Ruwa Romman on Georgia’s Governor Race, Gaza, and Overreach of Power

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now You Know and No de Barrosso is a production
of iHeartMedia and partnership with Recent Choice Media. All right, folks,
so today the Now you Know midsterm series, we have
stay representative Rural Roman. This is the candidate that everyone

(00:21):
in the Georgia Party and across the country are saying.
This is the progressive candidate. If you want a progressive
vision for the future, it is Rural Roman. Real Roman
provides reasoning on why her vision is pragmatic. People may
see Rua's progressive approach as not pragmatic, when in reality
she has a plan against that. So we're going to
hear about all of that today, and surprisingly we're going

(00:42):
to hear about her take on Israel and Palestine, which
is a conversation that I did not mean to get into.
But Real Roman was not afraid to get into anything.
She was ready to talk about absolute whatever. So that's
why this episode was just so great and the definition
of what we need more on here on the Now
you Know Midterm series. Okay, r how are you?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I'm doing great? How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:06):
So? For those who will there's like no one who
is aware, But we just had the best conversation ever
and for those able to see visually. This is why, y'all.
So if you get out and knock some doors, whether
you're doing a local race up in Athens or helping
school board candidate, you can get one of these yes
again because you're with RUA and I'm so excited about it.

(01:29):
Tell me about the background of these team ru OF shirts. Yeah,
houses line.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
So listen. As y'all know, there's one hundred and fifty
nine counties in Georgia. That's a lot of counties, and
when we were thinking about launching this campaign, we wanted
something that is in every single one of those counties,
and so naturally we thought it's got.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
To me a house.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
So we were really playing around with us, and we
originally thought about it as just the logo for the
entire campaign, but we felt like that was actually a
disservice that this was meant to be about people. It's
not grits, big listen, listen, listen. I I'm just really
particular about my grits, okay. But no one's upset because
I I don't like you know, I don't always consume
all of house skirts, but don't always get I don't

(02:08):
I don't know consume off of hout skirts. But we
really wanted something that was about Georgia, of Georgia, our vibe,
something that no matter where you went around the state
was recognizable. And so if you are knocking doors, I
mean literally from this at the very south border of
the state, all the way to the tippy top of it,
it didn't matter. People knew what they were looking at.
And this was a campaign of Georgia by Georgia.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Absolutely, what are people like? Because I know as soon
as I saw it, no matter what I was like,
I have to get this. I have to so like,
are the volunteers like going crazy over? What is this?

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Absolutely? Absolutely? So we really wanted especially for you know,
we want it to be one of those things where
the first five hundred people that knocked doors for us
end up getting these shirts. And we're actually running out
pretty quickly. Once the new year starts. Oh yeah, once
the new year starts, the first five hundred gonna be gone.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
You're not gonna believe me. I have an allocated frame.
Oh my god, I put on my walls.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm so honored.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
I cannot wait. I'm on it. Tell me about your
candidacy for governor?

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, I am running for governor. Thank you for asking.
I'm a state representative as well who is running for
governor because I deeply believe that next year is a
once in a generation election and it's one where we
can not only flip the governor's mansion but also the
state House. But it's going to require a candidate like
myself that can actually speak to people and fight for
a Georgia we can afford and one where we belong
very authentically. What I mean by that, we have one

(03:28):
of the youngest population distributions in the country and we're
now a majority minority state, but we're not seeing people
campaign that way. We're being told that we need to
be quieter, we need to be tamer, that we need
to sort of behave a certain way to win a
state like Georgia. But we're leaving so many people behind
when we do that. And I want to be clear,
we're not over here saying, you know, let's go completely crazy.

(03:49):
What we're saying is that people are desperate for change,
but change that puts them first.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Okay, that is so much policy, and that's what I
love talking about. But we're with the thing about this
midterm series so far is everyone who sits directly across
from me. I have to stare them in their eyes
and listen to their platform. It's challenging if I look away,
I understand, but it's scary, and you have the eye
contact of a governor. Sure, what is your policy? So

(04:16):
a lot of the guests I've had on the midterm
series so far have told me different minimum wage policies.
I had a guy tell me twenty seven, had a
guy tell me twelve. I've had a few different figures.
One beat around the bush with it. Tell me your
figure for the new minimum wage in George.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Sure? Absolutely, for us, it's at least fifteen dollars an hour.
And what do I mean by that? What I'm saying
is that the fifteen dollars an hour fight has been
happening for over a decade in our state. It means
that we would double people's wages that are making minimum
wage for at least half folks in our state. In
our state right now, if you look on our books,
our minimum wage is five fifteen an hour. It hasn't
been changed since nineteen ninety seven. We haven't even looked

(04:51):
at it. So by technicality, by federal policy, it's seven
to twenty five an hour, but there are actually exceptions
within that policy. So when we say at least fifteen
dollar an hour, what we're saying is we want to
get there and then index it to cost of living.
But to be clear, it is not enough. A living
wage in Georgia is now much closer to twenty in
the overwhelming majority of counties. In fact, I think the

(05:12):
lowest we saw according to the MIT calculator was eighteen
dollars an hour. So we hear people going that's too
much too quickly. No, this has been something that should
have happened over the past decade that didn't, and now
we need to get people to where they are.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
What is your response to someone who might say twelve
dollars just feel a little more reasonable.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
I'm a deep believer that if you work a full
time job, you should afford to live, and so I
don't find it reasonable to ask people to work full
time jobs and then not be able to live. And
so that to me is sort of when we talk
about reasonable in this that is where I end up
setting on it.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
State Representative man named some names, go for it. Jeff
Duncan told me he wanted twelve.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Oh well, listen, if you really want to get feisty
on Mane over here, listen, here's my thing. This is
the thing I've tried to explain to leaders around the
country and even within our party, and especially donors. I
understand why they see somebody like Jeff Duncan as a
safe choice for next year. Truly, I understand. We want
to win, We're so desperate to and we'll do anything
for it. But I'm a deep believer that if you

(06:08):
go down that route, you actually lose way more than
you get. In fact, last year, for every Trump twenty
twenty voter that we won for Harrison twenty twenty four,
we lost three of our own, two of them to
the couch. You heard that, right, For every one voter
we flipped last year, we lost three of our own,
two of them to the couch because we had spent
so many resources knocking the doors of those people and

(06:30):
completely ignored the folks that were way more likely to
come out for us. Anyway, the coalition that works in
Georgia is one that is focused on being able to
live right, being able to afford to live. They really
care about a four bill. We just saw this with
the Public Service Commission. But they also don't hate their neighbors.
The majority of Jordans do not hate their neighbors. In fact,
we're a state where we still care for our neighbor
and you don't have to pick between the two. And

(06:52):
so when somebody tells me, oh, this is the path forward,
we're gonna dump all of our money into a Jeff Duncan,
I don't want to make the mistake of last year again.
I don't want to make the mistake of losing more
people than we gain, especially in a state like Georgia,
where we know what it takes to get to the
closest that we've ever gotten, and it's going to require,
like we said, a field program. It's going to require
a message that centers them. And so when someone says

(07:13):
that twelve dollars is asking for too much, my ask
to them is show me a single county where you
can afford to live on twelve dollars, let alone fifteen.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
By the way, what's your approach to get to fifteen?

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Absolutely, so, just so people know, as because I've served
in the legislature as a Democrat who's had to learn
how to build coalitions with Republicans. There are Republicans that
do believe in raising the minimum wage. They do understand
that the cost of living has grown so much we
need to be able to fight for increasing the minimum wage.
So yes, the path there by the way is that
the governor is a very powerful position and when you say,

(07:45):
these are the things I want to work on. So
in our case, it's yes, we want to raise the
minimum wage, we want to feed hungry kids, we want
to reopen hospitals and invest in small businesses and take
comes back from corporations. And within those we've got very
deep policy analyzes of what that looks like. We're going
to be sharing those over the next couple of months.
But the idea being that and we understand that there
is actually a coalition that includes Republicans that will agree

(08:08):
and fight for those things. We don't have to concede
on helping Georgians because the coalition is there. And when
you have a governor that isn't going to veto expanding Medicaid,
for example, that isn't going to veto those kinds of bills,
it completely changes the negotiation that's happening in the state
House and in the state Senate.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
We spoke a little bit about the possibilities to get
to certain proposals. If anything on your platform, do you
think you will be sorry? Do you think you'll be
able to get to everything on your platform in four
or eight years.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah. So a lot of the things that we have
sort of drawn as our line in the sand or
the flag that we're trying to get to, I actually
think they're very doable. For example, with reopening hospitals in
addition to expanding Medicaid, which again we had Republican chairman
signed on to that bill. In addition to expanding Medicaid,
we're also talking about using part of our surplus to
invest in a research center that then builds its own

(08:57):
tax revenue, which then, by the way, becomes this own
self sustaining infrastructure to reopen hospital. So that is something
that we can immediately start working on on day one,
raising men and wait, same thing. That's a fight we
can start having on day one. Even when it comes
to taking homes back from corporations. That was the first
bill I ever co authored as a state representative. We've
got to pass it.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, tell me about your journey buying a house where
you live right now and just state of Georgia.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
So when my husband I used to I went to
grad school in DC for a few years. I was
the only time I ever left Georgia. And when we
came back, we wanted to live somewhere between his family
and my family. So we went through the rigamarole that
any young family goes through of trying to buy a house.
And this was right before the market went absolutely crazy
during COVID, like right before then, and there was a
house we really wanted, and there was this very aggressive

(09:43):
agent on the other side who turned out to be
representing a corporation that she actually had a better offer
because they can, right they can come in with cash,
higher offer and outbid just about any couple that is
trying to be in the market right now. And the
only reason we got our house was that couple was
kind of scared off by that other agent and she
chose our offer instead, which was crazy to me. Nobody.

(10:04):
It shouldn't come down to luck for you to be
able to afford a house, right And when we see that,
what happens is these corporations will buy these homes, then
they'll send them to other shell companies at a higher cost.
It artificially increases the cost of housing. So now even
if you own a home. So for those who are like, well,
I own a house, why should I care? Well, Now
your property taxes a artificially going up, even though your
house isn'tetting any better, your community hasn't had any major investments.

(10:26):
And by the way, now more people are going to
be renting, so now rent is going to go up.
So it becomes this sort of awful cycle where housing
for everybody, whether it's homeowners or renters, is going up
across the board.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
This sounds like a great platform, but I see a
lot of people that are scared, that are like, I
love RUA, but can RULE win a general election.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yes, we absolutely can, because our campaign is one that
will turn out voters that we continue to lose. I
actually do best with young men, I do best with immigrants,
I do best with the same groups of people that
we have been losing a lot of ground in. And
so for those folks, again I completely understand the concern.
But here's the other piece of it. The other piece
of it is that you have a candidate that can

(11:06):
mobilize the kind of field program than any potential handicaps
that exist we can absolutely outwork them. Secondly, even when
it comes to those groups of people that we turn out,
in the last Public Service Commission race, we flipped two
statewide seats by twenty six points. People are gonna try
to discount that. Fine, we're not saying that George is
gonna flip by twenty six points. But what we are
saying is that even with a small tweak in the turnout,

(11:29):
a little bit more young people came out a little
bit more. You know, younger folks, especially folks in the
rural areas, came out. Nor talk to those folks, you
have to mobilize for them. What we're saying is the
campaign that we're building is doing just that.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
What has been your favorite place to campaign in this far?

Speaker 2 (11:44):
You know, on the first week of our campaign, I
went down to Perry, Georgia for the fair. It was
so much fun and for the State House. At State
Senate there was a friendly competition of who gets to
show the best cow, and the Senate won. But I
want to be clear, our House member got first place.
You know, let the record show a shout out to
Representative Teddy Reese. But yeah, I love Teddy res so yeah,

(12:05):
so he was the he was the winner of that competition.
But you know it's but it's actually stuff like that.
It's the going to Augusta, going to Savannah, but also
the metro area, right, I mean I really okay, we
get some of the funniest things. Sometimes people be like,
did you see this? And the other day someone sent
me a lemon pepper, Macha, have you heard about this?

(12:27):
We've taken lemon pepper way too far. But here's the
best part. I kind of want to go try it.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
So here's what we're gonna do. Ro when it's soon,
very soon, we're gonna try it together. Should we just
go grab we can make it? That would be so funny,
folks tune in at rural Roman. Right, Yes, that is
absolutely But.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Look, even as silly as that sounds, right, part of
the reason that our platform is the way that it
is that it's small businesses that do creative things like this.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
The sales taxes on it, correct.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
But in addition to that, small businesses keep their money here, right,
They're the ones donating to the local booster club. They're
not sending their money off to some shareholder has no
idea about who we are. And so it's pretty cool
to see what these small businesses are offering. We've had
folks where we'll do an event, for example, or we'll
stop buy a coffee shop. They get so excited about
our campaign they go, can I put up your sign
in my window? And so it's really really awesome to

(13:16):
see that kind of excitement growing.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
I don't okay, this is kind of a story that
will make no sense. Yesterday I was on the way
to macdonnaugh to eat raisin canes.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Now there's a closer one, right. I thought there was
like one in like Forsyth or something.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
No, I don't think so. But the closest one it
was MacDonagh fair. I saw a ruer Roman sign. Heck yeah.
And so you are everywhere and I want to tell
people about the story that you are Georgia. You grew
up in Forstyth. Tell me this Georgia story that is
the Georgia dream, if you will.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
So I moved here when I was eight years old.
My family moved around a lot, but we ended up
settling in Forestayth County and I went to south Fordsyth
High School. And for those who don't know, that's where
Marjorie Taylor Green. I'll so graduated from high school. But
I also think that's such a great example of sort
of the paths that Georgia can take, which are both
just as possible, I want to be clear, But the
beauty of that was that, you know, I'm Palestinian, I'm Muslim,

(14:12):
totally get it. But at the same time, my first
job out of college was at the Center for Civilian
Human Rights, where I had to walk incredible people like
the late John Lewis through the museum, and essentially my
job was to go, here's your picture. Do you want
to tell me what was going on here? And so
I basically got to learn the all of the best
practice of organizing from the people who literally organize the

(14:35):
civil rights movement, and so to have the background that
I do and then learn from them was just an incredible,
incredible experience in my life. And that's why I am
who I am. It's why I deeply believe in fighting
for the rights of everybody without exception. It's why I
deeply believe in the fact that freedom must mean freedom
for everybody, including economic freedom. And so it was that
trajectory for me that ended up bringing me to where

(14:58):
I am today. And to be clear that the first
campaign I ever knocked, you know, knocked doors four was
Michelle and and Jason Carter twenty fourteen. I never door
knocked before I was in college. They came and said,
do you'll want to be politically engaged? I don't know
what that was. And by the way, this was when
they handed us sheets of paper.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Noah, was that us?

Speaker 2 (15:13):
No, this was pre Van, pre all that. And I remember,
you know, you have to go back and give your
paper and talk to the folks. And I said, I
really think if we grow this door knocking situation around
the state, we can flip the state blue. That was
the first time anyone ever said bless your heart to me.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
Hah. I took that your heart.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
I took that so personally, and so it kind of
became an obsession of mine. And as we saw Stacy
got so close, you got like, people don't realize how
far we were before Stacey and how close we got
in twenty eighteen, twenty twenty two, she was running against
an incumbent. So again it's important to have that context.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
But what do we do?

Speaker 2 (15:49):
We flipped in twenty twenty won the runoff. Yeah, and
then one again in twenty twenty two. And so when
people try to discounter state, I always wonder how much
they actually know, especially pre twenty eighteen and twenty twenty
two and even twenty twenty, because this was the culmination
of a lot of work. I deeply believe next year
is a once in a generation cycle. It is because

(16:09):
of that work that we've built and if none of
the other candidates actually believe in that, and that's why
I'm in it absolutely.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
And I want to ask you, Georgia, like you mentioned
this majority minority right now, it is so diverse. So
tell me what it has been like talking to your
Muslim neighbors and speaking to them about Hey, I don't
know how politically engaged you've been disenfranchised. Tell me about
going around the state.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, there are one hundred and thirty thousand registered Muslim voters,
not Muslim people, one hundred and thirty thousand registered Muslim voters,
and oftentimes we forget that. That is, you know, so
much of our margin oftentimes, And so when we bring
up the concerns that we do, it's not because we
want our candidates to lose. It's because we deeply believe
that in order to win, we need a coalition that

(16:51):
takes care of everybody. And I think as Democrats, our
job is to say that the freedom for one cannot
come at the expense of a freedom for somebody else,
and that the only path four is one that believes
that our paths are deeply intertwined, especially one towards liberation.
And so when I talk to a lot of these
Muslim voters, one, they've got one of the lowest turnout
rates of any group, so there's so much opportunity there.

(17:12):
But two. Our coalition as Democrats is one that is
anti war, one that wants healthcare access, one that wants
a fair shot in this economy. That I think fundamentally
is what our coalition is. And last, and not least,
but I think is the most important, is one that
fundamentally respects all of us. And when you talk to
those people from that perspective, to be clear, they come

(17:32):
around not just because I'm Muslim, right, they have met
with other candidates, but they do come around because they
see someone who respects them, respects their beliefs, respects their understanding,
but can also bring them along to the journey and
say this is why I am where I am, here's
how Republicans have been tricking our communities, which, by the way,
we've lost ground with every single minority group last year,
every single one. It wasn't just Arabs, wasn't just Muslims,

(17:55):
icee folks all the time talking about dearborn Michigan, y'all.
There just ain't enough folks to be the margin of
victory and any of the states that we lost last year, however,
we lost with every group, and it's important for us
to understand why. And instead of trying to dig in
our heels and make the same mistakes over again, we
should lean into what they're asking for.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Am I able to name him over there? Who?

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Oh Spencer? Yeah? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Could you imagine Spencer, You're at a Muslim community meeting?
That would be great. I think that would be great.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Are you saying I need to teach all my canvassers
a little bit of different languages. It I'm gonna teach
them Arabic?

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Really? Why? And I was in Ethiopia, I used it
a little bit and I lost it.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Oh man, you gotta bring it back. You gotta come
hang with us. Listen, you gotta go to the chi shops.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
What's your plan for small businesses.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
So, for small businesses, I will say the one thing
we do really well is that we do have a
great licensing program in our state for small businesses. But
we also need to make sure that we're taking care
of them as prices go up. And oftentimes when we
talk about tax credits, they usually go to large corporations
and small business kind of get the crumbs of it all.
I actually want to shift that balance so that a
lot of our tax investment goes to those small businesses.

(18:56):
But also, in addition, we're seeing a lot of these
leases start to go up, and so we want them
to be able to write some of that off right
on their taxes. We also want to be able to,
for example, if someone says, hey, I want to update
my business and make sure that the lights are working better,
we're using less energy or being more efficient. We should
be rewarding businesses that are constantly upgrading and making sure
they're safer and healthier, et cetera. But I want to

(19:17):
be clear, the best thing we can do for small
businesses is to lower health care costs. That's why we
lost the film industry because healthcare costs in Georgia are
some of the highest in the country, and yet we
rank last when it comes to healthcare. So we pay
the most, we get the least. And for small businesses
who are trying to retain their employees and pay for
health care for their employees, it's become unaffordable. And it's

(19:37):
really important that we also remember that when we talk
about healthcare, it's also an economic and small business investment.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, and you obviously are campaigning you have to go
all across the state. What has been some of your
favorite small businesses things? What has been your favorite small
business place to get?

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Okay, so down in Savannah, there's a place called Java
Burrito that has a Mexican mocha and and it's it's
like the spicy moocha. It's so good. They also have
it's basically also just you know, Mexican food like burritos
and not chosen and stuff like that. But it is
so good, I mean, truly, truly so good. But also
being able to go to various places, like there's a

(20:15):
spot called nine six seven and ship them six I know,
I know, I know. Let's say, not to be clear,
they had named that shop before like six seven became
a thing.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Became a thing.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Actually ran a half marathon, and so when I posted
about it, when I was like mile six, mile seven,
I put like a little smirk on there. No, not
I got to give a shout out. But but there's
like all of these they really become third spaces for
a lot of people, especially because they're open late, and
I think a lot of people really want.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
That, absolutely, And it's so many places to go across
the state just campaigning, campaign and campaigning, and I think
what people forget about actually campaigning is you're so caught
up in eating their food that you forget to tell
in your policies all the time. Often time they're like, okay,
so why are you here? And then some candidates don't
even expect to pay for the stuff.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
No, always no, we always pay, And I will say
shout out to my staff who are always like and
by the way, I know she's obsessed with your food
right now, but this is really she's running for governor.
So thank y'all so much.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
What is one critical piece of misinformation on your campaign
that you wanted to.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Bump Absolutely, there's obviously quite a bit, but I think
the most important one pertains to last year Oftentimes people
think that we, especially me being Palestinian, wanted Harris to
lose and that there was nothing further from the truth.
Oftentimes people mix up uncommitted and the abandoned Biden Harris movement.
Those were two different movements. Uncommitted was by Democrats for

(21:41):
Democrats in the primary too. As we now see from
Harris's own book, there was a bubble around the president
at the time about his numbers and what we were
seeing and all of that. And you know, so I
always remind people that not only did I endorse the
vice president even after everything that happened to the DNC,
but in addition to that, if you look at my district,
and in terms of numbers, so Gwennett County, like red
arrow was going right because everyone was shifting right. There

(22:03):
were two blue arrows and they were both in my district.
We were able to maintain turnout efforts and we actually
were one of the few places where we didn't lose ground.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah. See, that is such a key point, is that
a lot of the time throughout the campaign they do
something I'm like, oh my god, that's frustrating. How did
you stay so committed to the ticket throughout everything.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, I think that I'm a deep believer that putting
pain upon pain isn't going to make anybody and any
of us better, And I understand hurt people hurt people.
There was deep anger and frustration in my community. But
even with that frustration, the majority of my community still
didn't vote. I really deeply care about my constituents. When
we talk about being in public office, we are public servants,

(22:44):
and oftentimes we forget what that means. And I had
people in my district that we're going to lose health insurance.
I had people in my district that we're going to
be targeted at. Those were the people I was thinking about, too,
And so I knew that even as heart wrenching and
awful as everything that I was seeing coming out of Democrats,
especially as released to my community, because remember you'd build
Clinton up in Michigan being like, you know, these folks
are God only knows what he was up to up there.

(23:05):
It's so deeply important that just because there's pain being
brought upon us, that we not perpetuate that on other people.
And that's always how I've always campaigned. I've always worked
as a public servant, and we are a state that
flipped by eleven seven hundred and eighty votes. I have
gotten way more votes than that, and I how that
if it was that close, it really could come down
to me. And so that was a responsibility I took

(23:26):
very seriously, even in again my immense deep grief, because
I have family in Gaza, right, I have family. I'm Palestinian,
And it was a moment of realizing that this was
bigger than my own pain and my own anger. And again, unfortunately,
the genocide continues in Gaza. Like Jump keeps saying, oh,
we have a ceasefire, No you don't. There are people
still being killed every day, and there are people still

(23:47):
being harmed every day, and food's still not getting in.
And so for us, it's a it is just genuinely
we should not be perpetuating more pain that's been caused
on us.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
I'd love to stay here and talk about what is
your plan for a peaceful Middle East? Right now?

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, I mean when you're a governor, you actually don't
get a lot when it comes to foreign policy.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Unless you're DeSantis for some reason.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
You know, I don't know what these Republican governors are doing.
You know. Look, here's I will say The other benefit
of having me as governor is that I literally cannot
run for president. So my only priority is not some
political machination. It's I am obsessed with our state. I
love our state, and there's so much potential here. But
to your question, I'm going to give you an example.
In twenty twenty three, Governor kemp Line item vetoed six

(24:27):
million dollars for free breakfast and lunch for kids, literally
just feed hungry kids. And he said no, and he
said it's because of fiscal conservatism that he believes in
being a fiscally responsible steward of the state, which is bs.
Four months later, he bought ten million dollars of Israeli
bonds four months later, and then seven months later got
a million dollars from Mary Maddison into a super pack.

(24:48):
And so when we talk about what a governor's role
could be when it comes to international policy, it's actually
that we should not be investing in war, we should
not be perpetuating more violence.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Absolutely, how do you see on the national level if
you become governor, don't think so. If you become governor,
how do you see your influence to the national party, Like,
for example, when you were state representative, you had a
lot of influence on helping the Vice president get more
progressive on Goza. How do you see that you want
to use that influence as governor. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
My hope is that it returns and re energizes our
love for the spirit of campaigning. And what I mean
by that is oftentimes in these blue states, but even
in some of these red states or swing states, we
need to be showing up year round. We need to
be knocking you around, but we also need to show
for our communities year round. One of the things we
did when the snap benefits were disrupted was we had
these volunteers that we weren't fully ready to canvas yet

(25:41):
because we didn't have the infrastructure built, and so we
actually asked them to go volunteer their local food banks.
And so I think as Democrats, we have to start
leaning back into that idea of service for our community
and showing up year round because that does pay dividends,
because we can't only show up moving forward asking people
for their vote and not showing up outside of that.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
I want to feel like that's this game that we
play here. Remember you spoke about getting feisty.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, I know you ready, let's go.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
Okay, you know what time it is, Jason Stevez, you knew.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Listen, do you want my commentary on each of these folks?

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Okay, I cannot believe you knew. I'm gonna watch the
show that I go on. Okay, listen, we should probably
remind folks what's happening first.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Just okay, So yeah, text every time we have the
midterm series, I name each of your opponents and you
got to tell me something about them. And I'm gonna
do this beyond Georgia, like today we have Abdullah l said.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
So I said, Hi, absolutely great.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
And I'm gonna have Halle Stevens. So we do this
across to say this is not Georgia everywhere. Jason.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Look, Jason Estevez was a state senator. We have served together,
and I just believe in campaigning differently.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Absolutely not the way forward.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
It's not the way we win. Why because I just
like I said earlier, for every one voter we got
out of that, we lost three of our own last year,
and I think that there's too much on the line
in a once in a generational election next year to experimental.
I just I do not think that the what they're
selling is something that we should be buying. I actually
don't think it's it's it's legitimate.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Bert Jones.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
My running joke about Burt Jones is that I have
more in common with average Georgian than Burt Jones, who
has more in common with the Saudi oil prints. Because
Homeboy only cares about making his family money.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Dang that.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
I would really like for him to learn how to
actually practice law, because every case he's taken on has
not been great.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
Homeboy is only that is insane. Rua, that is so funny.
Rad Raffensberger.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
He's the other day he said for this campaign, I
bought a new F one fifty and you know, to
be able to take it all around the state. And
I go, how out of touch do you have to
be to be able to say that in this economy?

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Derek Jackson.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Derek Jackson I think has a lot of passion, but
I would just like to see him build more infrastructure,
more infrastructure. Keish Land's bottom listen. I made that mac
and cheese to make a very clear point. I just
think that if you're gonna make that kind of mac
and cheese, you should probably try something else. But look,
I just think anyone who leaves. I deeply believe this.

(28:07):
It's like anyone who leaves, we need someone being willing
to commit to four years obviously, and if voters will
have us back eight years. My worry is that is
she gonna leave again if things get hard.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Okay, oh my, I'm stunned.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
About the mac and cheese. I'm still really offended, but
I was actually deeply traumatized by that MC and cheese.
Michael thurmant Michael Okay, Michael Thurman is great to be around,
but he's gonna be almost eighty at the end of
his term. Yeah, and again that's gonna be when we
have the map fight on jerry mandering. So I think
that he brings a lot of experience to the table.
If I'm governor, he is somebody who I would absolutely

(28:41):
talk to about administration and lessons learned. I'm a deep
believer in bringing the entire coalition to the table with us.
When we talk about wanting to recruit five thousand volunteers
by the end of the primary and fifteen thousand by
the end of the general, it's because we want those
people to then come in with us and actually govern
with us and so for him, you know, someone who
has that much experience, I wish that he would just
lean in on some of us, like like for me

(29:03):
as a candidate, for example, I'd love to have more
of his expertise because again, in four years, we're gonna
have to fight to keep that mansion in that state
house and you just can't do that.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
He's gonna want to run for reelection.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Correct, And let's just say, hypothetically, God forbid, he can't.
You lose incumbency, and that is a huge advantage to
lose when we're gonna be in another midterm cycle.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
That's not funny.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
No, no, it sucks, and I hate it. But I
will say he is actually the person that I enjoy
being around the most.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Really, he is very nice. He is amazing.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Also, have you ever seen him in his jeans jacket? No? Oh,
it's incredible.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Really, And you are so nice about your opponents. It's
like every opponent, no matter what you're extremely I've seen
you near your opponents, and every time I see candidates
next to their opponents, I get scared.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Look, I don't want people to mistake my kindness for weakness.
I will absolutely be kind and courteous around my opponents.
But there's a reason that I am running. I would
not be risking death threats if I felt like any
of them were doing we needed for our state next year.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Absolutely, And I think who in the Democratic lead would
you say, Okay, this person cannot win us a general election.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
You know, it's it's easy to be able to say
that no one but me can win the general election.
But to be frank, there's a reason why we're doing
it this way, right. I think next year is gonna
be a very favorable year for Democrats. But again, my
worry is that if you are somebody that cannot speak
to the needs of Georgians, and if you're out of touch, right,
if you're only going after the corporate backing and special

(30:29):
interest backing. Because we need to fundraise, I want y'all,
I want to be clear, please give to our campaign.
We need to build this field program, right, But we're
relying on individual people for donations and our organizing folks
around the state. But I just don't know how you can.
For example, you ask me about Kushlandz Bottoms, I don't
know how you could be someone that can lend their
campaign three hundred thousand dollars and then authentically speak about
affordability in our state. Even with Jeff Duncan, right, he

(30:52):
was somebody who when he was lieutenant governor, in addition
to passing an anti abortion bill, in addition to the
fact that his decisions have literally killed a lot of people. One,
we deserve someone that gets it right on the first try.
But secondly, he tried to get a contract for his
own personal company as lieutenant governor. And people are tired
of the corruption, They're tired of being completely out of

(31:12):
touch and just basically using your position to make yourself
more money. Again, y'all, I mean, I've got student loans,
I've got you know, all of these things. Like me
and my husband talk about all the time how our
utility rates are going up. The reason I can authentically
talk about these things is because we're facing them too,
and I think it's time we had a governor like that.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Absolutely sorry, But the reason why is because every time
asks about their opponents, something something something, So it's like,
who if to the listener right now that knows nothing
about politics, why should they vote for you in the
primary and ultimately.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
The general, Because you're gonna have somebody that puts you
first during every single decision, and you're never gonna have
to question what political maneuvering they're trying to do. Georgia
is the place that I love and care about most.
I would not risk death threats if I didn't believe
that we deserve better, and if I do, I didn't
believe there's so much potential here. And so when people
ask me why they should vote for me, it is
because they will be one hundred percent certain that I'm

(32:07):
somebody that's gonna fight for them every single day.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
There is a rumor regarding higher aspirations. After you run
for governor, you could very possibly run for school board.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
That is incredible, absolutely, but no, no, I got you.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
No.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Look, I tell people all the time they need to
be running for city council, commission for school No, no,
I mean this. We need more people to run for office.
But to me, this is sort of a moment in
time where there's such a deep urgency in this moment
and in terms of like, you know, higher aspirations or whatever.
I mean, with deep respect to my current school member

(32:42):
who's a Republican, Like, yeah, if tomorrow I try to
run against him, we probably win.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yeah, I got you there, didn't I it was good.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
I was like, wait a minute, school board governor, like
where are we? But hey, you will always find me
coming back to organizing.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah, and I want to ask you about each county.
So I'm gonna name these counties. Tell me what you
think of Gwnett.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
I live there. It is a rapidly growing county and
I just need more transit, please, Fultzon County. Fulton County
is huge. I actually went to Abbotsbridge Elementary and then
Taylor Road Middle School and was supposed to be districted
for Chatahooche High School before we moved. And it is
just growing. I mean every single day. Same thing. Give
folks more public transit so we don't have so much traffic.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
Yeah, going back to that transit thing, Guinette, I know,
And the main thing was that I want to try
the transit in Georgia, so we need to do that.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
I think the way we talk about transit is actually
a little bit backwards. I think we need to start
talking to people about what it means for traffic, but
also what it means for independence. First from older folks.
I'm a deep believer that folks should be allowed to
age in place and with dignity, which means again not
making their property taxes skyrocket every year. But also you know,
when you talk to some older folks, they hate being
a burden on their families. They hate having to ask

(33:50):
for a ride to the doctor's appointment, right to the
grocery store. Whatever. Public transit gives them that independence, and
we can bring it and oftentimes we forget to add
that piece of you know, you get the option if
your car broke down you can't afford to fix it,
You've got a different option if you know you can't
afford the astronomical rising cost of car insurance which is
mandated by the way, and your car, you've got public transit.
I think we just start talking about it from a

(34:11):
different perspective for people to understand what it's about.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Yeah, yeah, what do you like.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Look, here's the thing about me, and that my philosophy
about government. I think government should provide excellent customer service
and then leave people alone. That inquires proper and right
size government. I want a smart sized government that can
actually provide the services that people require with excellence. And
that way, when something like class comes up talking about transit,
people aren't like well, the government is going to mess

(34:36):
it up anyway. No, I'm going to be someone who
demands excellence from my team. Decab Ooh so Decab actually
borders Gwinet, so sometimes I'm like, am I int Cab
mayan Gwinnett? You never know? But they are great neighbors.
And I think again, it's a place that has so
much potential if we just invested in people and not
just special interests.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Where I just got a text from rural roman hate
named Michael Thurmott. W No, but do you plan on
winning decap.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
And of course absolutely for us, we want to win everywhere.
That is why we have a field program that is
growing astronomically, because we want to reach voters in every
part of the state and compete for every single vote.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Absolutely, Forsyth scares me.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, for your viewers that aren't familiar, that's where Oprah wins.
Did you gotta do?

Speaker 1 (35:20):
Which one was it?

Speaker 2 (35:21):
No? She went and basically learned about how racist people
get there right, and it was super not And you
know what's really fascinating learning about Georgia history is how
often I find overlaps. For example, the black families that
were there were kicked out of their homes even though
they still have the leases. It's a not like my
palsy and grandfather who still had the deed to his
land when he passed. But Forsyth is definitely changing, right,
It is so much more diverse. My sister's twelve years

(35:43):
younger than I am. She went to the same high school,
and I say were because it is very different now,
especially south for Scyth. And shout out to the Forsyth Democrats,
by the way, yeah, who continue to grow our margins there,
because without these counties, without us competing in these counties,
there's no path to victory for us.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Would you go to Lake Lanear, No, don't go to
Lake Linear.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
It's haunted. Do you know how many people die.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
Like a drowned.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
There are so many beautiful state parks around our state.
We've got the Chattahoochee River. If you really want some water,
please go outwhere.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
That dry to Gwinnette. You get the good infrastructure. And
then he'd beat in Margaritaville.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
It's so oh yeah. The beaches are beautiful, the park
is beautiful. There's a fun water park up there. They
even host vestivals up there. The sunsets are absolutely magnificent.
But my god, y'all, please be safe. It's haunted. I'm
pretty sure it's haunted.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Muscogee County, Okay, So Muscogee County. First off, I love
the name of Skogie. It sounds very regal. Is that
that's where Savannah is?

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (36:43):
I love Savannah. It's We've been there a few times.
We've got a good Controler forum coming up the first
week of January that I'm really excited for. That's where
Java Burrito is, but that's where our ports are. Right,
people forget that Savannah Brunswick, that area of the state
is pretty incredible.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Absolutely, and I cannot wait to see everything that you
were I we'll do on the campaign trip.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
And I think this is a very fun governor's race.
I really hope we make a good decision and not
making someone who can win.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Thanks. Hopefully it's me, y'all. I promise you. I will
make you really proud, and we will flip not just
the governor's mansion but the State House, which, by the way,
we layered our field program on Uckbarley and Eric Giessler's races,
which are the races that we won.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Did Eric Giessler get that done, y'all. This is what
we were with it.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah, so we actually were the first people to co
host a canvas with them, Yeah, which I missed because
Church went over. I feel so bad. So if you're
listening to this and you're in Athens, I'm so sorry
I missed you that first day. But second off, we
actually had like I told one of my staffers, like, you're good,
go work on that campaign, like they really need you.
Shout out to Juliana who's an amazing Athens organizer. But

(37:46):
that's how we did it right, direct face to face conversations.
I mean they called people, they door knocked. The DPG
actually spent a little bit of money there too. So
this was absolutely like a group project that we all
came into. But again, part of it was like by
time everyone came around, I was like, great, but we
mean it when we say Field Early goes a really
really long way in our state.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Here is a key. It's not even debate, it's like
a key sense of perspective on the show is that
Back in December, I sparked a little bit of a
discussion about it, which one do we need more of
in the party, do we need organizing direct on the
groundwork or do we need influencing work digitally? Which one
do you see as the future of the party both,

(38:27):
and how.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
You can't have one without the other. So i' let's
talk about Zoron. I think Zarn's a great example of
this because people will often say, oh, is his pretty
videos that got him where he got and yeah, that's
part of the story. But if you look, everything that
they put out included some kind of call to action.
So if you look on our Instagram, especially right now,
anytime you interact with our stuff, you get a little

(38:48):
DM that tells you how to get involved right anytime.
That's what you reach out right when you reach out
to us, we are really really intentional about making sure
that I'm glad you like this thing. But let's go
past likes and shares and a name I D. But
to be clear, the digital stuff is important even for
name I D. Because if you're a candidate that isn't
backed by special interests, you got to reach voter somehow.
For example, his team ended up with one hundred thousand

(39:10):
volunteers by the end of it. You cannot manage those
people without a proper team. And so if all you're
doing is just putting out pretty videos. That stuff ain't
gonna work.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
And I think it's going to disappoint a great amount
of viewers. You did not vote for.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Zoran No, I didn't. I know, I was listen. I
remember that video went so viral, and it's because I
live in Georgia and I vote in Georgia. I've only
voted in Georgia except for like one year when I
was in DC all but that was funny. That was
so funny. I got so mad how well that video worked.
It got over a million videos every week, oh one
hundred percent. And not only that, the best part about

(39:43):
it was that people were commenting on that video saying
that it reminded them.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
To go vote.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
And it happened twice because we also did the funny
one where Tim Echle said he hopes it raids on
election day. So I was holding an umbrella and then
I was like, God doesn't like me, and so go
vote today, and that kind of stuff. I think oftentimes
we think that voters just want the silliness, but if
you grab their attention, they also want information from you.
They want you to treat them like a governing partner

(40:09):
instead of an obstacle of power.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Are you excited to run with Senator ahsa Oh?

Speaker 2 (40:14):
I'm stoked. I actually think that oftentimes people like this
is something that came up there where they're like, aren't
you wordy going to ruin his chances? I'm like, no,
I actually think we're very complimentary, young, energetic candidate that
bring different parts of our coalition to the table very effectively,
and I think a partnership like ours would be unstoppable.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Absolutely. What you have to explain this Georgia thing to me?
So which part in Georgia?

Speaker 2 (40:34):
Uh huh?

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Asoff in Georgia Democratic politics? Asov is like a god
Now everyone is like, awesome, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (40:42):
It's because he's up for reelection next year. To be clear,
I think all of those people are still leaders within
the party. The party. Oftentimes when we talk about the party,
there's different parts to it. Right, there's the official Democratic
Party at Georgia, but then you've got your county chapters,
and you've got your national like DLCC and DNC and
stuff like that. But then the party really is the
people at the end of the day, and so all
of those people look to our different elected officials especially

(41:04):
statewide for different things. And you know, I like to
remind people that Georgia sent a black senator before New
York did, right, that we are the place where change
for the better happens. We are the home of the
civil rights movement. And so for us to care about
somebody like Senator asof it's because we need to get
him reelected next year. I mean genuinely, I think that.
And I've experienced this myself as a state representative. Right

(41:25):
Oftentimes you get so caught up in the game that
you start to see these lens as real wins instead
of this benefits nobody, right, like me, kind of rubbin
elbows are shaking hands. If that doesn't come with tangible
material differences for people for the better, it doesn't mean anything.
And I think when you're in Congress for so long
and you become a creature of that place, I really

(41:45):
think you lose sight of it. Look, Chris van Holland,
though that man has been standing on business.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
Really that man has the majority?

Speaker 2 (41:52):
I sure, why not? I think he's making some moves,
But like IM standing on business, he has been you know,
going around the country. He has been taking on some
really important fights, particularly rely to Trump's overreach with ice
and the danger that he is putting people in all
over the place. But you know, he's just I've I've
really appreciated his just feels like having an adult in

(42:13):
the room that actually cares.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
And now you know, with no de barrasso, we'll be
right back. Who are you excited to work with this governor?

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Like fellow governors, I genuinely would love to work with
all democratic governors. I think in order for us to
deal with this chaotic federal government, it's going to require
us coming together and doing smart policy, and that includes
things like healthcare. For example. I think Democratic states are
going to have to band together to figure out this
healthcare issue because I think once you have a better system,

(42:46):
a lot of other people are going to want to
opt into it, and hopefully that'll create enough pressure.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
You know, when you see hashtag GA poll on a
twis this is something interesting. So I wanted to talk
to you a little bit about gl poll discussions. Okay,
what do you think about the state income tax? Yes
or no?

Speaker 2 (43:01):
I think it's a terrible idea because if you listen
to the Appropriation's chair, he said he wants to increase
sales taxes by twelve percent. So I mean for me,
that means every time you buy something, you got to
pay twelve percent more on it. And our state requires
any people to hear this because the know it's policy
and it's kind of annoying, but our state, our state
requires a balanced budget. If you do that, you have
to make up for it somewhere else. If people are

(43:22):
that desperate for getting rid of the income tax, then
I think we should raise our corporate taxes to make
up for it.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
And that's possible, right.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
It is possible. But again, for me, I want to
make sure that we raise taxes on the people that
make the most and get the most benefit, so that
way the burden isn't on me and you.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah, I want to know about the sales tax thing
is the idea? Okay? So would it be twelve percent
total and twelve percent state?

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Twelve percent for anything you buy? So it be so
every time you go to the grocery store, for example,
there's gonna be a twelve percent tax. Oh so it's total, yes,
But like imagine you spend Let's say you spend one
hundred dollars. Now you have to spend one hundred and
twelve every time.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
I love phone down't Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
But again, remember the income tax for the like who
it benefits most is the wealthy, right, So Burt Jones
is going to pocket way more than you and I
ever will from that income tax getting rid of the
income tax. The other thing is they'll tell you about
Tennessee and Florida. Tennessee and Florida both have way more
tourism than we ever will, and they have other tax
avenues they make up for that. We don't have that,

(44:19):
And so again our state is not like those other states.
And listen, if y'all really want to keep cutting taxes.
For those of you that have driven over the Georgia
South Carolina border and suddenly your car feels like it's
going on a lot of bumpy road, we're talking about
your car breaking down even more so now you gotta
pay more for it. We're talking about ambulances going slower,
and we're talking about even more hospital closure.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
One time I was in South Carolina, there was no
sales center.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
But no, but again, if there's no sales tax, then
you have to keep.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
Get funded, right yep. It was also terrible because I
wasn't contributing with my tourism. So it's like they're trying
to cut the state income tax. They have no grocery taxes.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
But I bet if you look at how much those
people pay, for example, on their cars because their cars
are constantly getting hit with hotholes. If you look at,
for example, how much they pay for health care, if
you look at how faster our ambulances respond, I'm willing
to bet on all of those metrics that we care about, education, healthcare,
et cetera, there are so much lower.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Yeah, I think that with the sales sex thing, it's realistic. Okay,
twelve percent would be the highest in the country. It
would above Seattle, above everywhere. And I think, is there
not a way to get around that with because like
I think, being one of the states with no state
income tax is attracting new people. It's a whole policy
discussion totally. Is there any like you spoke about raising

(45:34):
the corporate tax? Is there any other reasonable approaches like
raising the corporate tax? Look at that for us.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
My commitment to folks is that we are not going
to raise taxes on essentially anybody who is the ninety
nine percent of Georgians, right, I mean, we are talking
about when we talk about sort of these taxes, is
that we want folks to pay their fair share. They're
the ones that use our roads the most. They're the
ones that use our airports the most, so they should
be paying their fair share. When it comes to corporations,
we give them so many tax bricks, and so for us,

(46:01):
it's we actually should probably close some of those loopholes
and make sure they're paying their fair share because they're
using our ports and our roads and our airports, et cetera.
I want to be clear, I am totally open to
cutting the income tax. The reason I hate it in
the way Republicans talk about it is they have no
plan to make up for it.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Are they you gonna do it and figure it out later. No,
they want to do it.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Okay, So they want to cut programs on You would
have to cut everything. You have to cut education, you
have to cut healthcare, you have to cut literally spending
on everything across the board.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
Well, GEORGI didn't really do much for people exactly.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
That's what it comes down to. We don't have room
in our budget. We underfund so much in our state.
And that's why I tell folks, listen, folks, aren't doing Okay,
I want to put more money back in people's pockets.
But what kills me is they'll go to people and
they'll say, I'm gonna put like five dollars in your pocket,
maybe fifty, and that goes somewhere. I want to be cleared.
That is a lot for some people in our state.
But here's the thing. You're missing out on thousands of

(46:50):
dollars worth of services, right literally thousands. That means that
your education budget gets cut, that means your healthcare budget
gets cut. And so you know, they're really good at
properly I think Republicans are. And so what I started
calling it is the make my friends Rachuer tax.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah. So what is like the real Roman tax? The
rual Roman like total tax would be, the corporate tax,
would be, the sales tax? Yeah, income tax? No. And
I've never been able to get this deep into actual policy.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Sorry, and welcome.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Everyone else just speaks politician. Yeah, and we get to
speak about numbers. Tell me about these numbers. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
So look in our state right now, we have a
fourteen billion dollar surplus. You'll hear a lot of my
opponents talk about they want to do one time uses
for it. I actually think, especially with unfortunately the economic uncertainty,
this is the opportunity to invest it and create jobs.
So I want to use those for Yes, we want
to help people immediately and also use some of that
for long term investment. And when it comes to our act,
the way we tax people right now in the state,

(47:43):
we often keep talking about tax breaks, but even those
tax breaks, the way they're set up is usually for
the wealthy. I think we should flip that upside down.
I think that those who are already wealthy, because they
keep telling us, oh, trickle down economics, Are you getting
more money?

Speaker 1 (47:54):
Are you?

Speaker 2 (47:55):
Is things trickling down to you? They're not triggling down
to me. They're not trickling down to my neighbor, deep
believer investing from the bottom up.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Yeah. And so do you have an exact figure in
your head for income tax?

Speaker 2 (48:06):
No, because we remember the governor last year also cut
it again, so each year they keep cutting it even
though they're not meeting their own revenue metrics. And so
for me, it's going to depend on what happens this
upcoming session, where we will have a lot more details
for voters, because then at that point we'll have our
final budget and our federal tax numbers.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Does rural Roman like the do you know the exact
name for it? It's the system where you do you
know the system that it takes it same? Okay, So
essentially it's like a program Georgia that it's like the
That's what I'm looking forward is real Roman, like those
cards that Governor Kemp did, the surplus cards. Oh, the
kempislation reduction.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
No, because he took credit for the for the Inflation
Reduction Act, which was a democratic policy, like y'all for
those who don't remember, this man literally used your tax
dollars to bry voters. There's no other way around it,
and then called it Kemp Bucks. That was money from
the federal government under the Biden administration to keep our
state going. Not only that, our surplus is from that money.
We should be putting more money back in people's pockets

(49:03):
who need it most. But I want to remind folks
he could have done that when stamp benefits are cut?

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Okay, okay, does it through Roman like school choice.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
I am a deep believer that we should not be
spending public tax dollars on institutions that can discriminate against students,
because remember, private institutions can discriminate, and so calling it
school choice, I think is kind of a false way
to put it. I grew up in a county where
I had the choice to go to any public school
I wanted to because each one had an amazing program.
The one I went to had an amazing IB program.

(49:32):
Another school had a really great like humanities program. So
each school had a magnet program you could opt into.
I want them to have access to high quality, diverse
educational opportunities that are funded across the board, so that way,
not only those that can afford high tuition each year
can have.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Access to that. Do you get to do one thing
during your tenure as governor? What would it be?

Speaker 2 (49:53):
I mean, we've got our policy plans that I'm going
to be working on all of them, because again, the
governor gets floor leaders. So every single one of those
things we name on our lit we can actually introduce
bills on that on day one. So the governor actually
can name what's called floor leaders. They are representatives and
senators who will introduce bills on your behalf, okay, And
so the legislation that I want, we can introduce it
on day one and work on it on day one.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
Absolutely, do you see the importance of for example, like
Bucket City, It's like culture war issues in Georgia. How
would you have voted on Bucket's city hood?

Speaker 2 (50:23):
No? No, And I want to be clear. When Republicans
try to point, like, you know, put us in these corners,
I think we should unflinchingly vote no. And I'll give
you all an example of the recent Eric Gessler race.
So Coney County Republicans kept telling folks to go vote
against Eric because he was being supported by the Muslim
woman running for governor. Nothing about my policies, I remember nothing.
It was all culture war stuff. And guess what, we

(50:44):
flipped a plus thirteen trumpsy and we trolled them the
entire way I remember. So I'm a believer that when
it comes to this kind of like you know, culture
war stuff, every time you blink, they're gonna keep punching
at you. And so our job is to just vote
no and keep doing our jobs right Like for us,
it's stop letting them make it a thing, make our
positions clear, and keep doing the work that Jordan's need

(51:05):
us to do.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
Absolutely, are you up for a little bit of a
debate about what. Okay, I just prep like really, so, okay,
it's fine, let's debate it. Yeah, So in twenty twenty six,
do you see the importance of that the viewers that
don't speak politics would understand totally? Do you see the
need for being a little bit more moderate? Or or

(51:30):
some would say, what is the word they use for
Hillary Clinton against Bernie what was it? Again? Approaches that
are a bit more pragmatic versus outright, we need to fight,
we need to get this done, et cetera. What approach
do you take?

Speaker 2 (51:40):
I actually don't think that these are antithetical to each other.
I think that when you are leading people, you need
to set a vision and a shared goal. You need
to name that vision in that shared goal. But there's
gonna be steps to that right. That is where the
pragmatism comes in for us. It's when you're negotiating. You
should not start with I want half the loaf of bread. No,
you should begin with the entire life of bread and

(52:00):
then see where you end up from there. Because if
you already start with half a loaf of bread, you're
gonna end up with nothing but crumbs. And so you
have to for voters. You got to show them a vision.
I do believe in being able to govern you well,
being able to govern well, being able to do what
we need to do. That does require pragmatism in the
sense of you need to actually have steps to where
you want to go. No one is saying that this

(52:21):
is going to happen with a snap of a finger.
But you need a vision because that's what Republicans do
really well. Republicans treat polls like thermostats when they are
away from the election season, and then they create the
conditions that they actually want. As Democrats, we've got to
start doing that.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Yeah, I do, And this isn't I'm not like totally disagreeing,
but I do see the approach of for example, right now,
on the House floor, if they said get a ten
dollars minimum wage, ten dollars state minimum wage, take it
or leave it? Are you voting yes or no?

Speaker 2 (52:50):
I would always vote yes to make life better for people, Right,
I'm always going to vote yes if it's one more
step to where I want to go. We vote yes
when we pass that, and you bet you, I'm gonna
keep working on that fifteen till our minimum wage. Right,
you bring it back and you keep building on it.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
But that's pragmatism.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
You have to make sure that you tell people where
you're going, and you have to be able to communicate
with them where the vision is and what step that is.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
See the ping pong was dependent on you saying no,
I'm only voting for fifteen That is sorry.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
But here's the thing. Even if you look at minimum
wage bills, they don't when you pass it, it's not
like fifteen dollars tomorrow. There's usually an on ramp. And
what you do is you give an on ramp for
small businesses that is much longer, so they're not as disrupted.
But for those large corporations that are already paying people
in other states two to three times with the minimum
wave that we want to set, is that goes a
really long way.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
Absolutely, And in terms of what we need beyond the
midterms is every day you see this, Canna say, I
might jump in. I've been What do you hope to
see from any leader pass?

Speaker 2 (53:45):
I would love to see more people just talk to voters. Yeah,
I know it's hard. I know, we all got to
get our names out there, especially in this information ecosystem
that we're in. We got to keep doing stuff, but
I really need them to spend less time worrying about
their brand and actually just talking to folks.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Yeah, I do want to speak about in twenty twenty four. Sure,
in twenty twenty four, I was really really excited about
President Biden because of his Infrastructure Bill, sure, the Flat
Production Act, everything he did on the HPCs, which is
why I urged everyone. I did the most get out
the vote ever and I said, everyone go. And this
is an interesting discussion I have. I was like, everyone,
please go to the polls and vote for Joe Biden. Yeah,

(54:23):
tell me why you did or did not do that.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
I did not do that because even now Vice President
Harris shares with us that he was not getting the
appropriate polling data to make an informed decision. And it
was very important for us to make clear what we
were seeing on the ground. And the only time to
safely do that was the primaries. And to be very clear,
I think that the reason so many people felt the
way they did, including myself, was that when Biden ran,
he said he was going to be the bridge building candidate, right,

(54:47):
he was going to usher in the next generation of leadership,
and so it was very surprising to see him say
I'm running for a second term, and as fair or
not right, it sucks, it's awful, But at the end
of the day, when you run for office, you have
to be able to communicate with people. I lost my
voice for two weeks and I lost my mind.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
Right, your mug is so funny.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Oh, I'm not yelling at Palestinian. I love my friend
got me that. It was just the moment where I
was like, how am I supposed to talk to people?
If I can't talk to people? And the schedule is grueling,
You're going going until the end of your election cycle,
and even then you got a govern in order for
us to win against somebody like Trump in particular, who
will go and say whatever he wants, We'll go on
every podcast, will be everywhere. Again, the guy's falling asleep

(55:27):
in all of his meetings, I want to be clear.
But they were really good about putting him everywhere, and
they just didn't care. Unfortunately, we were right that there
was just no way that he was going to be
able to beat him.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
What I saw in terms of speaking to Republicans was
they'd use the uncommitted vote as a weapon against the Democrats.
So they'll say, Tammy Baldwin's gonna win Bob Casey and
everyone's gonna have terrible luck in this general election because
uncommitted is doing so well. Do you think that contradicts
what you guys were trying to do with it?

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Absolutely, because if you look, uncommitted actually kept people involved.
The majority of people that voted uncommitted, by the way,
place like Michigan weren't Arabs and Muslims. There's actually young voters.
It was young people who were just desperate for change
and saying like, we want something different, we want something different.
Dammy Baldwin won. Bob Casey didn't win because he thought
that his name was going to carry him through the
general election. And he woke up and I think it
was like late August early September was like, oh no,

(56:16):
I got to run a campaign and lost by like
sixty thousand votes free Senator sixty sixty I think. But
for Pennsylvania, that's a very tiny margin.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Bob Casey.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
If you ask anybody over there, they will tell you
he did not do what he needed to do to
be able to win. Sometimes in the noise and the politics,
I will be honest with you, some of these people
are also coordinated, and they better cut it out. But
there is a world that I need people to under.
Politics is just as much the machinations of a campaign,
of you building something day to day. Are you talking
to voters technicalities whatever, as it is the values and

(56:48):
who you're talking about and stuff like that. If you're
going to run for office, you better be a hustler
and you better be ready to wear out your shoes
until they break through. You're doing call time every day,
I mean whole nine yards.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
Yeah, I think the way that we treat incumbents are important,
and even how our nominee is, which is why I
thought of you. A big thing about me is I
love combating misinformation. Yeah, and so I really appreciate when
you set me that information on George Latder my whole
long time. And I think having a representative like Congressman

(57:18):
Bowman is that when a lot of the incumbents were
bad mouthing Biden, that got very dangerous. It kind of
forced and out very fair.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
But if you all remember so, do you know, like
you've heard folks talk about APAC for example, right when
they get involved in primaries, APEC never talks about Israel
and primaries. If you watch their ads, they never bring
up a pack. What they brought up was that Jamal
Bowman and Corey Bush voted against Build back Better. Biden
had signature legislation. Do you know who killed it? People
like Carolyn Bordeaux and Joe Manchin. They forced him to

(57:45):
split his bill, swore up and now they're going to
figure out later.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
And what did we cut?

Speaker 2 (57:48):
We cut healthcare subsidies, We cut the EITC, which literally
helped families not have to work three four jobs and
they could spend time with their kids. So that meant
that in Georgia alone, five hundred thousand people. When you
ask them, are you better off than you or four
years ago? The answer was objectively no, because they lost
these sort of life saving measures that let them be
with their kids. And so that's why I was really

(58:09):
sad to see how that was twisted, especially against Corey
Bush and Jamal Bowman.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
I think it's better to have someone who is actively
working on policy rather than being loud on television.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
But the problem right now is that our base, if
you ask Democrats right now, right and they want more fighters,
not folders. And that's what people are hungry for you've
seen me in the legislature. I think you should learn
to do both. I've gotten a bill all the way
to Senate rules. I'm making ems in essential service. If
you ask my colleagues, I have helped them on so
many of the bills related to things like utility costs
and whatever. Yeah, I think we've got to learn.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
To be both. Yeah, which is why I wish that
Corey Bush and Bowman got that message to run their
campaigns like that. Yeah, I'm up here doing well.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
They can late, right, we didn't support them. They had
twenty million dollars spent against them in a primary. That
is like, that's an es. Like to give you an example,
I think some of the most more expensive congressional races
in Georgia were like four to five million, yeah, right,
total between both candidates. And so it's just I just
want money out.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Get big money out of politics. In terms of pack money,
is there any what's your idea of pack money?

Speaker 2 (59:10):
Yeah, it's okay, Yeah, I mean, look, we've got our
union folks. Of course, we've got amazing groups like Asian
American Advocacy Fund that does incredible work turning out voters. Folks.
Who are values aligned, right, who care about working families,
parties another great one. Right, they care about affordability, they
care about people. They're not just trying to do whatever
niche thing they're doing that day. They've got the cohesive,

(59:31):
comprehensive policy that is explicitly meant to make life better
for Georgia's We can debate policy, you can debate whatever,
but you're not going to see them go after a
candidate because of some you know, like one random special
interest thing they have. And to be clear, when we
talk about folks like a pack, and to some extent
even dmify, the same billionaires who are supporting those same
packs are also supporting other packs that are going after

(59:53):
us in the general. I don't want that money. I
don't want to keep courting that money when we should
be investing in our own people and protecting them in
the general.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
From yeah, on a pack, do you see? I hear
a lot that a PAC is a foreign a foreign
group that is lobbying in America. Is that how you
see it?

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
I mean, to me, the technicalities don't matter. I just
don't think that we should be taking pack money from
anybody who's.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Only priority isn't a foreign interest groups. Yeah, what would
you say to someone that says they are actively trying
to bridge the gap between the United States and Israel,
which is a democracy in the Middle East.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
But it's not democracy in the Middle East. I mean,
my grandfather is now buried in a country that's not
where he was born. He lost everything. My mom comes
from a place called Hebron and Janil, and if you
go there, it's basically Jim Crow in the desert. There
are streets that if you're Arab, you're not allowed to
walk on them, And that doesn't strike me as democracy.
Even within Israel proper, people say that Arabs and Israelis

(01:00:46):
have the same citizenship. They don't. There's actually more than
sixty laws on the books that applied only one group
and not the other. So objectively speaking, I don't think
that's a democracy. I think a democracy is one that
respects and treats everybody equally. And you know, we're always
attaining that here to because but you know, for me,
it's like, y'all, we can't even keep our hospitals open.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
Why are we spending one point, I'll say that it's
the same logic you're saying as America is in a
democracy anymore because Trump is so bad. Yeah, I think
it's a terrible government. But the objective of Israel might
be to have some sort of democracy in the Middle East.
But there's just a terrible I mean, you also.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Have Tunisia, right, Tunisia is technically a democracy. You have
other democracies in the Middle East. It's really important to
remember that they're not the only democracy in the Middle East.
And so I think when people say that, I'm thinking, like,
how is it a democracy if it has come at
the expense of an entire group of people and there
are people that I come from and that just doesn't
make any.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
Sense to me, and that comes from bad government and
we need to it's.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Not unfortunately, it's actually objectively just like there's institution. There's
a reason people compared to South Africa actually because if
you look, it's very similar, like policies, especially in the
West Bank, there are actually places where you have to
go through checkpoints even if you're just going like a
mile right, And if you have Israeli assiszenship, you've got
your own road. That is not like it's one thing

(01:02:00):
to say, okay government, we get to vote them out
and then things will change. We're talking about on the
ground infrastructure that fundamentally is undemocratic.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Would you say it's the entire structure of the country
or is it just a bad government.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
No. I think it's structural. I think it's systemic, and
I think it's really important that when we talk about
this that we insist on democratic values for all without exception.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
We're going to bring it back home. I promise from that. Please,
I do want to know what is your like vision
for Israel.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
I am begging do not eraise me on this? Is
that it should be a democratic state. Right, if we
keep calling it a democratic state, then it needs to
actually be a democracy, that is a state for all
and that respects the values and rights of all.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
So is American not a democracy because of Trump's bad government?
Has they always not been a democracy? Have they always
have anti democratic views? Is that the structure of Israel?

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Yeah? I think that When we talk about the United
States as an example, you know, we look at our
founding fathers and what they envision for our country, and
I think it is that piece of it. Right if
you look at like, if you want to really compare it,
like in the Israeli government there is no appetite to
give equal rights. Right, there is no vision of a
world in which you know, Palestinians can also live there.

(01:03:09):
It's no this needs to be a country that looks
this specific way. I know people like to say we're
a Christian nation. The founding fathers fundamentally did not want
that right because they knew that people are going to
use religion to manipulate people, right, And so our country
doesn't have an official religion. There's a majority religion, it's Christianity.
A lot of our values are informed by that, but

(01:03:30):
it's not in our constitution.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
We don't have a high court of preachers that tell
us what the final law is going to be. It's
stuff like that that I think is what is different
is that we don't have these sort of religious.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
Goals foundation exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
It's not in our constitution.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
And I so appreciate you being open to speak about
literally whatever. I am so thankful.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
Oh yeah, I'm apper.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Where can literally anyone who thought, oh my god, she's
so real, we're gonna support her candidcy where can they get.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
Totally so first, go to RUA for Georgia dot com
r u w A f R g E G e
O r G I a dot com and then at
RUA romance. So r U w A r O M
M A N. There's two ms in my last name.
Make sure you're following us, make sure you're amplifying us,
because genuinely, I will go to the most rural part
of Georgia to the most urban part of Georgia. Every age, raise,

(01:04:21):
creed anything. The number one question we get asked isn't
about my faith. It's not these are conservatives too, It's
always I love what you're saying. Why have I never
heard of you? And so what we need from folks
is to please donate, amplify us and if you're in Georgia,
sign up to volunteer.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Absolutely, But you've made me rethink this whole primary is
that every candidate should literally be able to say everything
you just said.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
I feel like if I would have dived into foreign
affairs on any other of these candidates, they're like, let
me be clear, I am focused on the peach state
and I want to.

Speaker 2 (01:04:49):
Be very clear, but you cannot. Your principles cannot have exceptions.
And that's where that comes from. Next year is a
once in a generation cycle for us in Georgia and
we should not let anybody force us to settle for
any less we can, for Georgia that we can afford
and one where we belong. And we invite everybody to
join our movement at RUA for Georgia dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
I'm so thankful we're going to see about this match.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
I think, oh yeah, let's go. I'm down, let's do it.
Thank you, Thank y'all so much. I really appreciate it now,
you know, and no.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
Dave Brosso is a production of iHeartMedia and partnership with
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