Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: James Talarico Talks Texas Senate Election, Ken Paxton, Jasmine Crockett, Support for Black Voters & Businesses, Democrats vs. Republicans, Faith & Spirituality + More

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INTERVIEW: James Talarico Talks Texas Senate Election, Ken Paxton, Jasmine Crockett, Support for Black Voters & Businesses, Democrats vs. Republicans, Faith & Spirituality + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Morning.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: Everybody is the j Envy Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the guy.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: We are the breakfast Club. Our sis Angela Rye is
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: here with us this morning. Angela who I said, Angela
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Rye isla Hi wow? How Sis Angela Rai is with
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: us this morning. And we got a special guest in
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: the building. We have James Tolerwico.
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  Speaker 3: Welcome, thanks for having me.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: How you're feeling this morning?
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Feeling good? Thank y'all for the invitation.
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  Speaker 4: James is the Democratic nominee in the twenty twenty six
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: US Senate election in Texas. Now I told somebody you
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: was coming up here, and they said, oh, his internals
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: must show he's down bad with black people.
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  Speaker 3: Actually shows the opposite. You know, the polling that we've seen,
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  Speaker 3: both private and public, shows us out performing recent Democratic
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: nominees in Texas with black voters. But we have a
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: lot more work to do, and we had to keep
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: our foot on the gas because it's going to take
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: all of us to to win this race.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Including Crockett.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: I haven't pulled Congressman Crockett, but you know she has
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: been out there campaigning for down ballot candidates all over
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: the state of Texas kind of shining a spotlight on
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: candidates who don't get to come on the breakfast club
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: but are still running really important races all over the state.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: And so this is very much a team effort to
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  Speaker 3: make this happen, and it really feels like this is
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: probably the best shot we've had in thirty years now.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Often again, I like to sell from the beginning, what
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: got you into politics?
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Why are you here?
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  Speaker 3: What makes you say?
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  Speaker 2: This is what I want to do, This is why
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I want to help people.
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  Speaker 3: Well, before I was a politician, I was a public
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: school teacher. I taught sixth grade language arts at Rhodes
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Middle School on the West side of San Antonio. I
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: always say that teaching middle school is the best preparation
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  Speaker 3: for politics. If you can handle the drama of a
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: middle school classroom, you can handle the drama of the
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  Speaker 3: Texas House or the US Senate. And the West side
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  Speaker 3: of San Antonio is one of the poor zip codes
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  Speaker 3: in the state of Texas. I entered the classroom in
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  Speaker 3: the fall of twenty eleven, right after the state legislature
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: in Texas cut five billion dollars from public schools. So
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: as a brand new teacher, I saw the impact of
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: those of those cuts firsthand. At one point, I had
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: forty five students in one classroom. There weren't enough desks
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: for all those kids, and so I had students sitting
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: on the air conditioning unit. And that got me mad.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, this is the wealthiest country in human history,
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: this is the twenty first century, and you've got kids
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: sitting on the air conditioning unit. So when I left
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: the classroom, I led an education nonprofit that was helping
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: schools like mine in Central Texas. And then when a
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  Speaker 3: seat in that same legislature opened up in my hometown,
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  Speaker 3: a round Rock, Texas, I threw my hat in the ring.
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  Speaker 3: I was twenty eight years old. I had never run
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  Speaker 3: for office before. I was a Democrat running in a
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  Speaker 3: Trump district in a county that was so read it
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  Speaker 3: hadn't voted for a Democrat for president since Jimmy Carter.
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  Speaker 3: And so I was told by all the powers that
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: be in the Democratic Party that the race was lost
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  Speaker 3: cause that I shouldn't spend any time or effort on
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: this project. But my neighbors and I in Williamson County,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: like we believed it was possible. We ran an aggressive campaign,
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: an authentic campaign and an unorthodox campaign at times. And
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  Speaker 3: on election night we flipped that district with fifty one
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  Speaker 3: percent of the vote. And now I'm in my fourth
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  Speaker 3: term in the Texas House. I've gotten to pass major
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: policies through the legislature. It's not an easy place to
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: work as a Democrat, as you can imagine, like we're
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  Speaker 3: we don't have either chamber, we don't have the governor's mansion,
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  Speaker 3: we don't any agency. But I've been able to pass
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  Speaker 3: sixty bipartisan bills, many of them around education, helping schools
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  Speaker 3: like the one I taught in, helping students like mine
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  Speaker 3: all over the state. And now so many of these
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  Speaker 3: fights that I've been leading at the state House, for education,
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  Speaker 3: for voting rights, for healthcare access, all those are those
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  Speaker 3: fights are now more urgent than ever. At the federal level,
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  Speaker 3: we've seen a full frontal assault on public education in
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  Speaker 3: DC two. So that's what motivated me to step up
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  Speaker 3: and throw my hat in the ring again for this
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  Speaker 3: US Senate seat.
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  Speaker 5: You all, you talked about voting rights.
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  Speaker 6: You rose to some prominence nationally with the voting rights
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  Speaker 6: issues taking place in tex Is really where I believe
• 4:26
  Speaker 6: conservatives tested out the ability to start to take away
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  Speaker 6: seats mid decade redistricting. Can you talk a little bit
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  Speaker 6: about how you would continue in this fight as a senator?
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  Speaker 6: Of course, all of the Voting Rights Act sections that
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  Speaker 6: have given us black folks protection are gutted. So what
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  Speaker 6: would you do to ensure that we regain some of
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  Speaker 6: our voting rights.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, this is the most aggressive attack on
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  Speaker 3: black political power since Jim Crow. And I know it
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  Speaker 3: sounds like a big statement to make, but I mean,
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  Speaker 3: you look at the last twelve months, look at these
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  Speaker 3: Supreme Court cases. You look at this racist redistricting map
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  Speaker 3: in Texas, and I say racist because it is systematically
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  Speaker 3: diluting the voting power of black and brown Texans. And
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  Speaker 3: when you look at at now how the districts are drawn,
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  Speaker 3: a white Texan has a lot more political power. Their
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  Speaker 3: vote matters more than the vote of our black and
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  Speaker 3: brown neighbors. And it's why last year, a year ago, yesterday,
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  Speaker 3: my colleagues and I in the Texas House took the
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  Speaker 3: extraordinary step of breaking quorum. And what that for those
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: that don't follow legislative prop politics. In order to conduct
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  Speaker 3: business on the floor of the House, you have to
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  Speaker 3: have something called a quorum, which is a certain number
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: of members present in order to start the day. And
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  Speaker 3: what we did is my colleagues and I we left
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  Speaker 3: the state of Texas. We went up to Illinois in
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: order to prevent them from getting quorum, so they couldn't
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  Speaker 3: they couldn't take up these new maps because we were gone,
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  Speaker 3: and they actually they they they called the Texas Rangers
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: on us to find us and arrest us and bring
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: us back to the capital. We got bomb threats and
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: death threats when we were up in Chicago. But we
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  Speaker 3: did it not because it's necessarily a sustainable legislative tactic,
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  Speaker 3: Like we're a part time legislature in Texas. Our members
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  Speaker 3: have families and kids and aging parents that they've got
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  Speaker 3: to get back to. We have, you know, jobs that
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  Speaker 3: we got to get back to. But the goal strategically
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  Speaker 3: was to shine a national spotlight on those maps, because
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  Speaker 3: when they first kind of got introduced last summer, no
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  Speaker 3: one was talking about it. And by breaking quorum, suddenly
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  Speaker 3: the whole national media was talking about this redistricting power
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  Speaker 3: grap And then you saw California and Virginia and other
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: states get in the fight to try to try to
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  Speaker 3: level the playing field and cancel out the stolen seats
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  Speaker 3: in Texas. And so I'm really proud of what we did.
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  Speaker 3: But to answer your question, the first thing that we
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  Speaker 3: have to do when we win this seat, when we
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: have a government that actually serves people, we have to
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We have to
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  Speaker 3: restore federal voting rights protections. Because my faith is very
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: important to me, and I believe that these rights are
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  Speaker 3: God given. I don't think these rights come from politicians,
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  Speaker 3: because if they come from politicians, it means politicians can
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  Speaker 3: take them away. I think they are inherent to each person,
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  Speaker 3: to each citizen. That's what I'm saying, Like, what they
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  Speaker 3: are doing is robbing people of rights that are inherent
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  Speaker 3: to them as human beings. That the ability to shape
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  Speaker 3: your own destiny, the ability for all of us to
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: shape our own destiny. That comes from something a lot
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  Speaker 3: bigger than any elected official or any political party. And
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: it's why it's a red line. Like we can disagree
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  Speaker 3: on budget policy, we can disagree on education policy, but
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  Speaker 3: if you rob people of their voting rights, that means
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  Speaker 3: we don't have a shot in next election to make
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  Speaker 3: our case and change the power structure, and so you're
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  Speaker 3: essentially you mentioned mid decade. And this is also confusing
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  Speaker 3: for folks who don't obsess about politics. But you're supposed
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  Speaker 3: to to adjust district boundaries at the beginning of every
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: decade after we get a census because population changes, and
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: you want to adjust the districts. Right, if you've got
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  Speaker 3: a place that's growing rapidly or a place that's declining,
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  Speaker 3: you got to adjust everybody as one vote, one person,
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  Speaker 3: one vote. But what they're doing in Texas is they
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: are redrawing the lines in the middle of the decade,
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  Speaker 3: which is unprecedented. I mean, it's like changing the rules
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  Speaker 3: after halftime because you're worried the other team is going
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  Speaker 3: to win the game. I mean, it's cheating, like that's
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: that's the real word for it. Is they are cheating.
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  Speaker 3: They're trying to steal an election.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: And moreoliticians say that they're cheating. Yes, just like that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I made the joke about middle school
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  Speaker 3: being good preparation, but it's actually true. Like as a
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: middle school teacher, I had to boil down complicated things.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: So a bunch of eleven year olds who didn't want
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  Speaker 3: to be there who were forced to be there by
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  Speaker 3: law would understand what I was talking about. And you know,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: people are busy, like people have jobs, they've got lives,
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  Speaker 3: they got families to take care of, and they don't
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  Speaker 3: have time to obsess on politics and watch all the coverage,
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: and so they just want to know, like, simply, what
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  Speaker 3: are you talking about? What are you going to do
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  Speaker 3: for me and my family? And I'm trying to speak
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  Speaker 3: as plainly as I can about some of these issues
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  Speaker 3: that we're facing.
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  Speaker 6: I think some of the issues around the mid Dack
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  Speaker 6: eight redistricting is what kind of created the fever pitch
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  Speaker 6: around your primary. When I think about a porn breaker,
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  Speaker 6: I also think about Jasmine Crockett, who did that in
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  Speaker 6: the state House. And so I'm curious when she was
• 9:42
  Speaker 6: in the state House, were you all friends? Did you
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: all ally around some pieces of policy, some legislation?
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  Speaker 3: We were, you know, partly because like we were some
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  Speaker 3: of the only young people in the state House, like
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  Speaker 3: everybody else is like my grandparents' age, And so she
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  Speaker 3: and I bonded immediately because as we were younger, I
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: think we were also we tended to be the troublemakers
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: in the House and and uh and from the moment
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  Speaker 3: she walked onto the floor, actually before she walked on
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  Speaker 3: the floor, because I'd followed her campaign, like I saw
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: what a star she was, you can just tell. And
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  Speaker 3: she still is. She still is, And it was so
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: apparent from those those you know, that first campaign and
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: her first time in the Texas House and so, yeah,
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: we were friends. And then she got elected to Congress
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: and then the Senate primary, and it was I think
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: even more painful, at least for me, because of that friendship.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: Primaries always suck because they're kind of in the coalition,
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: in the family and and and they can they can
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: be really painful because there's not a ton of policy differences, right,
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: so it's more like how are you going to campaign?
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: And and and those tactical questions and then personalities and
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: it just gets really really ugly, especially now with social media.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: But I'm I'm still a.
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: Huge And so to that point, two weeks ago, you
• 11:03
  Speaker 6: were at a town hall, I know, Keith Edwards came up,
• 11:06
  Speaker 6: Rogue DNC came up, folks who were adamant about attacking
• 11:09
  Speaker 6: Jasmine online, and you said that you wanted them to
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: keep Jasmine's name out of their mouths the primary is over.
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: Do you wish you would have said that sooner?
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: The first day that the Congressman got in the race,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: I put out a video on social media, sent it
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: to our fifty thousand volunteers, send it to our entire
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: campaign staff, every person who worked for the campaign, and
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: you go back and watch it. It was in December, and
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: I said that Congressman Crockett is my friend, she is
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: a leader, and she deserves our utmost respect. And then
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: I kept repeating it throughout the campaign because I kept
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: seeing this vitriol on social media, and obviously I can't
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: police every single comment section, but I can show leadership,
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: and you know, I look back and it's possible I
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: could have showed more leadership, because again, this is so
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: much bigger than me. It's so much bigger than Congressman Crockett.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: I mean, we have to win this race. People are
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: dying in our state because of policies that have been
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: passed by the extremists in Texas, and so this is
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: a lot bigger than any of us. And people online,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: especially people who don't live in Texas, who are just
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: like pushing their own agenda or trying to make some
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: kind of political point at our expense. I'm like, we
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: don't have time for that. We have to win to
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: help our people in Texas. And so whatever agenda you have,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: whatever clicks or likes you're trying to get on social media,
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: take that elsewhere, because we have work to do in Texas.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: But it does help you campaign, right Like, Like, I
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: want you to really answer this question.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: If you saw these coded I.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: Guess racial dog whistles, that wire undermining Jasmine Crockett, it
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: doesn't really behoove you to step out there and be like, hey,
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: don't do that, because you still want.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: To win, right Well, So I would disagree because attacks
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: on the congresswomen I think make it harder for us
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: to win this general election because the whole coalition has
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: to be together like they're in Texas. There's no way
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: for any one of our communities to win this election alone.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: And so we need Black Texans to win this race.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: And then if you know, when we win this race
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: in November, I'll represent the most African Americans of any
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: senator in the country. And so all these attacks have
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: I think hurt our campaign, they have hurt our coalition,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: They've hurt our chances of winning in November. I still
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: think we're going to win, but this has made it harder,
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: I would say. So.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: That was one of the racial dogs, was that they
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: said that she wasn't electable, like you could win stay wide,
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: but she couldn't.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Yep. And I got asked about this on the view
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: on national television and they asked me point blank, like,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: do you think Congressman Crockett is elected by I said absolutely,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: And I said, you know, if she wins this primary,
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: like I'm gonna be behind her one thousand percent. What's
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: our relationship man? You obviously the primary was difficult. We've
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: exchanged some messages. I was blown away by the fact
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: that the morning after the primary, I mean like early
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: the next morning, Congressman Crockett was out there with the
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: state and endorsing me in the entire ticket. If I'm
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: being very honest, I don't know if I if I
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: could have done that the morning after, right, I would
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: probably have to take up a day before I was
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: ready to come out and do that.
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's hard because you said, you know,
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: it's all about winning this of course.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: But I mean, but we're all still human beings, right,
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: Like you can know, the work is important, and it
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: can still hurt you personally.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: That's what I meant when I said, you know, when
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: you see her being attacked, yeah, it does help your
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: campaign when that happens.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. I just I really think that
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: anyone who is sowing division within our coalition is is
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: hurting my chances, hurting all of our chances to win.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: But I mean, she she she put all of that
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: behind the work, and she came out that morning and
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: endorsed the entire ticket, endorsed me, and then now she's
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: been campaigning all over the state for these down ballot
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: candidates and still in the fight, like she once. She
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: has a job, right, she's a sitting congresswoman. She could
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: also just like you know, take a breather and take
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: a beat and walk away for a little bit. I
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: don't thin any of us would blame her for doing that,
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: But she's out there hitting the trail and like raising money.
• 15:11
  Speaker 6: I'm blaming her for doing what they see as not
• 15:14
  Speaker 6: campaigning hard enough for you.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: And I think, again, I think that's wrong.
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: It's a I think it's representative of what is happening
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: within the Democratic Party. So there's now DSA. There's establishment
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: Democrats and all of those divides. How do you plan
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: to bring all of those folks into a big tent
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: which you will absolutely need to win in the general
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: in Texas.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: Yes, you know this is lbj's Senate seat that I'm
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: running for. We were talking about the Voting Rights Act
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: that was signed in the law by a Texas Democrat,
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: by a Texas teacher, by Lyndon Johnson. I think LBJ
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: he brought together two things that right now are being
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: pitted against each other in the party. One is a
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: bold moral imagination about how we could transform the country,
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: not people. Every time Democrats get in power, at least
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: over the last few decades, it's all like incremental nibbling
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: around the edges. LBJ was not nibbling around the edges.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: I mean Medicare, Medicaid, head start, Title I, voting right sacks,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: civil rights sacked, public television. I mean, the ambition of
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: the great society is really unrivaled in modern times.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: He also had black people, yes, well, and he.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Was smart enough. He was smart enough to listen to
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: the activists and the organizers who were pushing him right.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: They were yeah, yeah, well politicians, you know, were a stubborn,
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: stubborn breed, and and you've got to push politicians. I've
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: told people in Texas, I am your megaphone, but you
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: have to speak into it, right like I am there
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: as you're representative. And it only works if there's a
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: real relationship between you and the people you're seeking to serve.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: But the other thing he LBJ brought was a practical
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: politics of winning, which is I think something you're hearing
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: the Democratic Party. It's like there are folks who want
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: to win, and they're folks who want to change the country.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: And I guess my thing is those those two things
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: are not mutually exclusive, right, you need both. You have
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: to kind of see the world from the mountaintop and
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: you've got to see the world from the weeds, and
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: you need to marry those two things together in order
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: to actually get stuff done. That's what LBJ did in
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: partnership with Doctor King, and Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think you have to we have to
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: get the party back to that place, because I honestly
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: think we're going to get one more shot as a
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: party before working people in this country, black, white, and
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: brown aren't going to trust us again to fight for them.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: And that's only because Trump is a little bit right.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, people are. I would agree with that, because
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: people are. You know, a lot of folks in Texas
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: voted for Donald Trump in the last election because they
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: thought he was going to get the economy back on track.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: Like they didn't like how we talk to people, They
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: didn't like January sixth, but they remember the economy of
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: twenty seventeen, of twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, that was a
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: good economy. And you know, I would I would say
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: that was Barack Obama's economy, but you know, Donald Trump
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: was presiding over it, and and people were desperate to
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: get back to a place where they could afford groceries
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: and gas and insurance and healthcare. And so they took
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: a chance on Trump. And and I don't I don't
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: blame them for that. Like there were so especially young
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: people in our state, some of them. I mean, President
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: Trump is really the only leader they've they've really known
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: for a long time. And I think now a lot
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: of them are are seeing that the administration has done
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: the opposite right on tariffs, the war in Iran, I mean,
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: all that stuff has been driving up prices all over
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: the state of Texas. It's been, it's been making this
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: affordability crisis even worse. And so now they're a lot
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: of people are feeling disillusioned, right because they put their
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: faith and in the president. He's let them down. You know,
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: they thought he was going to release the Epstein files.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: He did the opposite. And so now they're just kind
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: of they're in a weird place. And what I'm trying
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: to do is is is welcome them into this movement
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: that we're building in Texas.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: Is Texas is always portrayed as deep red right, Is
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: it actually conservative or is it just a state would
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: Democrats haven't figured out how to communicate with enough voters.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Well, so if you look at the last fifteen twenty
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: years of state wide election results in Texas, you will
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: see an unmistakable trend line toward more competitive elections. And
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: that's not true for you know, you think about Florida
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: was a swing state. Now it's not Ohio moving in
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: the wrong direction. But Texas is very much in the
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: vein of Georgia and Arizona, right sun belt states, incredibly diverse,
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: rapidly growing, and those two states, Georgia and Arizona. They
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: were hopelessly read until they weren't. The challenges Texas is
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: a lot bigger than both of those states. Right, The
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: entire population of Georgia is equal to the entire population
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: of Dallas Fort Worth. So do you think about all that,
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: You think about the number of Georgias and Arizonas that
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: can fit into Texas, you start to seal see the
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: scope of the challenge that we face. But yeah, I
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: mean Republicans. When I was growing up in Texas, they
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: would win by twenty five thirty points. Now they're winning
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: by single digits. So I would say that Texas, just
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: by the numbers, is a pink state.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: Why are you convinced this moment is different? Like how
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: we know it's not Beato or or two point zero.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, in twenty eighteen, Beto got within two
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: and a half points of beating Ted Cruz. That was
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: the last Trump midterm that we've had. This is the
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: second Trump midterm in twenty twenty six. I think the backlash, honestly,
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: the bipartisan backlash to the extremism and the corruption in
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: our government is bigger than it was in twenty eighteen.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: And then I didn't think it was possible to find
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: a candidate worse than Ted Cruz, but I think we've
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: found him in Ken Paxton. So I think the stars
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: are aligning to finally allow us to end thirty years
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: of one party rule in our state. And I think
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Texans are hungry for it. I mean, Republicans control everything
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: right at every level of government, and Texans are really
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: angry about the state of this economy. They're angry about
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: data centers, they're angry about these tariffs, and they're looking
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: for change. And we're providing a hopeful vision for people
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: to get behind. And it's why we're leading in every
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: poll that's come out this month against Ken Paxton. We've
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: never seen a Texas Democrat leading in polls like this, Yeah,
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: I mean I think, yeah, it might have been last
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: four or five. But so it's matching the energy on
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: the ground that I'm seeing. I mean, we've had thousands
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: of Texans showing up at our events. They've been hitting capacity,
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: so many young people showing up at the events who
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: say it's the first political event they've ever attended. And
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: then you have the hard data like these polls that
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: just show that there is a coalition forming but again,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: we have to keep our foot on the gas. They
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: are going to throw everything they've got at me. They're
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: going to drop, you know, two hundred million dollars to
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: try to stop us. So we're in a really good
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: position right now, but we cannot take anything for granted,
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: and we have to make sure that that people have
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: the knowledge and the skills and the tools to actually
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: overcome some of this voter suppression because it's really hard
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: to vote in Texas. It's one of the hardest places
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: to vote in the country. Is why we have the
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: second lowest voter turnout rate. Like you have to register
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: a whole month in advance for the election. I had
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: messages on TikTok and Instagram from young folks in the
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: primary who were like, I was really excited to go
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: and vote, and I didn't realize I had to register
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: a month ago. So anybody listening in Texas, make sure
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: you're read sure to vote because you can't do it
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: the day of and there's no online voter registration. You
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: have to change your registration every time you move, which
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: really hurts young people. So there are just a lot
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: of systemic barriers that people have to overcome and We're
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: gonna have to do the organizing work on the ground.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: We have fifty nine thousand volunteers on the campaign, but
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: we're gonna need to do that in every community to
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: make sure that folks can fulfill those God given rights.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: What's important that people are not talking about more? You
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: talk about the THC on your social media about banded THHC.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: But what's important that people are not talking about that's
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: important to you, important to people?
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, I'm I'm for legalizing talking about about
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: Texas officially banded. And I don't think people I don't
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: think people are aware that this is really happening. It
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: just I mean the law just went into effect, but
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: THC products are virtually banned in the state of Texas.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: I mean, now it's a felony to have Delta eight.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: I mean even d uys. I mean you have to
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: have a you have to have three d uys to
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: get a felony. And now just having Delta eight can
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: get you that felony. So I mean, like it's it's
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: it's insane. And and I mentioned corruption. This is because
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: of corruption. Think about what industries are most worried about
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: th HC products being readily available, big big beer, tobacco, right,
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: And so they were the ones pushing this THHC ban
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: because it hurts their bottom line, right. And and a
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: lot of research shows that THC cannabis u these products
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: are safer and less addictive than than beer or tobacco.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: And and so to me, this is a prime example
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: of what corruption looks like when you've got big industries
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: buying politicians and pushing bills that harm people but benefit
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: them financially. And and I think a lot of Texans,
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: a lot of young Texans, a lot of our veterans,
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: they use THHC products for PTSD. Yeah, that's from a
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: bible to burn. Well, I mean, I mean, I mean well,
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: I mean they they legalized hemp in Texas. I think
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: it was six years ago, and this is now a
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: booming industry in our state. I mean, these are local
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: small businesses. This bill, this ban is a gift to
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: the drug cartels because Texans are going to keep smoking weed,
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: They're going to keep eating edibles. They're not going to
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: stop because some politicians told them to. But now instead
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: of supporting a local small business, they're going to go
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: get it on the black market.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: They don't know what they're get in with this smoke
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: and what's in it and right.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: Right, I mean, it just drives me crazy when you
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: have these policies that clearly don't serve people, actively hurt people.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, things are so hard right now, Like Texans
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: can't afford the basics. They can't get ahead no matter
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: how hard they work or how much they save, and
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: you're going to ban a product that gives them a
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: little bit of peace, Like, it just drives me crazy.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: We should be trying to make people's lives easier, not
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: making their lives harder. But that's the that's the one.
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: Sorry.
• 25:37
  Speaker 6: We know cost of living is a huge issue for
• 25:40
  Speaker 6: every American, but there are also some big picture ideas.
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: You keep referencing young people in particular, who want to hear. Recently,
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: mad and Vice President Kamala Harris appeared at the Urban
• 25:50
  Speaker 6: League and she mentioned some things that many of us
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: have been touting for a little bit.
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: Eddie, I think we have that sound.
• 25:56
  Speaker 7: We need to revisit the electoral college. We need to
• 26:04
  Speaker 7: revisit the point of expanding the court to thirteen justices
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: like we have thirteen district courts. We need to revisit
• 26:17
  Speaker 7: if they so want statehood for Puerto Rico and DC.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, so yeah, I.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: Think it's great. Yeah, I mean really happy that the
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: Vice president is calling for these systemic political reforms. And
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: I mentioned the John Lewis voting rightsack, but I think
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: those measures she talked about should be part of that package.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: And I think I would add one more. And I
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: know the Vice President supports this because she was a
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: big supporter of our quorm break last summer, a national
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: band to end jerry mandering nationwide in red states and
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: blue states. Because this, I don't think people realize this
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: issue of redistricting, of jerry mannering, of drawing district lines,
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: and you draw these districts into these crazy shapes in
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: order to manufacture an outcome. What ends up happening is
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: that most lawmakers at the federal level, at the state
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: level are in either deep red seats that are always
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: going to vote for Republicans or deep blue seats that
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: are always going to vote for Democrats. And so in
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: those districts, which are now the majority of districts, your
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: only threat as a politician, your only threat to your
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: reelection is from your most either far right flank in
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: a Republican primary, or the far left flank in the
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: Democratic primary. And so the incentives that's in front of
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: any elected official is to really just appeal to the
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: most extreme elements in your party. Like if you have
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: a district like the one that I won in Williamson
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: County that's a fifty to fifty swing district, then you've
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: got to appeal to a broad coalition of people. You
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: got to kind of speak to mainstream issues that are
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: really impacting folks, like the reason you see crazy stuff
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: in Texas, Like I had to I'm the Public Education Committee.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: There was a bill to I can't believe I'm saying this,
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: but a bill to go after furries in schools. There
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: was this internet rumor that students were dressing up as
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: casts in public schools and yeah, and that they were
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: giving The rumor was that public schools in Texas were
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: giving students litter boxes in the schools. No, it wasn't true.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: There were no document cases in Texas of that happening.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: But they wrote a whole bill to go after this
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: problem of furries and schools. And it's because it's a
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: red meat issue in these Republican primaries. So the reason
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: you're seeing such crazy stuff in our politics is because
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: the system itself encourages extremism. And until we fix that systemically,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: until we do some of the things the Vice President
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: was talking about, until we passed the voting right sack,
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: until we fix the system itself, we're not going to
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: see progress on all the other issues we care about,
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: education and healthcare and jobs and housing. So I'm a
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: big I'm a believer in political reform, like the Vice
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: President's talking about.
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: You mentioned voting rights several times.
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: When you consider a black agenda to urge black voters
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: in Texas to support your campaign, what are some of
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: the things beyond justice reform, beyond THC, beyond snap benefits
• 29:15
  Speaker 6: and food stamps that you would encourage voters to pay
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: attention to regarding your platform.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, we've talked about some of the issues
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: that all Texans a struggling with and including.
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: That means political black.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: Yes. So there's those issues, and then there are the
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: issues that concern black Texans in particular. And so in
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: addition to the ones we've talked about, the maternal mortality
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: crisis in Texas, which is three times deadlier for black women.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: Harris County, home to Houston, is the deadliest place for
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: a black woman to give birth in the entire country,
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: and so we've rolled out a comprehensive plan to combat
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: that crisis. At the federal level, I worked with my
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: colleague represented Tony Rose. Shout out to Tony Rose in Dallas.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: She passed a historic bill at the state capitol to
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: increase postpartum coverage on Medicaid to now one year to
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: help new mothers, particularly new Black mothers, tend to their
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: health and the health of their newborn. That's a state policy,
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: but at the federal level, we could guarantee universal paid
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: family leave for every mother, including every Black mother. We
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: could improve provider training, we could improve data collection, we
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: could we could end some of these maternal care deserts
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: in Texas, you know, in Texas a huge state, by
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: requiring insurance companies to to cover doulas and midwife services.
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: So there's so much we could do at the federal
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: level to combat this crisis. The second I would you know,
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: I've been touring HBCUs across the state. We held a
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: town hall at Prairie, U, A, and M, and then
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: I gave the the commencement address at Paul Quinn College,
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: which is the oldest HBCU in Texas, And there is
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: a funding gap between HBCUs and institutions with a similar
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: number of low income students. And imagine if we brought
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: HBCU funding up to parody. You know what schools like
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: Prairie View and Texas Southern and Paul Quinn could accomplish,
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: could do if we gave them the funding that they needed.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: And so some of these these issues that we've been
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: hearing about meeting with black business leaders and black faith leaders,
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: they're all now being incorporated into our platform because there
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: are issues that affect all Texans and then there are
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: issues that impact Black Texans in particular.
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: I don't handing about like upward mobility just for like
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: black working class people. You know, the things you named
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: are great, but just what do you plan to do
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: just for working class black people in Texas?
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, they've been attacking black businesses in Texas.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: There's a program called HUB which is for historically underutilized
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: businesses helps kind of level the playing field for black entrepreneurs,
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: and they have attacked that program. They've defunded that program
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: in Texas so I hear all the time, especially from
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: young Black Texans who are onpreneurs, who have a great
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: idea for business and they can't access capital. And so
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: I think at the federal level, we can ensure that
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: we're providing entrepreneurial grants to the next great business leaders
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: in our community. I mean, you think about Tesla, you
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: think about the Internet. Those were only possible because government,
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: the public sector invested in those private companies and gave
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: them the startup they needed. And we could do that
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: with young black entrepreneurs across our state who have great
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: ideas and want to start a business, and they don't
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: have access to that capital that they need. They don't
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: have generational wealth, they don't have a rich dad who
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: can cut a check, they don't have a network of
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: rich friends that can invest in that company. We could
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: do that in the public sector, and then we would
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: reap the benefits. I mean, I don't think anyone thinks
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: the small amount of money we invested in Tesla or
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: invested in R and D to get the Internet, those
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: investments paid off many times over. And I think the
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: same could be true investing in in young entrepreneurs and
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: in black owned businesses across the state.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: What do you say to people who said you are
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: created in a lab? I've seen that.
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: I saw it says from arguing God is non binary
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: to grieving over protecting the unborn as clear tall Rico
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: as a leftist lab experiment going wrong.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: Oh interesting. You know, I speak my mind, and I
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: did over my four terms in the state House, and
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: and I don't always say everything perfectly. I've certainly missed
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: the mark on some things that I've said in the past.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: But at least people can they can count on me
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: for actually speaking the truth, for saying what I think.
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of politicians who don't ever say anything
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: because they're too worried about offending someone or messing up.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: But I think what people are hungry for is just
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: someone who's gonna who's gonna speak the truth, who's gonna
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: speak their mind, who's gonna be honest about how they
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: feel about things. And so yeah, I mean, there are
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: some things that I've that have said over my four
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: terms that I probably would say differently if I could
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: go back. But I think what has been consistent throughout
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: my entire time is who I fight for and how
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: I fight and I think that's what Texans are desperate
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: for right now. They just want someone who's going to
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: actually fight for them. And in this race, you know
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: they're the alternative is Ken Paxton, who is the most
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: corrupt politician in our state, who has a history of
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: serving himself, of enriching himself on the public diamond. And
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: I'll put my record up against Ken Paxton's career of
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: corruption any day.
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I've just heard people say that they feel like
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: you're being I guess groomed, right, Like, if you do
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: well in the Senate, you might be on to be
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: vice president in twenty twenty eight, but if you actually.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Win, you might run for president.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be god willing the US Senator from
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: Texas for the next six years, and that's the job
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: I want. That's the job I'm going to have and
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: not going to be applying for any other jobs. I hopefully,
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: if all this goes well, we'll be running for reelection
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: to the US Senate six years from now.
• 35:07
  Speaker 6: To Lenards, to Lenard's point, you any candidate on a
• 35:13
  Speaker 6: national stage is being forced to contend with the genocide
• 35:20
  Speaker 6: in Gaza. And I think what is remarkable is in
• 35:23
  Speaker 6: most cases including in interviews you've done. The statement is
• 35:28
  Speaker 6: made Israel has a right to defend itself. As a senator,
• 35:31
  Speaker 6: you will have to vote on whether or not Israel
• 35:33
  Speaker 6: should receive military aid. How would you vote on whether
• 35:36
  Speaker 6: or not the country gives Israel military aid?
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would not vote to send weapons to the
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: Yahoo government.
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: But what about military aid like a bit more broader.
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think all of that needs to be conditioned
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: on ending the death and the destruction in Gaza and
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: the West Bank. I've been very outspoken on this issue
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: from the beginning of the campaign.
• 35:57
  Speaker 6: But you're specific to say death and destruction not genocide.
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: Why is that?
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I know that the legal term genocide
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: is being litigated in the International Criminal Court, and certainly
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: there's evidence to bring those charges, and and I think
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: the United States should abide by whatever ruling is the
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: court comes to. But I think as a US senator,
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: my job would be to take action, right, My job
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: would not be to litigate what terms are used. My
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: job would be to stop what's happening. And that's why
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: I've said I would use every bit of our nation's
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: diplomatic and financial leverage to protect the lives of Palestinians,
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: and my north star on this on this issue is
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: always protecting innocent life. Obviously, what happened on October seventh
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: was horrific, and I grieve for the lost Israeli lives
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: and I grieve for the lost Palestinian lives. I when
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: I first got in the race, I was asked about
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: this the first week of the campaign, and I quoted
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: a theologian who said, I screamed at God for the
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: starving children until I realized the starving children was God
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: screaming at me. And God is screaming at all of
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: us in Gaza and in the West Bank, and we
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: have to we have to heed those cries. And it
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: demands action. And so I've I've gotten some heat for
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: saying that I would I would stop those weapons sales
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: and condition that military aid. But I think we all
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: have to meet this this moral moment. And our country
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: is complicit and what's happening and and and I know,
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: at least I for one, can't stand by and do
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: nothing while it's happening.
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: Why is the so hard for some elected officials to
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: criticize bib Nanyahoo.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, I have no problem criticizing
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: any leader, certainly any foreign leader. And I don't you know.
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: I think sometimes when people think they're criticizing BB, that's
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: the indictment of all all of Israel or.
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: All of our Jewish neighbors right here in this country.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: And I've you know, I've I've stood by the Jewish
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: community in my state and my community in Central Texas
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: every time they've faced anti Semitism, just like I've stood
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: by our Muslim neighbors when they're facing Islamophobias. I can
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: be pro America, of course, oh absolutely, And but I mean,
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: let's back to the issue of corruption. Let's be honest.
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: I do think the influence of a pack in our
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: elections has a chilling effect, and people don't feel like
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: they can speak their minds because their worried a pack
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: is going to drop, you know, hundreds of millions of
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: dollars in their race, usually not even talking about the
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: issue of Israel or issues that Jewish Americans face. These
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: are usually completely separate issues that they're campaigning on. So
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: I do think the reason I keep going back to
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: money in politics and corruption is I do think it's
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: the rot at the core of our broken system and
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: until you fix that system, like the Vice president is proposing,
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: until you get the big money out of our politics,
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: until you ban corporate packs and super packs, we're not
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: going to be able to one have elected officials who
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: can speak their mind Two, we're not going to be
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: able to make progress on all those issues that we
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: care about, whether they're hero or abroad. So I think
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: every I always think you just follow the money, and
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: everything comes back to the influence of these giant packs
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: on our political process, same as true of AI. I mean,
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: there are a lot of candidates around the country who
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: are being very careful about what they say on AI
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: because they're worried these giant AI companies are going to
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: drop one hundreds of million millions of dollars against them.
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: So you just we have to have a democratic, small
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: d democratic system where where candidates can say what they
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: think and then be judged on that. But right now
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: it's it's basically these giant packs, where there's a pack,
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: whether it's open AI that are that are creating a
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: chilling of and then people you know, can't speak their minds.
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: Well capital the Democratic party would be the party I
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: belonged to. But democracy is beyond any political party and right,
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: middle school is the best preparation for politics, including Charlemagne.
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: That's what Charlomade is a good student and I'm not
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: giving up on it. He's got he's got potential.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Work up. Question.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: No, I know now you said in question of Texas,
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: we see Melo Anthony and you said it was a tragedy.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, what did you mean by that? Well, I've done
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: a lot of work in the state House on justice reform,
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: and right now we've got a system that doesn't serve
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: all Americans equally, and and we know that black Texans
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: have been have not gotten the justice they deserve in
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: many cases. And you know, I'm not an expert on
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: this particular case, but I know that there were no
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: black members of the jury. And to me, that's the
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: only evidence you need to really prove that this system
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: is not working for black Texans. And so I'm going
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: to keep doing the work I did in the state
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: House trying to reform this system. One of the bills
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: that I passed was after the murder of one of
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: my constituents. His name was Javier Ambler, unarmed black man
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: who was killed by the Williamson County Sheriff's department. He
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: was pulled over for not dimming his brights. He told
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: the officers that night that he had a heart condition.
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: They tased him so many times he died right in
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: front of them. The whole thing was filmed for a
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: reality TV show called Live PD, kind of like Cops.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: And so I worked with Javier's family, his sister Kimberly,
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: and we went office by office in the state House,
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: Republicans and Democrats alike. We passed Javier Ambler's Law, which
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: bans reality TV policing in the state of Texas. So
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: no longer can show like Life PD or Cops contract
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: with a law enforcement agency in Texas. And that's just
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: one small reform. That same session, the George Floyd Act,
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: which would have had, you know, many more significant reforms
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: to policing in the state of Texas, didn't even get
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: a hearing, didn't even get.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: Important for you to ban, and that banning the fact
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: that they taste as a gentleman would.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Have been yeah.
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: So these we absolutely, like I said, the George Floyd
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: Act would have had a lot more of the reforms
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: to actual policing. But the reason we went after these
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: shows is because Kimberly and I started to dig into
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: some of the research on these reality TV policing programs,
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: and the evidence is very clear that these shows increase
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: the number of violent interactions between formative correct because it's
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: it's good for ratings, right, Like you you treat one
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: of your black constituents respectfully, that's that's not good TV.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: And so these shows and and I think these the
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: producers actively encourage more violence, more aggression. And then my
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: constituents like Kavier Ambler the ones who pay the ultimate
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: price for that. And so again, this was just one reform.
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: But if we can if we can go piece by
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: piece and try to try to make this system actually
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: work for everybody, including every black taxan, then we can
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: have a we can have true public safety.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: Did you get backlash for saying Caamella Anthony Verdick was
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: a tragedy at all?
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: Yes?
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean in this day and age, like you're
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: always going to get backlash for whatever.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: And at the end of the day, I have to
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: I have to look myself in the mirror. At the
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: end of the day, I've got to be comfortable with
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: the race that I ran, and I've got to be
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: true to myself and my gut is that Texans are
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: hungry for someone who believes what they believe and is
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: authentic and is grounded and rooted in something deeper than
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: partisanship or politics. And so even if they disagree with
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: me on an issue, I hope they can sense that
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: it is genuine and that I'm here to serve them,
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: and I'm going to do that as authentically as I
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: possibly can do.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: You get backlash from APEC from not taking their money.
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: Thankfully, Apak has not spent against me in this race,
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: but I had you know, I was, you know, I
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: talked about it. You know, sometimes it's painful. In the
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: campaign trail, after I spoke out on Gaza, there was
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: an article that said I was anti Semitic, which was
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: very painful to me given the work I've done done
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: with the Jewish community in Texas. You know, I have
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: so much love and respect for the Jewish tradition. It's
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: what gave birth to my religious tradition. And so to
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: be called anti Semitic, you know, because of my criticisms
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: of Benjamin Netyaho is you know, painful for me personally,
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: But again, this is just part of the territory, like,
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: no one asked me to run for the US and
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: it no one made me do. I stepped up to run,
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: and it's such an honor to do this. And there's
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: so much energy and excitement around the campaign that it
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: makes all that other stuff definitely worth it. But you know,
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: you got to you gotta be ready for the slings
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: and arrows that come with the territory.
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: So and I heard you on a Joe Rogan. I
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: was one of the first time I heard of you.
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: But you know, Joe also on Tuesday, warned liberals that
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: moving to Texas and turning the state blue would ruin
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: the delicate balance for everybody, including liberal Texans. The liberals
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: that want to turn Texas blue, Like, don't you're going
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: to ruin it?
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: He said.
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: Many coastal elites and coastal snobs often have this idea
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: of it being filled with red necks and rednecks and
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: ignorant people and foolish people. It's not that way at all,
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: especially Austin. Austin is like one of the most liberal, easygoing,
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: progressive cities. But even the progressives here they're like, more reasonable,
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: what do you mean.
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: I think he's right that that balance is key here.
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: I've said, you know that my party talks about turning
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: Texas blue. The Republicans talk about turning Texas red. I
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: honestly think the best color for Texas is purple. And
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: what I mean by that is competition is good for policymaking.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: Like so, when I first got elected in Williamson County,
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: I was part of a group of legislators who flipped districts.
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: There were twelve of us who flipped Republican districts to
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: blue in that election. And after that shock, after Beto
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: got within two and a half points in the very
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: next legislative session a few months later in twenty nineteen,
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: suddenly the Republican majority they were still in charge, although
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: it was closer. Suddenly they were all about funding public
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: schools and expanding healthcare. And they certainly suddenly they weren't
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: going after, you know, marginalized groups, and they weren't doing
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: the culture war stuff. They were on their best behavior
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: because there was a competitive election. Right, competition keeps politicians
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: on their toes in both parties. Because let's be very honest.
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: I don't mean to draw a false equivalence, but you've
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: seen the Democratic Party get very complacent and not fight
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: for people in the way that we should. And that's
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: often because there's not enough competition. I just think competition
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: is good for sports, it's good for business, and it's
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: good for politics, and I think a purpose policies.
• 47:14
  Speaker 6: I think I would have agreed with you in two
• 47:16
  Speaker 6: thousand and five, maybe even twenty twelve, But twenty thirteen
• 47:20
  Speaker 6: there was a significant change in our country's politics as
• 47:24
  Speaker 6: Shelby versus Holder. That's where the attack on voting rights,
• 47:27
  Speaker 6: which was traditionally a bipartisan vote in the House and
• 47:30
  Speaker 6: the Senate like overwhelmingly bipartisan. Now the type of Republican
• 47:34
  Speaker 6: politics that we're seeing are mirroring fascism and authoritarianism and
• 47:39
  Speaker 6: no checks and balances for the executive branch, allowing this
• 47:42
  Speaker 6: president to violate the monument clause.
• 47:46
  Speaker 5: So what type of competition are we talking about here?
• 47:48
  Speaker 6: I think we're talking about two different kinds of Republicans maybe.
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: And I would say that that extremism is a direct
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: result of a lack of competition, because these extremists in
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: their districts, they don't feel any need to moderate, they
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: don't feel any need to appeal to folks in the
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: middle or folks in the Democratic Party. All they have
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: to do is please their farthest right flank. All they
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: got to do is please the folks on Fox News
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: or I'm.
• 48:14
  Speaker 5: Gonna push back on you.
• 48:15
  Speaker 6: Even more so, once Donald Trump came into office, there
• 48:20
  Speaker 6: was this again all out assault on DEI Democrats, largely
• 48:24
  Speaker 6: especially establishment Democrats. Response to that even some in the
• 48:27
  Speaker 6: socialist side who haven't dealt with their racism so that
• 48:30
  Speaker 6: we agree with you there shouldn't be DEI so much
• 48:32
  Speaker 6: so that we can look at the spending from the
• 48:35
  Speaker 6: autopsy report in campaigns, which has been a problem for a.
• 48:39
  Speaker 5: Very long time. I don't know how you're doing with spending.
• 48:41
  Speaker 6: With black outlets, black staff, black vendors, but it's something
• 48:44
  Speaker 6: to look at. Definitely, at some point you have to
• 48:47
  Speaker 6: acknowledge like the competition has made them go against any
• 48:51
  Speaker 6: idea of a rainbow coalition and against any idea of diversity,
• 48:55
  Speaker 6: So that type of competition actually isn't helpful at all.
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: Well, I think in Texas, I mean, if you're if
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: we're going to win a statewide race, then we've got
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: to have the entire coalition with us, and so alienating
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: you know, parts of that coalition actually make us less competitive.
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: And so I can't speak to other states or their
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: districts how what their politics are like. But I know
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: in Texas that if we had a real competitive landscape statewide,
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: then you would have you wouldn't Ken Paxton has spent
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: his career waging war against black Texans on a whole
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: host of issues, from healthcare to voting rights. If he
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: was actually worried about whether or not he could win
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: a statewide election in Texas, I think you wouldn't see
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: those kinds of attacks. And in fact, I think I'm
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: being proven right just this week, because these polls that
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: we were talking about earlier are showing Kim Paxton behind
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: in this race. To me, suddenly he's talking about affordability.
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: Suddenly he's talking about healthcare, and it's kind of fun
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: to watch him. It looks like he's, you know, speaking
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: French or something. It doesn't come naturally, but he is
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: trying to He's trying to speak to people outside of
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: his base because he feels the heat of that competition.
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: And obviously Texas is as different as a state because
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: you can't jerrymander the state lines like you can a
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: congressional district. But in my experience, when politicians feel that heat,
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: when they feel the need to actually compete for every vote,
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: that leads to better policymaking and less craziness. Now it's
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: not always true, but that has been a trend I've
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: observed in the legislature, and I do think it would
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: be so good for Texas. Good at every level too,
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: not just the Senate race, but the state legislature, local government,
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: school boards. If there's now a competitive environment where every
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: politician is having to compete to win an election, to
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: appeal to the broad swath of the electorate, I think
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: that's going to lead to better public policy outcomes.
• 50:46
  Speaker 4: You've become one in a few Democrats, right, who's comfortable
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: quoting scripts? You?
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Right? Do you think Democrats abandoned faith? I did.
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: Republicans just become better marketism both, and this happened about
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: fifty years ago. I think what happened is that Democrats
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: they confused two things. One is the separation of church
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: and state, which is in our First Amendment. I'm the
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: fiercest champion for the separation of church and state in
• 51:12
  Speaker 3: the Texas legislature. I'm a Christian and I know that
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: the most dangerous form of government is theocracy. The only
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: thing worse than a tyrant is a tyrant who thinks
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: through on a mission from God. They've confused that separation
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: of church and state with a separation of faith in politics.
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: We should have the first, we don't need the second.
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: We should bring our faith, traditions, our moralities, our philosophies,
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: our ethics, our worldviews to our politics, and if you don't,
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: then your politics becomes kind of spiritually impoverished. Now, you
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: think about the Civil Rights movement, you think about the
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: farm workers movement, you think about the labor movement. These
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: were movements that were rooted in spirituality, in religion. I mean,
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: the Civil Rights movement was an explicitly Christian movement in
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: the American South, and that that did a few things. One,
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: it allowed the people in those movements to sustain the
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: work over time. Because if you're just worried about the
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: next election or the current news cycle, and and you lose,
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: then it's you get burnt out. But if you're playing
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: a long game, if you're kind of on an eternal timeline,
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: if you're working for something greater than what we see
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: right in front of us, then that pushes you forward.
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: And then it also allows allows people to connect with
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: your movement at a deeper level, because these traditions, they're
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: things that we share. Right if you're like I think
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: about all the people I went to high school with,
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: who are you know, pretty conservative Republicans? Like we went
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: to the same churches, and we share the same Bible stories,
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: the same teachings, the same values. And if I can
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: connect with my neighbors at that level, not on an
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: R versus D level, or a blue versus Red level,
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: or even a policy level, but at that that value
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: use level, to me, that's so much more powerful. It's
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: much more sustainable than if you're just running a partisan,
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: partisan race. And so I think Democrats made a huge
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: mistake in ceding religion to the other side, and we've
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: seen the disastrous consequences of it. I mean, so it's
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: so apparent, like when people hear me talking about Jesus
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: or quoting Scripture, they assume I'm a Republican, which is
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: kind of wild. I mean, in the twentieth century, you
• 53:27
  Speaker 3: had you know, doctor King and Dolores Werta and mister Rogers.
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: You had people who were using their faith, Jimmy Carter
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: using their faith to love their neighbors, and it's just
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: been so long since we've had that kind of that
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: kind of Christianity in our politics. I think people are
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: really hungry for that. And I'll just say no party
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: has a monopoly on faith. Faith is deeper than any
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: political party, but there is.
• 53:56
  Speaker 6: I was just going to say on this point, there
• 53:57
  Speaker 6: is a white nationalist movement happening in the church, and
• 54:02
  Speaker 6: so you're talking about shared values. Are those values really
• 54:05
  Speaker 6: shared or have they manipulated them just like they did
• 54:08
  Speaker 6: with the Transatlantic slave trade.
• 54:09
  Speaker 5: I don't know that the values are actually shared.
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: It's both. I think there are some teachings that I
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: think still resonate with a lot of people, even people
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: who have been conned by by this white Christian nationalist movement.
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: An I've been the most vocal critic of theocracy in
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: the state legislature, and I fought against the bills that
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: would have forced every teacher to post the Ten Commandments,
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: would have taught Christian Bible stories exclusively to our youngest
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: school children as absolute truth. I fought against those even
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: though my faith is central in my life. My granddad
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: was a Baptist preacher, even though I'm in seminary studying
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: to become a minister myself. One day, I am called
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: to love all of my neighbors, not just my neighbors
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: who look like me, not just my neighbors who pray
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: like me, not just my neighbors who vote like me.
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: I'm called to love all of my neighbors because all
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: of my neighbors bear that divine image. We don't always
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: live up to that divine image, me included, but we
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: all do bear that image. And if we can get
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: back to a place where we can see that in
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: each other, even see it in our enemies, that's how
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: we save this this experiment in democracy, in this could.
• 55:26
  Speaker 6: Can you do that without calling out the ways in
• 55:28
  Speaker 6: which they're manipulating faith Like they're pastors that are like, oh,
• 55:31
  Speaker 6: there should be votes by a household, a woman shouldn't vote.
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: You've got to call it out, and we've been calling
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: it out. Yeah. Love is not is not shrinking from
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: a fight or shrinking from confrontation. And that's the opposite
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: of love. Right, If you truly love someone, or if
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: you love this this state, or this country, then you
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: have to look bullies in the eye, and you've got
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: to speak truth to power. I mean, that's what Jesus
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: showed us Christians how to do. We always think of
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: Jesus as being this gentle kind guy, but he flipped
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: over the tables in the temple. He walked into the
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: seat of power and flipped over those tables of injustice.
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: And I started this campaign with that Bible story because
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: I wanted to remind us that sometimes love calls us
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: to speak truth the power. It sometimes calls for confrontation.
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: You have to force conflict in order to heal conflict.
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: And so it's why I've been so outspoken in my
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: criticism on theological grounds of this Christian nationalist movement. And
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: I think we need a senator who has experience in
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: this fight and who can call out this theocratic movement
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: not just on constitutional grounds, not just on political grounds,
• 56:47
  Speaker 3: but on those theological grounds.
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: I've got a couple more questions about there, right, because
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: you have been outspoken against Christian nationalism. Where's the line
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: between expressing your faith publicly and using faith as a
• 56:58
  Speaker 4: political will.
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's such an important line to be aware of.
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: And it's back to that point about the institutional separation
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: of church and state. I am never going to force
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: my religion, my faith down the throats of my neighbors,
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: my Muslim and Jewish and Hindu and Buddhist and atheist neighbors,
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: because that's not love. I don't want anyone doing that
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: to me, So why would I do that to my neighbors.
• 57:22
  Speaker 3: If you're interested in learning about my faith tradition, we
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: got churches on every corner in Texas, and we'd love
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: to have you on any Sunday, But the schoolhouse, the courthouse,
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: the state house is not the place to do that.
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: But I will talk about how my faith influences my views.
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: I will talk about how my faith motivates my public
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: service because I want to be honest about that. I
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: can only show up as me. I can't pretend to
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: be somebody else. And my faith is at the core
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: of my life and of my public service, and I
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: want to be honest about that with people, and I
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: hope I can do it in a way that is
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: to the religious trauma that a lot of people have. Right,
• 58:04
  Speaker 3: A lot of people have been hurt by organized religion,
• 58:07
  Speaker 3: and we should be upfront about that. So I'm trying
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: to be as sensitive and as responsible as I can
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: be while still being as honest as I need to
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: be about what motivates me in this work.
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't have a problem with people bringing their spirituality
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: or religion into politics if they actually lived like that
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: for real, right, Like you know, if you're going to say,
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: what would Jesus do? Like, really think about that when
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: you're denying some of these kids, you know, food, are
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: you know, money to the point disenfranchised area, Like, I
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: wouldn't have no problem they actually lived up to you know,
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: Jesus teachers.
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: Well, and if they were honest about where they fall short.
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: Because we all fall short, right, We're all imperfect Christians.
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: We're all imperfect people, and we should be very honest
• 58:52
  Speaker 3: about that. It's why do not judge is such a
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: common commandment in the Christian scriptures, because humility issara in
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: order to do this work. But I agree with you.
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, I would ask your listeners, your viewers, even
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: those who aren't religious, to go back and read Matthew
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: twenty five, The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: I know it sounds like a strange name for a story,
• 59:15
  Speaker 3: but it's a fascinating story because at the end of
• 59:18
  Speaker 3: the world, Jesus gathers all of us as people and
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: all of us as nations, as communities. There's a lot
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: of folks who will say, well, those are only commandments
• 59:26
  Speaker 3: for individual people, right charity, but we don't need to
• 59:30
  Speaker 3: guarantee healthcare, because that's not true. But you go back
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: and read the story. He's gathering the people and the nations,
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: us as individuals, us as communities, and he's going to
• 59:41
  Speaker 3: say to some of us, depart from me, for I
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: was hungry and you didn't give me something eat. I
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: was sick and you didn't heal me. I was a
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: stranger and you didn't welcome me. And those of us
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: who get that stern talking to are going to say, Christ,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: when did we see you hungry? When did we see
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: you sick? When did we see you as a stranger?
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: And then he's going to tell us what you did
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: for the least of these is what you did for me.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: And that story, to me, should speak to us in
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: this moment because what would what would Jesus say if
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: he walked onto the floor of the US Senate. I
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: think he would say, I was hungry and you kicked
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: me off food stamps. I was sick and you kicked
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: me off medicaid. I was a stranger and you deported
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: me and my family. So these teachings from two thousand
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 3: years ago should should wake us up in this moment.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 3: And if we claim to follow Jesus, if we claim
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: to be Christians, then we need to love our neighbors,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 3: not just through our words, but through our actions, through
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 3: our public policy. And that's what I'm trying to do
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 3: by running for the seat, and I hope I can
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: do it in the US Senate.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: Strong. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: I appreciate that you've been joining us this morning.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: Thank you m any business to do.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: If people want to join us, they can go to
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: our website, James Tellery dot com sign up to volunteer.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: We're gonna need door knockers, We're gonna need folks on
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 3: phone banks. We're gonna need folks sending text messages. Even
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: if you've never volunteered before, we will teach you how
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: to do it. And if you're feeling a little hopeless,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: if you're doom, scrolling action is the best antidote to
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 3: that despair. There was an organizer friend who told me,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: you can't. You can't wring your hands when you're rolling
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: up your sleeves. So let's all get to work. Let's
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: do that work in Texas and across the country and
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 3: and and it's an honor to do that work with everybody.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: One question.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, please, If Jesus came back to day, which political
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 4: party do you think would be most uncomfortable with it?
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 3: I think both political parties would be deeply uncomfortable. I
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 3: think Jesus's is far more radical than any political party.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: And when I say radical, I don't mean extreme. The
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 3: word radical comes from the Latin word for root. So
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: Jesus goes to the root of our problems, and he
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: calls us to a deeper love, a deeper justice, a
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: deeper peace. And so I think he would challenge both
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: political parties to keep working toward a a more radical
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: vision for democracy, more rights, more opportunities for more of
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 3: our neighbors.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: Well, James Talerico, thank you for joining us.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Breakfast Club. Good morning,