October 17, 2025 • 22 mins
New Jersey Gubernatorial Candidate Mikie Sherrill talks with Chelsea about why the race for governor matters on a national scale, how to put a slimy opponent in their place, and what every American can do to fight back against looming fascism.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, Mikey. Great to see you. As always. This is Catherine,
my producer.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hi there, Hi, nice seeing you.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Our guest today is someone that I have personally campaigned for.
She is a congresswoman in the state of New Jersey
and she is running for the governor of New Jersey.
The election is Tuesday, November fourth, but vote by mail
has already started and early voting is available October twenty
fifth through November two, So if you want more information,
(00:30):
go to Mikey Cheryl dot com. Our guest today is
a former Navy helicopter pilot, federal prosecutor, mom of four,
and Democratic nominee for the governor in New Jersey. So
please welcome you US representative for New Jersey. Mikey Cheryl. Hi,
Miikey Cheryl.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hi, thanks so much for having me. This is great.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Absolutely. I watched your episode for Potsave America too. I
loved you on that and I love those guys. They're
friends of mine.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Oh good, Yeah, that was a great, great episode. That
was a lot of fun to do.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I'm very excited for your campaign and how is everything going.
How's everything going in the state of New Jersey right now?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
As always perfect, it's perfect here. That thing going on
here now it is. It's a tough fight. We are
in a knockdown, drag out fight. I don't think anybody
would be surprised to hear that, because New Jersey is,
shall I say, known for the rough and tumble politics.
We have that go on here, and I've always been
up for it. But my opponent's pretty slimy and has
(01:32):
broken the law in several ways and has just really
gone after my family in a way that's totally inappropriate.
So that has been a challenge. But you know what,
I think in these times, that kind of thing backfires.
I think people are kind of sick of career politicians
who are slimy and trying to act like they're just
you know, slick guys, and I'll pull out all the
(01:52):
stops to get their own way.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
That's not what people want to say.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And your opponent is one hundred percent maga, correct.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Jack Chitdarelli, hundred percent maga.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
She likes to say that's not me saying that, that's
Donald Trump saying that. And he's been pretty clear in
showing that to the people of New Jersey. And so
he's been in lockstep. And I think here like just
about every state in the nation. We've seen these tariffs
drive up cost everywhere. We've seen the attacks on our
Department of Ed funding, on our healthcare, on even our
(02:21):
utility costs.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So we're seeing costs go up everywhere. And I have.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Always been sort of known for going against anyone who
comes at New Jersey, and that includes members of my
own party. So I think the demand here in the
great state of New Jersey is for a governor that's
going to stand up for the people here and not
kowtowed anyone, including the President of the United States.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, let's talk a little bit about how a governor
does that and what abilities a governor has to stand
up to Trump, because we've seen Gavin Newsom do it,
We've seen JB. Pritzker do it, We've seen Wes Moore
to a certain degree do it. So talk to us
a little bit about the capabilities that you have have
to stand up to our president and how states can
(03:03):
remain independent and to what degree they can.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Well, a lot of that is the traditional ways, right,
I tell people sometimes, you know, I'm a simple girl.
I just want my kids to be able to go
to the bus stop without people shooting them, or spend
a day at school without an active shooter coming into
their classroom. So I want good gun safety laws here
in New Jersey, and we have some of the best.
I want to make sure that the decisions I make
(03:27):
about my reproductive health are between myself and my doctor
and not myself in jac Chitarelli, who's proven himself to
be in favor of abortion bands, and like the things
we're seeing, you know across the South, where women are
dying of miscarriages on operating tables. I just want to
get my kids, you know, the MMR, measles muffs, rebella vaccines.
I don't want an outbreak of measles, a deadly childhood
(03:49):
disease here in New Jersey. I don't want babies as
they are across the nation now dying of whooping cough
or protesses because of rollbacks in our national health.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
So these these aren't to me groundbreaking ideas.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
These are things that most people in New Jersey agree with,
and so that's a baseline for what governors can do.
All of these things I've just spoken about, but we're
seeing some really some new and innovative ways in which
governors are growing state power. So things like Mara Healey
and others in this Northeast coalition, and I know Gavin
Newsom's doing it out West to promote national health to
(04:24):
make sure that insurance companies are not backing away from
their commitment to provide basic childhood vaccines. And we also
see people like Governor Shapiro when Trump came after the
Social Security numbers and the license information from the people
who vote in Pennsylvania, and Governor Shapiro said, no, Trump's
(04:46):
taking him to court.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
He thinks he'll win that, but he said no. But
it just chills you to know that all of.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
This personal information in other states is just being turned
over wholesale to the Trump administration. And so this this
is where strong governors can really come into play. And
you've mentioned several of them who are standing up right
now to Donald Trump and this administration.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So I think it's so key and so important.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
And how do you view the tech of it all?
You know, all these tech guys basically genuflecting to Donald
Trump and being in business with him, are bending the
knee for him, and like, how do we fight back
against that? State by state?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
So I don't think it's a state by state plan.
I think it's regional plans, okay. And so we have
really high end research and development that goes on here
in New Jersey, like photonics. And I was just talking
to someone this morning about the partnership that is in
place between New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. And we are
going to have to find ways to continue to fund
(05:43):
and promote that innovation despite the fact that the federal
government is now attacking innovation. And so I think in
a regional way, we can really grow our economies, grow
our rights and freedoms, and protect our rights and freedoms,
and grow opportunity in a way that's different from maybe
other states across the nation. And it's already and I
(06:07):
was surprised by this, it's already becoming very clear to
people what's going on in this nation. So we've seen
ten thousand Floridians move to New Jersey. Oh really, which
is a reversal of a long term trend. And you know,
as you look into some of the data, it looks
as if people are becoming increasingly concerned about governors who
are not going to provide insurance for vaccines, who are
(06:30):
going to wholesale promote abortion bands who are going to
allow the president to ransack everyone's personally identifying information for
his own purposes. Again and again, we're seeing I think
people becoming very aware of where those states are that
are going to actually continue to promote our values, our constitution,
(06:53):
and our economy and drive in great innovation for their kids.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
And that is very contrary. It's Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I love the idea of the region, this regional thing
and states banding together. I feel like that, you know,
if network executives or tech companies or these streamers, platforms,
law firms would all just have gotten together and formed
a coalition rather than allowing him to knock them over
one by one. It's so frustrating as a citizen to
watch all of this go down. So not only are
you so qualified to be the governor, but you're a woman,
(07:27):
and we need more women. We need more women to
have more sanity in this crazy, crazy world and make
really level headed decisions. I know your campaign puts a
lot of focus on making New Jersey more affordable for
its residents, So how are you going to do that?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I am going to do that by driving down costs
for families here and really focusing on the things we
can do in New Jersey, such as putting a rate
freeze on utility hikes, so all of the mismanagement of
our utility production and our power production here in New
Jerseys and dumped on rate pay and families, ensuring that
we are driving down the cost of housing, transit oriented development,
(08:06):
and developing some of the towns in New Jersey that
were traditionally thriving and have not been invested in appropriately,
like Trenton, like Atlantic City, so we can continue to
drive down housing costs and also make New Jersey work
better for people. Just next door, Governor Shapiro cut small
business permitting times by ninety percent. So that's exactly the
(08:28):
kind of government, responsive government I'm going to run. But
I also just want to touch a bit, you know what, Chelsea.
I have just been running in this race as somebody
who has a record of serving the people of the state,
who has a record of success.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
I was named the most effective member of Congress in
only my second.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Term, and who has brought a lot to the table
for the people I serve. I haven't mentioned people know
I'm a mom, and they know I'm a woman. I
haven't always placed that front center. But this has been
really horrible to see what the most incompetent secretary of
Defense is doing right now, because I have to tell you,
(09:09):
it hits home. And I was just being asked recently
because Pete Haigseth, who is that incompetent Secretary of Defense
who's put classified information out over unclassified systems and given
it to his wife and his brother because he's like,
you know, fucking little boy pretending to be the SECTEF
is now saying that he wants to move back to
(09:30):
the nineties.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Now.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
In nineteen ninety, Pete haigsf I think was about ten
years old, so he's really no idea what he's talking about.
I was actually entering into the military in nineteen ninety,
and I am so proud of my military service, not
because of just serving, but because of something I felt
like I was building. So the military at that time
was not an incredibly welcoming place for women. I remember
(09:55):
going to a breakfast with my parents. I was with
my dad and that morning, so Washington Post had reported
that a female that shipman had been chained to a
urinal and a hazing event. The former Secretary of the
Navy and future Senator Jim Webb had put out an
article years before I entered, but it was still being
(10:17):
widely circulated at the Naval Academy entitled women can't Fight,
and it seemed to largely say because he wanted to
go desecrate corpses without women around, that women shouldn't be
part of these units. The Chief of Naval Operations, to
a standing ovation, stood before the brigade and said, when
asked when will women be serving on subs, he said,
not in my lifetime. So it was a tough place.
(10:40):
But I will say too, if you could show competence,
if you could just fight hard, if you cared about
your country, you could really make change in the Navy.
And we did. By the time I graduated. I graduated
with the first class of women eligible for combat on
ships and aircraft. A classmate of mine was the CEO
(11:01):
of an aircraft carrier. We just had a woman who
was the superintendent of the Naval Academy, a woman who
was the Chief of Naval Operations, the highest ranking women.
And now Pete hag Seth is trying to drive out
every woman in service, trying to roll back what we've built.
What I feel like I have personally had a hand
in building and so you know, it's a really crappy
day for women in service with that incompetent sexually harassing,
(11:25):
alcoholic alcoholic. Yeah, guy, as my kids would say, JINX
really in charge of all this. So it's really offensive today.
And I think you're exactly right. So it's important that
we have more people serving our country, more women, more
people of color, more people that represent the people of
(11:45):
America so we can gain greater success.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, we're recording this the day after Pete Hegseeth gave
his speech to like five hundred generals and yesterday with
Donald Trump. When you hear something like that and you
know that this this is exactly the opposite, and it's
so antithetical to your commitment to working, you know, in
the Navy or in the armed forces. What is your
(12:09):
responsibility to say the core so that you can protect
you know, the people underneath you, or is your responsibility
to stand upperside and walk out the door? Like how
do you make that kind of decision? You know in
that position.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I speak to service members, I speak to people at
the US Attorney's Office, I speak to a lot of
people in other areas, of federal service about this all
the time, because a lot of people have decided, whether
it's in the FBI or at the US Attorney's office
or in the military, that it is so important to
(12:44):
have credible people there in some of these incredibly powerful
organizations that impact people's life, impact people's liberty, whether or
not they're detained, whether not they're unfairly prosecuted.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And yet at what point do you become complicit?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And I've had these kind of long conversations with people
about how you weigh that, and it's a really difficult decision,
and I think that's something each person's weighing themselves. Am
I still doing good? Am I still protecting the people
below me? Am I still protecting you as values?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Or now?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Am I just carrying out something that's really dangerous? And
then I should not be a part of And those
are really really difficult decisions to make right now.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I remember in the first Trump administration wondering what all
those guys were doing there, you know what I mean,
like Mark Millley and these other kind of senior advisors
and chiefs of staff, all of these people, like how
could they be supporting this guy? How could they be
supporting and now in retrospect, when you hear all these
guys come forward, you know, they're all like, oh, and
even John Bolton, who you know, like, no, we were
(13:45):
staying the ship. We were staying the ship.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
We would ever be saying like, oh, John Bolton.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah he was.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
He was actually doing a good job. He was doing
a good thing. Because now you hear them and you're like, oh,
now we're really in trouble because now he has this
idiot Pete Heggs running our military, which is absolutely just
a shanda. It's unbelievable. What is something that's very basic
that you actually missed from your military days?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
I missing twenty and that was fun, but it truly
was at that time such a time of the United
States was in areas of the world that we traditionally
hadn't been, and we'd been very focused on the fight
with Russia and the Cold War, and so there had
been some forces abroad. But I remember getting I really
(14:34):
missed some of the foreign places that I served in
and learning about different people, learning about different cultures, and
doing so though with a bunch of other members of
the service, there was a lot of camaraderie there and
I remember just different experiences like that. I remember flying
a helicopter and I was flying with another woman and
the Saudi aircraft controllers would not believe that we were
(14:56):
the pilots, so they said put the other pilot on,
So I put her on, and then they said, you
guys aren't pilots.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
And you know we're.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Flying.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
There's really not sure what to do.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, like, you know, we're the only two pilots on
this aircraft right now. I don't have anyone else to
put on the radio with you, you know. I remember
serving in Bahrain, and I remember this experience where there
were a bunch of expets. So they had this rugby
game and I'm there's a fence and they're playing rugby,
and then over the top of the fence, I'm seeing
the humps of these camels just all kind of go.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
By, and it was this really weird contradiction.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So I miss that kind of seeing the world and
speaking to people about why, you know, I remember speaking
to a Pakistani business owner about why he was in
Bahrain and what had had brought him there, and all
those kind of experiences I really miss.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, I mean there must have been it must have
been some things that you've taken with you, right from
your experiences in the Middle East. In Europe. You were
in London for a while. I don't think you were
in London on service, right or no, you were, No,
I was there service.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Oh you were at the that was where the US
headquarters of the European Fleet.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I'm sorry the naval fleet was at the time.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
What was your impetus for going into the navy.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
So this is what I sort of warn parents sometimes, like,
be very careful what you're saying to your children, because
I was having this conversation with my dad when I
was in the fifth grade, and I cannot emphasize enough
that I am one thousand percent sure my father was
paying zero attention to this conversation, like I think he was.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
He used to make his own Christmas tree stands.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
I have no idea why somebody wouldn't buy a Christmas
tree stand because it was always this Really he was
always like, you know, really angry about it because it
never worked very well. And so you know, while you wuld'
just been he would like be hammering these two by
fours into the bottom of the tree to make this stand.
So I'm out on there he's making this weird Christmas
tree stand and he's hammering away and I'm talking to him,
(16:53):
and he said, well, what do you want to do?
And I said, you know, I want to be a
pilot like Grandpa. And he said, oh, well that's really expense.
If you want to fly, you have to go in
the military. And I said, okay, well I'll go into
the Air Force because my grandfather had been Army Air Corps.
He goes, you don't want to go to the Air
Force Academy. I mean, that's kind of new. You want
to go to one of the cool ones. You either
want to go to West Point or the Naval Academy.
(17:14):
And I said, oh, I'm going to the Naval Academy.
He said, well, I don't. I don't know if they have,
you know, pilots, and I go, I'll find out. I said,
you know, that's what I'm going to do. And he said, well,
I don't think they take women. He said, I don't
know if they take women, and I don't know if
women fly in the Navy. And you know, this is
kind of one of those things I talk a lot
about with people around New Jersey because.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
To me, this is what we're fighting right now.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Because when my father told me he didn't know if
women could go to the Naval academy, or he didn't
know if they could fly in the navy, I knew
that I could figure out a pathway to that because
everything I had been taught up until that point was
that I could do anything, was that this country continued
to open up opportunity. Whether it was my parents or
(18:01):
my teachers, or I always tell people Schoolhouse Rock on
Saturday Morning cartoons. I was told I could create these pathways,
or that this country provided that kind of opportunity. And
I just see all of that being attacked every single
day by the Trump administration. So whether it's clearing women
(18:22):
out of the military, clearing black service members' histories off
of military websites, whether it is attacking healthcare or attacking pelgrants,
or attacking all those programs we have so people can
get more opportunity, attacking research and development, attacking every means
of opportunity.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And I just look at this and it just reminds
me a lot of us.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
As we were coming up, there was I don't know
if you remember, Madaline Albright said there's a certain place
in hell for women who don't support other women. And
I just remember sometimes coming up when it was so
new to have women there, and you would say, Oh,
the worst kind of person is somebody who climbs the
ladder of sex and pulls that ladder up behind them.
And here we're just seeing that in the Trump administration
(19:08):
at every turn, in every way, capping opportunity right now
for people.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
And what is your advice to our listeners for who
are against this administration, who want to protest, Like, what
are the most effective ways to demonstrate your right to
speak out against this, like in your opinion?
Speaker 3 (19:27):
So I think about this a lot, as you can imagine,
and I do think. You know, we have no Kings
Day coming up, that's going to be very important. Get
into the streets, advocate for the things you believe in.
And I will tell you and your listeners are going
to I'm a little biased, right. I'm in this tough
race right now in New Jersey. But there are only
two statewide races in the entire nation, in Virginia and
(19:51):
New Jersey. And these two races could either be a
huge mandate against the Trump administration, show that the people
have New Jersey, the people of Virginia do not agree
with where we are headed in this country, or they
could give support to this administration. So you know, to
the extent people have time, go to Mikey Cheryl dot com,
(20:15):
sign up, come to New Jersey, come knock on doors,
sign up for phone banking, text banking, chip in money.
Because right now we are doing everything we can to
get the word.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Out on the campaign.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
So anything you can do right now in New Jersey,
I think this is really the race setting the table
for everything that's to come.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Great, great, Okay, Well I will go and make a
donation as well to Mikey Cheryl dot com right now
as we speak. Mikey was wonderful speaking with you. Thank
you so much for being here, and good luck with everything.
And I will be there to campaign with you whenever
you need me.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
I love it. I don't know if your listeners know
what a good Jersey girl you are, Chelsea Jersey girl.
Welcome any time.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Thank you, thank you, thank you, have a wonderful day.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Thanks guys, thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Genuflecting to lower one's body briefly by bending one knee
to the ground, typically in worship or as a sign
of respect, used in a sentence. Swifty's thought Travis Kelcey
was genuflecting to Taylor before realizing he was actually proposing genuflecting.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I just announced all my tour dates. They just went
on sale this week. It's called the High and Mighty Tour.
I will be starting in February of next year, so
I will be touring from February through June. I haven't
added second shows yet, but we probably will be to
some of these. So go get your tickets now if
you want good seats and you want to come see
(21:44):
me perform, I will be on the High and Mighty Tour.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Do you want advice from Chelsea?
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Right into Dear Chelsea Podcast at gmail dot com. Find
full video episodes of Dear Chelsea on YouTube by searching
at Dear Chelsea Pod. Dear Chelsea is edited and engineered
by Brad Dickert executive producer Katherine law And be sure
to check out our merch at Chelseahandler dot com
Hi, Mikey. Great to see you. As always. This is Catherine,
my producer.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hi there, Hi, nice seeing you.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Our guest today is someone that I have personally campaigned for.
She is a congresswoman in the state of New Jersey
and she is running for the governor of New Jersey.
The election is Tuesday, November fourth, but vote by mail
has already started and early voting is available October twenty
fifth through November two, So if you want more information,
(00:30):
go to Mikey Cheryl dot com. Our guest today is
a former Navy helicopter pilot, federal prosecutor, mom of four,
and Democratic nominee for the governor in New Jersey. So
please welcome you US representative for New Jersey. Mikey Cheryl. Hi,
Miikey Cheryl.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hi, thanks so much for having me. This is great.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Absolutely. I watched your episode for Potsave America too. I
loved you on that and I love those guys. They're
friends of mine.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Oh good, Yeah, that was a great, great episode. That
was a lot of fun to do.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I'm very excited for your campaign and how is everything going.
How's everything going in the state of New Jersey right now?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
As always perfect, it's perfect here. That thing going on
here now it is. It's a tough fight. We are
in a knockdown, drag out fight. I don't think anybody
would be surprised to hear that, because New Jersey is,
shall I say, known for the rough and tumble politics.
We have that go on here, and I've always been
up for it. But my opponent's pretty slimy and has
(01:32):
broken the law in several ways and has just really
gone after my family in a way that's totally inappropriate.
So that has been a challenge. But you know what,
I think in these times, that kind of thing backfires.
I think people are kind of sick of career politicians
who are slimy and trying to act like they're just
you know, slick guys, and I'll pull out all the
(01:52):
stops to get their own way.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
That's not what people want to say.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And your opponent is one hundred percent maga, correct.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Jack Chitdarelli, hundred percent maga.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
She likes to say that's not me saying that, that's
Donald Trump saying that. And he's been pretty clear in
showing that to the people of New Jersey. And so
he's been in lockstep. And I think here like just
about every state in the nation. We've seen these tariffs
drive up cost everywhere. We've seen the attacks on our
Department of Ed funding, on our healthcare, on even our
(02:21):
utility costs.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So we're seeing costs go up everywhere. And I have.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Always been sort of known for going against anyone who
comes at New Jersey, and that includes members of my
own party. So I think the demand here in the
great state of New Jersey is for a governor that's
going to stand up for the people here and not
kowtowed anyone, including the President of the United States.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, let's talk a little bit about how a governor
does that and what abilities a governor has to stand
up to Trump, because we've seen Gavin Newsom do it,
We've seen JB. Pritzker do it, We've seen Wes Moore
to a certain degree do it. So talk to us
a little bit about the capabilities that you have have
to stand up to our president and how states can
(03:03):
remain independent and to what degree they can.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Well, a lot of that is the traditional ways, right,
I tell people sometimes, you know, I'm a simple girl.
I just want my kids to be able to go
to the bus stop without people shooting them, or spend
a day at school without an active shooter coming into
their classroom. So I want good gun safety laws here
in New Jersey, and we have some of the best.
I want to make sure that the decisions I make
(03:27):
about my reproductive health are between myself and my doctor
and not myself in jac Chitarelli, who's proven himself to
be in favor of abortion bands, and like the things
we're seeing, you know across the South, where women are
dying of miscarriages on operating tables. I just want to
get my kids, you know, the MMR, measles muffs, rebella vaccines.
I don't want an outbreak of measles, a deadly childhood
(03:49):
disease here in New Jersey. I don't want babies as
they are across the nation now dying of whooping cough
or protesses because of rollbacks in our national health.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
So these these aren't to me groundbreaking ideas.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
These are things that most people in New Jersey agree with,
and so that's a baseline for what governors can do.
All of these things I've just spoken about, but we're
seeing some really some new and innovative ways in which
governors are growing state power. So things like Mara Healey
and others in this Northeast coalition, and I know Gavin
Newsom's doing it out West to promote national health to
(04:24):
make sure that insurance companies are not backing away from
their commitment to provide basic childhood vaccines. And we also
see people like Governor Shapiro when Trump came after the
Social Security numbers and the license information from the people
who vote in Pennsylvania, and Governor Shapiro said, no, Trump's
(04:46):
taking him to court.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
He thinks he'll win that, but he said no. But
it just chills you to know that all of.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
This personal information in other states is just being turned
over wholesale to the Trump administration. And so this this
is where strong governors can really come into play. And
you've mentioned several of them who are standing up right
now to Donald Trump and this administration.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So I think it's so key and so important.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
And how do you view the tech of it all?
You know, all these tech guys basically genuflecting to Donald
Trump and being in business with him, are bending the
knee for him, and like, how do we fight back
against that? State by state?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
So I don't think it's a state by state plan.
I think it's regional plans, okay. And so we have
really high end research and development that goes on here
in New Jersey, like photonics. And I was just talking
to someone this morning about the partnership that is in
place between New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. And we are
going to have to find ways to continue to fund
(05:43):
and promote that innovation despite the fact that the federal
government is now attacking innovation. And so I think in
a regional way, we can really grow our economies, grow
our rights and freedoms, and protect our rights and freedoms,
and grow opportunity in a way that's different from maybe
other states across the nation. And it's already and I
(06:07):
was surprised by this, it's already becoming very clear to
people what's going on in this nation. So we've seen
ten thousand Floridians move to New Jersey. Oh really, which
is a reversal of a long term trend. And you know,
as you look into some of the data, it looks
as if people are becoming increasingly concerned about governors who
are not going to provide insurance for vaccines, who are
(06:30):
going to wholesale promote abortion bands who are going to
allow the president to ransack everyone's personally identifying information for
his own purposes. Again and again, we're seeing I think
people becoming very aware of where those states are that
are going to actually continue to promote our values, our constitution,
(06:53):
and our economy and drive in great innovation for their kids.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
And that is very contrary. It's Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I love the idea of the region, this regional thing
and states banding together. I feel like that, you know,
if network executives or tech companies or these streamers, platforms,
law firms would all just have gotten together and formed
a coalition rather than allowing him to knock them over
one by one. It's so frustrating as a citizen to
watch all of this go down. So not only are
you so qualified to be the governor, but you're a woman,
(07:27):
and we need more women. We need more women to
have more sanity in this crazy, crazy world and make
really level headed decisions. I know your campaign puts a
lot of focus on making New Jersey more affordable for
its residents, So how are you going to do that?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I am going to do that by driving down costs
for families here and really focusing on the things we
can do in New Jersey, such as putting a rate
freeze on utility hikes, so all of the mismanagement of
our utility production and our power production here in New
Jerseys and dumped on rate pay and families, ensuring that
we are driving down the cost of housing, transit oriented development,
(08:06):
and developing some of the towns in New Jersey that
were traditionally thriving and have not been invested in appropriately,
like Trenton, like Atlantic City, so we can continue to
drive down housing costs and also make New Jersey work
better for people. Just next door, Governor Shapiro cut small
business permitting times by ninety percent. So that's exactly the
(08:28):
kind of government, responsive government I'm going to run. But
I also just want to touch a bit, you know what, Chelsea.
I have just been running in this race as somebody
who has a record of serving the people of the state,
who has a record of success.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
I was named the most effective member of Congress in
only my second.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Term, and who has brought a lot to the table
for the people I serve. I haven't mentioned people know
I'm a mom, and they know I'm a woman. I
haven't always placed that front center. But this has been
really horrible to see what the most incompetent secretary of
Defense is doing right now, because I have to tell you,
(09:09):
it hits home. And I was just being asked recently
because Pete Haigseth, who is that incompetent Secretary of Defense
who's put classified information out over unclassified systems and given
it to his wife and his brother because he's like,
you know, fucking little boy pretending to be the SECTEF
is now saying that he wants to move back to
(09:30):
the nineties.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Now.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
In nineteen ninety, Pete haigsf I think was about ten
years old, so he's really no idea what he's talking about.
I was actually entering into the military in nineteen ninety,
and I am so proud of my military service, not
because of just serving, but because of something I felt
like I was building. So the military at that time
was not an incredibly welcoming place for women. I remember
(09:55):
going to a breakfast with my parents. I was with
my dad and that morning, so Washington Post had reported
that a female that shipman had been chained to a
urinal and a hazing event. The former Secretary of the
Navy and future Senator Jim Webb had put out an
article years before I entered, but it was still being
(10:17):
widely circulated at the Naval Academy entitled women can't Fight,
and it seemed to largely say because he wanted to
go desecrate corpses without women around, that women shouldn't be
part of these units. The Chief of Naval Operations, to
a standing ovation, stood before the brigade and said, when
asked when will women be serving on subs, he said,
not in my lifetime. So it was a tough place.
(10:40):
But I will say too, if you could show competence,
if you could just fight hard, if you cared about
your country, you could really make change in the Navy.
And we did. By the time I graduated. I graduated
with the first class of women eligible for combat on
ships and aircraft. A classmate of mine was the CEO
(11:01):
of an aircraft carrier. We just had a woman who
was the superintendent of the Naval Academy, a woman who
was the Chief of Naval Operations, the highest ranking women.
And now Pete hag Seth is trying to drive out
every woman in service, trying to roll back what we've built.
What I feel like I have personally had a hand
in building and so you know, it's a really crappy
day for women in service with that incompetent sexually harassing,
(11:25):
alcoholic alcoholic. Yeah, guy, as my kids would say, JINX
really in charge of all this. So it's really offensive today.
And I think you're exactly right. So it's important that
we have more people serving our country, more women, more
people of color, more people that represent the people of
(11:45):
America so we can gain greater success.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, we're recording this the day after Pete Hegseeth gave
his speech to like five hundred generals and yesterday with
Donald Trump. When you hear something like that and you
know that this this is exactly the opposite, and it's
so antithetical to your commitment to working, you know, in
the Navy or in the armed forces. What is your
(12:09):
responsibility to say the core so that you can protect
you know, the people underneath you, or is your responsibility
to stand upperside and walk out the door? Like how
do you make that kind of decision? You know in
that position.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I speak to service members, I speak to people at
the US Attorney's Office, I speak to a lot of
people in other areas, of federal service about this all
the time, because a lot of people have decided, whether
it's in the FBI or at the US Attorney's office
or in the military, that it is so important to
(12:44):
have credible people there in some of these incredibly powerful
organizations that impact people's life, impact people's liberty, whether or
not they're detained, whether not they're unfairly prosecuted.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And yet at what point do you become complicit?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And I've had these kind of long conversations with people
about how you weigh that, and it's a really difficult decision,
and I think that's something each person's weighing themselves. Am
I still doing good? Am I still protecting the people
below me? Am I still protecting you as values?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Or now?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Am I just carrying out something that's really dangerous? And
then I should not be a part of And those
are really really difficult decisions to make right now.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I remember in the first Trump administration wondering what all
those guys were doing there, you know what I mean,
like Mark Millley and these other kind of senior advisors
and chiefs of staff, all of these people, like how
could they be supporting this guy? How could they be
supporting and now in retrospect, when you hear all these
guys come forward, you know, they're all like, oh, and
even John Bolton, who you know, like, no, we were
(13:45):
staying the ship. We were staying the ship.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
We would ever be saying like, oh, John Bolton.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah he was.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
He was actually doing a good job. He was doing
a good thing. Because now you hear them and you're like, oh,
now we're really in trouble because now he has this
idiot Pete Heggs running our military, which is absolutely just
a shanda. It's unbelievable. What is something that's very basic
that you actually missed from your military days?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
I missing twenty and that was fun, but it truly
was at that time such a time of the United
States was in areas of the world that we traditionally
hadn't been, and we'd been very focused on the fight
with Russia and the Cold War, and so there had
been some forces abroad. But I remember getting I really
(14:34):
missed some of the foreign places that I served in
and learning about different people, learning about different cultures, and
doing so though with a bunch of other members of
the service, there was a lot of camaraderie there and
I remember just different experiences like that. I remember flying
a helicopter and I was flying with another woman and
the Saudi aircraft controllers would not believe that we were
(14:56):
the pilots, so they said put the other pilot on,
So I put her on, and then they said, you
guys aren't pilots.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
And you know we're.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Flying.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
There's really not sure what to do.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, like, you know, we're the only two pilots on
this aircraft right now. I don't have anyone else to
put on the radio with you, you know. I remember
serving in Bahrain, and I remember this experience where there
were a bunch of expets. So they had this rugby
game and I'm there's a fence and they're playing rugby,
and then over the top of the fence, I'm seeing
the humps of these camels just all kind of go.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
By, and it was this really weird contradiction.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So I miss that kind of seeing the world and
speaking to people about why, you know, I remember speaking
to a Pakistani business owner about why he was in
Bahrain and what had had brought him there, and all
those kind of experiences I really miss.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, I mean there must have been it must have
been some things that you've taken with you, right from
your experiences in the Middle East. In Europe. You were
in London for a while. I don't think you were
in London on service, right or no, you were, No,
I was there service.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Oh you were at the that was where the US
headquarters of the European Fleet.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I'm sorry the naval fleet was at the time.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
What was your impetus for going into the navy.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
So this is what I sort of warn parents sometimes, like,
be very careful what you're saying to your children, because
I was having this conversation with my dad when I
was in the fifth grade, and I cannot emphasize enough
that I am one thousand percent sure my father was
paying zero attention to this conversation, like I think he was.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
He used to make his own Christmas tree stands.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
I have no idea why somebody wouldn't buy a Christmas
tree stand because it was always this Really he was
always like, you know, really angry about it because it
never worked very well. And so you know, while you wuld'
just been he would like be hammering these two by
fours into the bottom of the tree to make this stand.
So I'm out on there he's making this weird Christmas
tree stand and he's hammering away and I'm talking to him,
(16:53):
and he said, well, what do you want to do?
And I said, you know, I want to be a
pilot like Grandpa. And he said, oh, well that's really expense.
If you want to fly, you have to go in
the military. And I said, okay, well I'll go into
the Air Force because my grandfather had been Army Air Corps.
He goes, you don't want to go to the Air
Force Academy. I mean, that's kind of new. You want
to go to one of the cool ones. You either
want to go to West Point or the Naval Academy.
(17:14):
And I said, oh, I'm going to the Naval Academy.
He said, well, I don't. I don't know if they have,
you know, pilots, and I go, I'll find out. I said,
you know, that's what I'm going to do. And he said, well,
I don't think they take women. He said, I don't
know if they take women, and I don't know if
women fly in the Navy. And you know, this is
kind of one of those things I talk a lot
about with people around New Jersey because.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
To me, this is what we're fighting right now.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Because when my father told me he didn't know if
women could go to the Naval academy, or he didn't
know if they could fly in the navy, I knew
that I could figure out a pathway to that because
everything I had been taught up until that point was
that I could do anything, was that this country continued
to open up opportunity. Whether it was my parents or
(18:01):
my teachers, or I always tell people Schoolhouse Rock on
Saturday Morning cartoons. I was told I could create these pathways,
or that this country provided that kind of opportunity. And
I just see all of that being attacked every single
day by the Trump administration. So whether it's clearing women
(18:22):
out of the military, clearing black service members' histories off
of military websites, whether it is attacking healthcare or attacking pelgrants,
or attacking all those programs we have so people can
get more opportunity, attacking research and development, attacking every means
of opportunity.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And I just look at this and it just reminds
me a lot of us.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
As we were coming up, there was I don't know
if you remember, Madaline Albright said there's a certain place
in hell for women who don't support other women. And
I just remember sometimes coming up when it was so
new to have women there, and you would say, Oh,
the worst kind of person is somebody who climbs the
ladder of sex and pulls that ladder up behind them.
And here we're just seeing that in the Trump administration
(19:08):
at every turn, in every way, capping opportunity right now
for people.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
And what is your advice to our listeners for who
are against this administration, who want to protest, Like, what
are the most effective ways to demonstrate your right to
speak out against this, like in your opinion?
Speaker 3 (19:27):
So I think about this a lot, as you can imagine,
and I do think. You know, we have no Kings
Day coming up, that's going to be very important. Get
into the streets, advocate for the things you believe in.
And I will tell you and your listeners are going
to I'm a little biased, right. I'm in this tough
race right now in New Jersey. But there are only
two statewide races in the entire nation, in Virginia and
(19:51):
New Jersey. And these two races could either be a
huge mandate against the Trump administration, show that the people
have New Jersey, the people of Virginia do not agree
with where we are headed in this country, or they
could give support to this administration. So you know, to
the extent people have time, go to Mikey Cheryl dot com,
(20:15):
sign up, come to New Jersey, come knock on doors,
sign up for phone banking, text banking, chip in money.
Because right now we are doing everything we can to
get the word.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Out on the campaign.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
So anything you can do right now in New Jersey,
I think this is really the race setting the table
for everything that's to come.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Great, great, Okay, Well I will go and make a
donation as well to Mikey Cheryl dot com right now
as we speak. Mikey was wonderful speaking with you. Thank
you so much for being here, and good luck with everything.
And I will be there to campaign with you whenever
you need me.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
I love it. I don't know if your listeners know
what a good Jersey girl you are, Chelsea Jersey girl.
Welcome any time.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Thank you, thank you, thank you, have a wonderful day.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Thanks guys, thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Genuflecting to lower one's body briefly by bending one knee
to the ground, typically in worship or as a sign
of respect, used in a sentence. Swifty's thought Travis Kelcey
was genuflecting to Taylor before realizing he was actually proposing genuflecting.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I just announced all my tour dates. They just went
on sale this week. It's called the High and Mighty Tour.
I will be starting in February of next year, so
I will be touring from February through June. I haven't
added second shows yet, but we probably will be to
some of these. So go get your tickets now if
you want good seats and you want to come see
(21:44):
me perform, I will be on the High and Mighty Tour.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Do you want advice from Chelsea?
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Right into Dear Chelsea Podcast at gmail dot com. Find
full video episodes of Dear Chelsea on YouTube by searching
at Dear Chelsea Pod. Dear Chelsea is edited and engineered
by Brad Dickert executive producer Katherine law And be sure
to check out our merch at Chelseahandler dot com
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