so much distrust of the political system
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: that at least some of these voters aren't yet ready
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: to take the leap of faith on Stacey Abrams, which
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: she talks about in her message all the time. What
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: do you think she does to overcome that, to close
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: that deal?
• 41:30
  Speaker 9: Look, I think that Stacey needs to stay out there
• 41:33
  Speaker 9: and be true.
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: I know she recently released an ad called Truth.
• 41:37
  Speaker 18: Brian Kemp wants to bash me for my honesty and
• 41:39
  Speaker 18: lie about my record. But my parents taught me to
• 41:42
  Speaker 18: tell the whole story. And that's the truth.
• 41:45
  Speaker 9: Then it goes on to talk about things that people
• 41:48
  Speaker 9: cited in the focus groups that they cared about, like
• 41:49
  Speaker 9: crime and public safety and what Governor Kemp has not done.
• 41:53
  Speaker 9: And I think the active debunking, but as we also
• 41:56
  Speaker 9: heard in that focus group, people were like, he's just
• 41:59
  Speaker 9: telling us why Herschel Walker is bad and Reverend Warnock
• 42:01
  Speaker 9: isn't telling us why he's good. And so Stacey Abrams
• 42:03
  Speaker 9: has to do the act of debunking, but also the
• 42:06
  Speaker 9: campaign has to continue to do the act of advocating
• 42:08
  Speaker 9: for not only is Brian Kent bad for you, like
• 42:11
  Speaker 9: this is why. Disinformation is a very powerful tool. And
• 42:14
  Speaker 9: I heard a lot of misinformation and disinformation in.
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: That focus group. Stacey Abrams wants to defund the police.
• 42:20
  Speaker 9: No.
• 42:20
  Speaker 10: You saw my face? I was like, really?
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: When?
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: It's not true. When did that happen to me?
• 42:26
  Speaker 9: The people in that focus group, this is what they
• 42:29
  Speaker 9: believe to be true.
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: And that's why this is one, concerning, but two, it's illuminating.
• 42:34
  Speaker 9: Because, okay, if this is what you believe and we
• 42:36
  Speaker 9: know that this does not line up with the facts,
• 42:38
  Speaker 9: what we can do is communicate with you, to you,
• 42:41
  Speaker 9: with the facts.
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: So, Terrence, this is the age-old question, right? But some
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: of these, I know Democrats have been wisely, I think,
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: trying to make this election a choice between visions and
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: point out the extremism of the Republican Party. How do
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: you do that, but also sell a vision to some
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: of these voters who are saying, I want to hear
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: what Stacey's going to do. I want to hear more
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: from Warnock about what he's going to do. Like, how
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: do you strike that balance as a campaign?
• 43:06
  Speaker 11: Yeah, you know, we are electing politicians to lead multi-billion
• 43:10
  Speaker 11: dollar budgets and determine a trillion dollars of expenditure in
• 43:14
  Speaker 11: the U.S.
• 43:14
  Speaker 16: Senate.
• 43:15
  Speaker 10: We expect them to be able to walk and chew gum.
• 43:17
  Speaker 11: We expect them to be able to tell us why
• 43:19
  Speaker 11: they should vote for them and why the other guy
• 43:21
  Speaker 11: is bad, too. We're also looking at two of the
• 43:23
  Speaker 11: most sophisticated candidates in the country here. I'm very reluctant
• 43:26
  Speaker 11: to tell Stacey Abrams what she needs to do to
• 43:28
  Speaker 11: get elected because I think she's amongst the most effective
• 43:30
  Speaker 11: communicators in the Democratic Party.
• 43:33
  Speaker 10: And I'm getting paid to do that for Raphael Warnock.
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: And give away the secrets.
• 43:39
  Speaker 11: But that said, we do have to make this a contrast.
• 43:43
  Speaker 11: And there is an existential threat that Republicans are facing.
• 43:46
  Speaker 11: And it's a contest of ideas, a contest.
• 43:49
  Speaker 10: Of a vision forward.
• 43:51
  Speaker 11: But one thing I will warn those who are going
• 43:53
  Speaker 11: to inject a lot of money into this Georgia politics,
• 43:57
  Speaker 11: you got to be careful how you criticize Herschel Walker
• 44:00
  Speaker 11: to Black voters. Because there's a risk of, we did
• 44:03
  Speaker 11: some focus groups and showed some of the exact same
• 44:06
  Speaker 11: ads they're showing on TV.
• 44:07
  Speaker 10: And some of the questions we got back was, who's
• 44:09
  Speaker 10: saying that about him? Who wrote that? Because who the.
• 44:14
  Speaker 11: Messenger is and who is drawing the distinction and the
• 44:18
  Speaker 11: contrast about him It's going to be important to Black voters.
• 44:21
  Speaker 11: And frankly, you don't need a bunch of messengers for
• 44:24
  Speaker 11: Hershel Walker. Just push play on him.
• 44:27
  Speaker 8: And I'll be honest, there's nothing that a campaign can
• 44:29
  Speaker 8: build in the next 76 days that will compete with
• 44:33
  Speaker 8: the apparatus that we have. We have 18 offices across
• 44:36
  Speaker 8: the state, right? Over 500 people on staff that are
• 44:39
  Speaker 8: in deep relationship, in deep community with leaders and organizations.
• 44:43
  Speaker 8: ordinary folks who are moving beyond the sort of transactional
• 44:48
  Speaker 8: nature of the vote for my guy, vote for my
• 44:51
  Speaker 8: gal conversation and talking about, okay, we are in trouble
• 44:57
  Speaker 8: and we need to figure out how we are going
• 44:59
  Speaker 8: to get ourselves.
• 45:00
  Speaker 10: Out of this.
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: That's great.
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: Nse, Terrence, Simone, thank you so much for doing this.
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: Thank you for the time. This was a fantastic conversation.
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: So I really appreciate all of you.
• 45:11
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 45:11
  Speaker 10: Thank you. It was great.
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: All right. Take care, everyone.
• 45:14
  Speaker 10: Bye, John. Bye.
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: The conversations I had with Nse, Simone, Terrence, and the
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: voters in Atlanta really stayed with me. Afterwards, I thought
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: about something that Tiffany Mackey told us. She's one of
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: the organizers we heard from at the beginning of the episode.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: There's a book called Miner's Canary, and it's essentially talking
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: about power over and power under and listening to the
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: alarms that are happening in different communities across the country.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: And so I think that in the long game, it
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: looks like not being as reactive and more proactive. So
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: I think there are a lot of things that we
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: could kind of pay attention to those alarms in and
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: then create solutions around them so that we can create
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: sustainable change.
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: We've heard these alarms throughout this season from communities who
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: should be at the heart of the Democratic coalition. Black voters,
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: Latino voters, young voters. voters who struggle to pay for
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: school or housing, who live in places where the nearest
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: abortion clinic is now hundreds of miles away, where gun
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: violence has always been a problem. They're voters who are
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: being asked to save a political system that they don't
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: think is working for them. As Dan Wagner told.
• 46:28
  Speaker 14: Us, They are looking at the political process right now
• 46:31
  Speaker 14: through deep anxiety because they're going through a historical collapse
• 46:35
  Speaker 14: in their standard of living as a result of inflation
• 46:37
  Speaker 14: and rising home prices. And they are thinking about how
• 46:41
  Speaker 14: their families are going to get by and politics is last,
• 46:44
  Speaker 14: not first.
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: Again, I get how this can be frustrating.
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: I saw the replies to my tweet about the undecided
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: Biden voters I talked to this season. How could anyone
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: be undecided right now? Don't they know how bad Republicans are?
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: Don't they know how much the Democrats have accomplished? Don't
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: they understand what's at stake? Well, remember what we heard
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: this season.
• 47:04
  Speaker 21: I think it's important to constantly acknowledge that In a
• 47:08
  Speaker 21: person's day, they have a finite amount of attention. And
• 47:13
  Speaker 21: a lot of this attention is going basically to just
• 47:17
  Speaker 21: figuring out how to live their lives, often in really
• 47:21
  Speaker 21: difficult circumstances.
• 47:23
  Speaker 22: The vast majority of people in our community are not
• 47:26
  Speaker 22: waking up with a pre-formed and pre-figured analysis of politics
• 47:31
  Speaker 22: and connecting it to their lives and how they see
• 47:32
  Speaker 22: the world because they're not in organizations.
• 47:34
  Speaker 10: They're not connected to the political establishment. They're not connected to.
• 47:37
  Speaker 22: To any way where they touch power and see it
• 47:41
  Speaker 22: show up in their lives. And so when kind of
• 47:45
  Speaker 22: a political establishment people, the media, when they tell this
• 47:48
  Speaker 22: story of, oh, voters in Pennsylvania have been persuaded by
• 47:54
  Speaker 22: the Republican Party message or have been persuaded by the
• 47:58
  Speaker 22: politics of fear and hate and division, that may be
• 48:01
  Speaker 22: true for some people, but the vast majority of people
• 48:03
  Speaker 22: who are voting are just showing up and picking between
• 48:06
  Speaker 22: two people on that given day.
• 48:08
  Speaker 19: You know, there's also a timing issue here, which is
• 48:11
  Speaker 19: whenever people say, oh, nobody knows what's going on, no
• 48:15
  Speaker 19: one knows. These students, they're trying to get through their day.
• 48:18
  Speaker 19: They're trying to go to their job. They're trying to
• 48:20
  Speaker 19: pay off their loans. They're trying to save up for
• 48:22
  Speaker 19: a house. So I think it's really incumbent on me
• 48:26
  Speaker 19: to make sure we reach these voters. It's our job
• 48:30
  Speaker 19: to find these folks and to connect with them. It's
• 48:32
  Speaker 19: not their job to find us. Their job is just
• 48:34
  Speaker 19: to find their ballot. It's my job to make sure
• 48:36
  Speaker 19: I find them.
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: Katie Porter's right. That's her job and the job of
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: every Democratic candidate. The voters we've heard from this season
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: are sick of politics and most politicians, but they respond
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: to leaders who show up, listen, and communicate in creative
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: ways that break through the noise. Candidates who focus relentlessly
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: on the issues that matter most to these voters, who
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: aren't afraid to ignore dumb political consultants like the one
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: who told Katie that she shouldn't talk about housing. These
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: voters and millions like them have lost faith in nearly
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: every institution, government, media, big corporations. And they're looking for
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: leaders who aren't afraid to hold those institutions accountable when
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: they mess up and screw people over. They're looking for
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: leaders who can actually make these institutions work, or else
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: they may take a chance on demagogues like Trump, who
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: promised to tear them down. It's one reason voters gravitate
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: towards candidates who haven't spent forever in Washington. Candidates who
• 49:31
  Speaker 4: don't look or talk like typical politicians, who actually seem
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: like normal people because they are.
• 49:37
  Speaker 23: If we want to change the Senate, we have to
• 49:38
  Speaker 23: change the senators. And I think that that's true for
• 49:41
  Speaker 23: all of these positions. Like, what the hell are we doing?
• 49:45
  Speaker 23: I mean, our candidates should be like working mom. You know,
• 49:48
  Speaker 23: it should be the actual people who we are trying
• 49:51
  Speaker 23: to reach because there is a fluency there that you
• 49:54
  Speaker 23: cannot learn.
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: It's on us to find and support these kinds of candidates.
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: But it's also on us to reach these voters. Remember,
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: we have agency here. It's not all that easy or
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: fun to persuade undecided voters, but that's the only way
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: we win. Maybe you think we should focus more on
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: turning out new or infrequent voters who tend to be
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: disproportionately young, low-income, and not white. I agree, but you
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: should know that these Americans also tend to be more moderate,
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: less ideological, less partisan, and less likely to follow politics. Basically,
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: they're similar to the voters we heard from this season,
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: and getting them to register and turn out will also
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: require the difficult work of persuasion. The grassroots organizers we've
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: talked to, they get this.
• 50:41
  Speaker 24: It drives me crazy when campaigns purely focus on turnout.
• 50:47
  Speaker 24: People are not light switches that can be turned on
• 50:49
  Speaker 24: and off. We actually have to persuade people and have
• 50:54
  Speaker 24: real conversations with people about, you know, what they care about.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: Every day matters.
• 50:59
  Speaker 20: There's so little time and we have to make sure
• 51:03
  Speaker 20: We talk to everyone that we can. And the only
• 51:05
  Speaker 20: way to do that is to go on Canvas. We
• 51:07
  Speaker 20: have a real conversation with them. A lot of people,
• 51:11
  Speaker 20: they've given up. They don't think it's going to help
• 51:14
  Speaker 20: to go vote. And I think we have to tell
• 51:18
  Speaker 20: them why it's so important to go vote.
• 51:20
  Speaker 16: And I'm not scared of a conversation that might not
• 51:23
  Speaker 16: be so positive.
• 51:24
  Speaker 10: That's okay, because that's real.
• 51:27
  Speaker 16: We are real people talking to real people on the
• 51:31
  Speaker 16: other side of the door.
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: If we truly want to save democracy, we can't be
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: afraid of difficult conversations with people who might disagree with us.
• 51:41
  Speaker 5: Because guess what? That's what democracy is.
• 51:46
  Speaker 7: Life is the world's largest group project. And yes, we
• 51:51
  Speaker 7: all hate group projects. Group projects are terrible. But that
• 51:55
  Speaker 7: is the reality. Life is the world's biggest group project.
• 51:58
  Speaker 7: We are not going to make it through this thing
• 52:01
  Speaker 7: if we do not recognize that We got to figure
• 52:06
  Speaker 7: this shit out collectively. And people's ability to recognize that
• 52:13
  Speaker 7: and see past what right wing authoritarian governments have always done,
• 52:20
  Speaker 7: which is to pick some other to other. And the
• 52:24
  Speaker 7: caste changes, you know, it's the Jews, it's the Roma,
• 52:28
  Speaker 7: it's the refugees, it's black people, it's immigrants, it's trans kids, whatever.
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: It's all of the above.
• 52:37
  Speaker 7: People have an ability to recognize and see that. And
• 52:42
  Speaker 7: when they do, and they point their finger in the
• 52:45
  Speaker 7: correct direction, they will choose each other. And so that
• 52:50
  Speaker 7: is what gives me hope.
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: In just a few more weeks, we'll find out what's
• 52:56
  Speaker 4: changed in America over the last two years. It's possible
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: that historic patterns will hold. That voters will turn against
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: the party in power. and with some help from new
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: gerrymanders and voter suppression laws, give Republicans control of Congress
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: and state governments across the country. It's also possible that
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: this midterm election will be different, and that enough of
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: 2020's pro-democracy coalition will show up to put another check
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: on the MAGA movement. And of course, we could get
• 53:23
  Speaker 4: a more muddled outcome that's somewhere in between. But no
• 53:26
  Speaker 4: matter what happens on November 8th, we'll wake up on
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: November 9th to a world where the threat to American
• 53:32
  Speaker 4: democracy is is still very much real and urgent. And
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: we'll have to keep fighting a battle that I think
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: we all now realize isn't going to end anytime soon.
• 53:42
  Speaker 4: What gives me hope is that we've been here before.
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: One thing that struck me about the voters I talked
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: to in Atlanta is that even though they were the
• 53:49
  Speaker 4: most disillusioned with our political system, they were also the
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: most committed to voting and the most likely to say
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: that politics is important, or at least that it should be.
• 53:59
  Speaker 4: Maybe that's because they were thinking about how long and
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: hard their grandparents fought for the right to vote and
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: why it meant so much to them. There are lessons
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: for us now in the struggle for voting rights and
• 54:10
  Speaker 4: civil rights. Lessons about courage and perseverance. And most importantly,
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: lessons about what it takes to build a successful political movement.
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: About how to get people to show up and join
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: and stick around.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: I think that Music has been such a big role
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: in civil rights in general. If you go through the
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: civil rights movement, there's all these soundtracks that kind of
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: align with the times. And so it just only makes
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: sense that music and activism go together. So yeah, that's
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: the vibe that we're trying to go for. And so
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: to me, you want to feel.
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: You want to feel like fun, like you're doing something enjoyable.
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: You don't want it to feel tedious and like a chore.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: So the idea is to let people feel welcome, to
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: let them feel like it's a space where, you know,
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: it's not so serious. It's just a part of civic engagement.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: It's a part of anything else you would do, like
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: going to the club or going to have a drink
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: with your friend or turn it into a vibe that
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: feels good. fun and easy and all are welcome. It's
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: not an intimidating space. It's like a welcoming space. That's
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: the idea behind it. The feeling of hopefulness and inspiration
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: is why we do it. That is the only hope
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: I see is like taking the difficulty and the stress
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: and the like tediousness out of the process. And girl,
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: that's going to take a minute.
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: So yeah, The fight to save democracy will take a minute,
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: maybe years, maybe our whole lives, which is why this
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: movement can't just be fueled by moral outrage and righteous anger.
• 56:08
  Speaker 4: The only answer to a politics of fear and grievance
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: and division is empathy and grace and solidarity. When you're
• 56:17
  Speaker 4: calling a voter or trying to register one, when you're
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: making a pitch to someone who isn't sure what they'll
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: do on election day, remember, you're not trying to win
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: a debate with that person, You're trying to win them over.
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: You're trying to get them to choose a version of
• 56:30
  Speaker 4: this country where we treat each other with respect and dignity,
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: where we take care of each other, where we choose
• 56:37
  Speaker 4: each other. And if we want people to choose each other,
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: we need to make this group project appealing. We need
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: to make it inspiring. And just like the songs that
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: welcome voters to the polls and keep them in line
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: for way too long, we have to sustain this movement
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: with a sense of joy. In the end, It's our
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: only way out. The Wilderness is an original podcast from
• 57:11
  Speaker 4: Crooked Media. Season 3 is produced by Dust Light Productions.
• 57:15
  Speaker 4: I'm your host, Jon Favreau. From Crooked Media, our executive
• 57:18
  Speaker 4: producers are Sarah Geismar, Katie Long, and me. Special thanks
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: to Allison Falsetta and Andy Taft for production support. and
• 57:25
  Speaker 4: to Mike Kulishek from Benenson Strategy Group, who helped us
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: with our focus groups. From Dusklight, our executive producer is
• 57:32
  Speaker 4: Misha Youssef. Arwen Nix is our executive editor. Stephanie Cohn
• 57:36
  Speaker 4: is the senior producer. Tamika Adams is the producer, and
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: Francesca Diaz is the assistant producer. This episode was sound
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: designed by Tamika Adams. Valentino Rivera is our senior engineer.
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: Martin Fowler is the composer. Thanks to our development and
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: operations coordinator at Dusklight, Rachel Garcia, and to Chrissy Marin
• 57:54
  Speaker 4: for archival legal review. If you want to learn more
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: about how you can take action in the fight for
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: our democracy, head over to votesaveamerica.com slash midterms.