Latest / Breaking The Meta / She Fought a Book Ban. Now She's Running for Indiana's House. | Candace Greer HD-64
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Candice Greer who is running for Indiana's House District 64. Hello Candice, how are you doing? Candace "Candy"Greer: Hello, doing very well. How are you? Breaking The Meta: Good to see you, excited to talk to you and find out what you hope to do for your district. So to out, you would mind ⁓ giving us a little background on who you are and why you decided to run for Congress in Indiana. Candace "Candy"Greer: Right. Well, from Princeton, Indiana. ⁓ So that is. By hope, I be bored of bread. ⁓ I did ⁓ in Evansville for a long time, you know, in my childhood and stuff kind of bounce around. ⁓ But what really got me ⁓ running ⁓ was had came up for a book banning. ⁓ in my area in my school ⁓ and my Yeah, and my daughter ⁓ was actually in that class that the other parent was in and they wanted to ban a book and ⁓ I've always ⁓ Trusted my educators here. ⁓ I had some educators that in my angsty teenage days ⁓ they really Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Wow. Candace "Candy"Greer: cared about me and they sat me down and and they you know got me to focus that anger somewhere ⁓ in a positive way so i went to speak at the meeting for this book banning never done anything like that for my life ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Hehehehehe Candace "Candy"Greer: And I was expecting a fight. I really was. We are in the middle of the Bible belt. And I was seriously expecting to go in there and just be like, what is wrong with you people? But come to find out that I wasn't alone. And I was an echo ⁓ for these people that I was with. It was a very minor ⁓ opposition ⁓ to keeping this book. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Candace "Candy"Greer: And that's when I kind of woke up to my own... ⁓ I don't know, political beliefs and stuff. I thought I was in the minority with that. I'm progressive. we a big agriculture around We're big. I thought I, I never thought I fit in. Let's just put it that way. ⁓ I thought I was a big other. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Mm. Candace "Candy"Greer: turned out I am not a big other. And it really, I mean, I, by the time I got up there to speak, I believe I was like speaker 24 even. By the time I got up there to speak, everybody had already said everything that I had prepared in my own speech. And I was almost in tears and I was just thanking them at this point, you know, and, ⁓ Breaking The Meta: There you go. Candace "Candy"Greer: The beginning of my speech was, I'm here because Ms. Shipley had me read 1984 in 10th grade. I'm recognizing the patterns and I'm seeing what's going on and it's very scary. And I didn't think it would hit my community as quickly as it did. And I was so proud of my people. Like it's getting me almost a little bit again. I was so proud of ⁓ my school board and everybody that was there. And so I was like, okay, but I didn't want to get comfortable in that for sure. So I just started watching real close and I saw that my district, only a Republican had filed for my district. And I thought about all those wonderful people that made those speeches and thought, you know, and, fought for our kids and fought for our educators and fought for critical thinking. And I said, no, they deserve somebody to vote for. They really do. And so that's why I'm saying we deserve a choice and we deserve a voice. ⁓ And I can be that ⁓ for those wonderful. Breaking The Meta: Hmm. Yeah. Candace "Candy"Greer: people that are smarter than me and more eloquent than me. And, you know, maybe they, you know, are a little bit more involved than me. You know, I want that conglomerate of like-minded people in my area to, you know, be able to stop being hidden. And we really are. We are very hidden. So that's why I'm Sorry Breaking The Meta: Yeah. If you wouldn't mind, as you go around and have interacted obviously with people in your district, or at least especially in your specific area, what are the common pain points? What are the things that people are struggling with the most in your district? Candace "Candy"Greer: Well, right now it's public education. ⁓ I got to talk to some people because that was my, know, what are you guys concerned about? You know, if I'm going up there to represent you, you got to tell me. And yeah, from what I've seen in the last four years, one of my schools in my district has lost $9 million. ⁓ Part of the voucher program. I've heard a lot of things about, you know, parents are just, they're taking their kids to wherever the sports is really strong. So, you know, they'll just go after, you know, ⁓ pro wrestling. So we're going to go here. They're really good here. And they're totally forgetting about, you know, just the regular public education system. mean, it's, very concerning. mean, we've had, like I said, millions of dollars. leaving and we need obviously to educate our younger generations. I mean, it's just what it is. Start singing Whitney Houston, you know. I'm here. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yep. Obviously, one of the issues that we are dealing with, regardless of the aisles that you're talking about, regardless of state or federal, ⁓ is accountability or lack thereof. So my question to you is, what is accountability mean to you? And how do you want to hold yourself accountable to the people of your district if you get voted into this position. Candace "Candy"Greer: want to create a system of like an open door policy. ⁓ want to make everything accessible to the regular everyday person. I don't want you to have to jump through. seven different aids to talk to me. ⁓ You know, even when I do get into this office or if I do, if I get into this, yeah, that would be great. But if, if I do, ⁓ I want you to be able to talk to me and say, Hey, Candy, this is how I really feel or this is what happened or, and then I Breaking The Meta: We can say when, you can- Candace "Candy"Greer: I'm allergic to backroom deals. It's not going to happen with me. There's, I'm not afraid of adversity. I'm not here for you to like me. I'm not here to as you know, it's, literally a popularity contest, but it's not a popularity content. Like we're talking about people's lives here. This isn't just some game to me. This is. Breaking The Meta: you Yeah. Candace "Candy"Greer: Indiana has our minimum wage is still at the federal minimum wage. And it's, we're hurting. mean, we really are hurting, especially my district. It's, you know, it's you're in a factory and they only want you educated enough to be able to work in that factory. Breaking The Meta: Hmm. Candace "Candy"Greer: And that's it. And, you know, and our secretary of state just handed over our voter rules. No, no resistance whatsoever. You know, and it's, it's like our governor is looking at Minnesota and pre introducing laws to shut down any type of resistance, any type of coordination. He's taken away powers from local governments or he's trying to thank goodness that somebody was up there to stop it. But I want to be part of that too. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Candace "Candy"Greer: Somebody has to say no. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Candace "Candy"Greer: You there has to be a resistance to this stuff. It's insane. So that's how I feel. Accountability is I'm going to do what I say and I'm not going to let anybody else influence me. You know, you can't get me with money. I'm a hard worker. I make my own. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. There you go. Yep. Candace "Candy"Greer: You know, there's nothing you can get me with. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Sounds good. All right, so let's do ⁓ a little bit of future casting. So you get through November 4th, 3rd, 2nd, one of those days, whatever day election day is, and you win. You win. And then you hit January and you are sworn in as a representative of the 64th District of Indiana. Candace "Candy"Greer: thing. Are you sure? Breaking The Meta: What is the first thing that you want to do? Candace "Candy"Greer: Raise minimum wage. think that would be the number one thing. ⁓ I would like to ⁓ give us back our bodily autonomy as women. That's my big, big one. Yeah, if you ain't got your body, then you ain't got anything else. mean, that's just, it is what it is. And there's so much nuance to it. ⁓ Indiana does have life expectancy, or not life expectancy, life exception, I'm sorry. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Candace "Candy"Greer: uh, exception for, know, if the mother's danger is in life, but, or mother's life is in danger. Sorry. But, they don't look at the doctors that are afraid to treat that until your life really is. I mean, you're, I mean, we're losing women. That's what it is. Breaking The Meta: You're on death's door before they'll even consider anything. Candace "Candy"Greer: Before they even consider you. Yes. So that's another thing. ⁓ Getting more money into the average American, average person pocket, you know, we're done with that. ⁓ I don't think triple down economics was good for anybody. ⁓ Because those big corporations, they don't pay back into the community that they are put into. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Candace "Candy"Greer: Especially with Indiana, we are totally forgotten about until it's time to sell us out. And I'm over it and I'm angry about it. And I know people around me are angry about it. So minimum wage and bodily autonomy. That'll be my first two. Sorry. Breaking The Meta: There you go. ⁓ There you go. Sounds good to me. No, no need to apologize. So. How has things like the big beautiful bill and stuff affected ⁓ your district and your community? Candace "Candy"Greer: Well, ⁓ it targeted ⁓ renewable energy. That was a big thing. ⁓ We have a lot of farmland here and a lot of old warehouses and stuff. So I think it ⁓ we're already struggling. So it just it just made it worse. I mean, the average person just can't we can't make it so. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Is it effect, is it affecting ⁓ hospitals or is it in danger of affecting hospitals in your district? Candace "Candy"Greer: It's not helping. We are rule. yeah, in order for us to, think our, usually, and we were already like this, which makes it even worse. we have one hospital in my town and it's so, it's a bandaid factory until you can make it to the city. So, ⁓ I know I was on death's door, ⁓ a few years ago, 2019. Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Candace "Candy"Greer: I had to travel by ambulance 45 minutes with four blood clots in my lungs. Breaking The Meta: Wow. Candace "Candy"Greer: because my district wasn't or not, you my town wasn't equipped to handle that. They actually told me when I went to the hospital that it was a kidney infection and go home, have a nice day, drink some cranberry juice. So yeah, ⁓ Vincennes, they're a little bit more, like I said, they're more populated. they have, they're more closer to a city than to a town. But once you get down from Vincennes, Breaking The Meta: Wow. Candace "Candy"Greer: then that's when you. Breaking The Meta: don't what the the ⁓ percentages is, but Indiana is considered pretty deep red state as a whole. Have the ⁓ has everything that has gone on the last year affected people's view on ⁓ a minimum this administration, if not the Republican Party as a whole, like, you noticing people are willing to talk about things more than they used to? Or is it kind of just business as usual? Candace "Candy"Greer: It's unfortunately business as usual in my area. ⁓ It's almost a doubling down even. It's like they know that it's hurting them, but we got to get past the ego and the pride that comes with it. mean, I miss the old Republican party. Breaking The Meta: Okay. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Candace "Candy"Greer: The one that, you know, the one that really did, it seemed to me, you know, that really had some common sense in there with it. And now it's just the, I'm a deep red and I'm seeing there's a lot of ugly. It just seems like it's not getting better to me, but, ⁓ I have seen, I'm hoping that me running even gets people. I mean, there's people that have messaged me and go candy, I'll vote for you, but I don't know how. And I think that's a bigger issue than trying to, yes, I, yeah, I know your face is my face because I'm going, what do you mean you don't know how? So. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Mmm. Candace "Candy"Greer: My main thing is going to be that ⁓ voter education for me, ⁓ just getting it out there and letting people know that just because we're in a deep red state, it doesn't mean that you don't participate. Please do. yeah. And I'm reaching out to 10 years older and 10 years younger. So I'm 35. So there's people that are 10 years older than me. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ Candace "Candy"Greer: that don't have a clue or they don't care or I got one that said, yeah, we learned that in school, but I don't remember. I'm going, please help. So that's my main thing with running is inspiring people, you know, to in my area to get involved and to get, you know, at least the basics. You know, we talked about civics 101. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Candace "Candy"Greer: We'll just start it out, you know, we got to get people to care and to know and involved. Breaking The Meta: Well, that's awesome. And hopefully this election will get a lot more people involved. ⁓ For anyone that has listened this far and has listened to everything you've talked about, what is one or two things that you would want to make sure that anyone who heard this remembers about you and your campaign? Candace "Candy"Greer: that I'm for everybody. Now I'm trying to go beyond the party and go to the policy. I don't, and I'm not good at making up catchphrases, but you know, I want full accessibility, full transparency in this government. The government works for us and people forget that all the time. We are hiring these people to represent us and it's been far too long. since we've had representation for everybody. And it doesn't matter to me if, you know, if you voted red or if you vote blue or any of that, I don't care. I'm welcoming voices from every walk of life. So I hope that you see that I'm a real person and I'm not primed and polished and placed here. You know, as a darling, you know, I'm not that person. So please recognize the real. And I hope that I get it and then I can bring real back to our party. mean, somebody's got to get mad. Somebody's got to stop worrying about the image. it's been far too long. Taxation without representation. Breaking The Meta: Yep, very true. ⁓ Do you have a place where people can find you and find out more about you yet? I know you just you just filled out everything. Candace "Candy"Greer: Just did it. Yeah. So, ⁓ I'm working on a website. ⁓ if you want to go on Facebook, it's Candace Candy Greer, ⁓ for house 64. Once you start typing it in, it'll go, ⁓ not that Candace on Tik Tok. I am, ⁓ I'm not making another page. I'm not making a campaign page. for TikTok, I want you to know who I am. I mean, I'm not gonna sugarcoat nothing. I might be candy, but I ain't sugarcoat nothing. So I'm trying to do this campaign without cussing. Breaking The Meta: Good luck on that. Candace "Candy"Greer: So, but yeah, check out not that Candice on TikTok. You know that. then, I said Candice Greer, Candi Candice Greer, however you want to put it up there on the ballot, it's going to be Candice Candi Greer. ⁓ because everybody knows me as Candi, ⁓ in professional circles. Like I'm trying to get Candice to come out there. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ darn being professional. ⁓ It's rude. All right. Well, ⁓ Candy, thank you for ⁓ sitting down and letting us get to know you and what you hope to do for your district. I really appreciate it. ⁓ And for everyone else that listened this far, if you like what I do here, which you like what this podcast does, please hit all those buttons down below. Like, subscribe, share it with everyone. Candace "Candy"Greer: No, my government name. I appreciate you. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: It really does help out, make it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is trying to have hard conversations, trying to break the status quo, and trying to fight for the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity, get rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Candice, again, thank you so very much. And for everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys. Candace "Candy"Greer: Thank you for having me.