Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now this is the FCB Podcast Network. This is Pillow
Talk with Ali Michelle on the FCB Podcast Network. Welcome
(00:23):
back to another episode of Talk with Eli Michelle. I
am your host, Eli Michelle. It is after election day.
We are past November fourth, and I lost. I got
my butt kicked, and now north Oryalton is completely blue.
Every single Republican minus one because it's a tie right now,
(00:46):
lost their seat. My town lost the school board and
city council. We have a mayor. We're holding onto that
little bit of hope. But north Orylton is officially blue.
Y'all blue. The town that I think was sixteen percent,
that had sixteen percent votes for Trump. Yeah, I could
(01:09):
be wrong on that percentage, so don't quote me. But
we were very we were very high in the count
with Trump, and we lost council and the school board
to Democrats and liberals. Sure did. Because what I'm about
to say is about to rough a lot of feathers,
and you know, I don't care. I don't care. It
needs to be said. Republicans suck. We do. We do.
(01:34):
We suck at campaigning, at being organized. We just we
have to join Republicans and conservative and MAGA we shouldn't
be this divided in the same group. It's embarrassing, it's humiliating,
and if we can't get our crap together, we're toast.
For future elections, we are completely toast. Ohio will be
(01:56):
blue again if we don't get our stuff together. If
the GOP can't work together and put more effort into
local elections, we're done. We are done. We have become
so confident when we win one big election, we forget
about the smaller ones. We forget about the smaller ones.
(02:17):
So now we are kicking ourselves in the button. We're
oh my gosh, why did we lose? Because we suck?
We suck. We need unity. But first and foremost, I
do want to talk about my campaign. I lost, as
I stated, but I wanted to go more into depth
of not what just people saw on social media, but
(02:39):
what actually really happened behind the scenes. And it is
insane for a local election. I had zero I had
zero support from the GOP. I had one slate card,
one be mailed out. I get it. I understand I'm
supposed to be non partisan, but here we go. I'm
(03:01):
gonna I'm just gonna run right into it. I ran
because I love this community. I believe in family, in safety,
and honesty and showing up for people. That's what I
thought Republicans did. I mean, that's who I am as
a conservative. But what I did not expect was how
much courage it would take to stand up and continue
(03:24):
to keep standing despite what these sikohs here were saying
about me and spreading false narratives. So the harassment, well
that's chapter one here. The harassment. From the very beginning,
I faced things that no candidate should. I was stalked, harassed,
an online slander. I get it. It comes with it
(03:46):
comes with the territory, I get it, but it was overboard.
I even went to the police, and of course there
wasn't much they could do. I mean, you guys, I
talked about the the postcards that I received, people were telling,
screaming online that I did that myself, and people believed them.
People believe these select There was about six people, but
(04:09):
they made They're loud on Facebook, They're very loud on
the community pages that people just don't care. They don't
want to go investigate. They see she's a conservative and
then automatically assume I'm an extremist, which is fine, all
to their own everyone's entitled to their own opinion. But
I still made that step, okay, because no one should
(04:30):
feel unsafe for trying to do something in their community.
So I went to the police reported it. They couldn't
do anything because they're like, oh, we don't really know
what to do. I went to the post office. It
was just a whole thing, okay. So with that being said,
I fear that situations like mine, this kind of online targeting,
(04:53):
will make others back down and stay quiet, and my
town will remain blue for eternity, like I'm not even
being because when when people finally stand up for themselves,
they're called a liar, the harassment gets worse. People become
more enraged, more extreme. So my social media was used
against me constantly. But what they what they don't understand
(05:16):
is I'm not ashamed of it. But I get it.
Others who are so convinced that the that the legacy
media has convinced them that Mega and Republicans and conservatives
are this extremist who's trying to take away our rights.
I get it that they believe that. But everything I
post I post for a reason. I've never been ashamed
(05:38):
of being a conservative or to share my beliefs. Unlike
the people who tried to twist my words, I do
respect other people's opinions, even if I don't agree with you.
I'm always called a weird conservative because I can, I
can sympathize, and I can I can agree on some
topics with liberals. I truly can. But people didn't want
(06:00):
to hear it. They just saw mega and they said nope,
which is okay, off to their own. So, like I said,
there were specific people involved in this, but for legal
and privacy issue reasons, I won't drop their names because
unlike them, I still believe in decency. Oh my gosh, Ally,
how dare you talk about your neighbors like that? No? See,
(06:24):
see I'm a different breed. Yeah, Okay, accounted accountability matters,
and if this is how I feel that they should
be held accountable by exposing them and it being exposed
to the truth, then so be it. Crime me a
freaking river. Yes, I said that to you, and I
knew you're listening because you bring up my stuff all
(06:47):
the time. Crime a river? Okay, you got it. You
got what you wanted. You want cool more power too? Yeah,
but the lack of support. So this is what's gonna
really really stir up some fluff up some feathers. What
made it harder for me was realizing that the support
that I expected from my own side wasn't there. I
(07:10):
understand that local races are nonpartisan, I get it. But
when you have a candidate who's doing the work, who's
genuinely trying to represent her neighbors, that person deserves support.
That person deserves support. Instead, instead I got one slate card.
(07:32):
One no coordination, no outreach, no utified efforts. It's embarrassing. However,
I do want to shout out my mayor. He's phenomenal
out here in North Oryalton. He helped as best as
he could. And my close friends, the current council members,
y'all are truly amazing. You are the real rock stars
(07:53):
of this town. You guys are You deserved a better outcome,
and I'm from the bottom of my heart, I'm so
sorry that you were you were, you're no longer going
to be a counsel like you deserved a better outcome.
The higher are the higher up organizations. They should have
really stepped up. I'm holding you accountable. I'm sorry kayahaga dop.
(08:17):
You should have, you should have. But there was nothing.
Just crickets, just crickets. And look, many towns went blue,
school boards went blue. Meanwhile, meanwhile, the Democrats, they're very organized,
Yes they are. I'll give them that. They were unified,
they supported their people from start to finish. They are
(08:38):
very strategic. If we have learned anything, we have learned
that they are very strategic, and they know how to
use fear to get their votes. They use fear to
get their voters to vote. And that's the problem within
the Republican Party. It's not our values that are failing.
It's it's our unity. So the bigger picture here, what
(09:04):
happened here in North Woryalton is not unique. Across the country.
Conservatives and Republicans are feeling discouraged, even afraid to speak out.
I know that fear because I felt it myself. I
felt it in my bones. I was terrified, terrified because
(09:25):
of what Because when you see what happened to people
like Charlie Kirk and others who simply speak their minds,
you realize the weight that comes with aligning openly as
a conservative. It's a scary world right now, not because
of disagreement, you guys, not because of disagreement, but because
(09:48):
of how disagreement is handled. It. It is an entirely
new world out here. The Democrats know how to organize,
and they know how to and they take advantage of
the silence and the hesitation of our side. I am
kicking myself in the butt, but I do want to
(10:08):
say I put my safety first before my neighbors. I'm
sorry I did. I'm a mom. I need to be
around for my kids. And the way that these extremists
in my town were telling me a message by sending
me the things in the mail, continuing to screenshot and
(10:31):
post my stuff on the community pages, and to continue
to harass me, send me messages and just I put
my safety in the love of for my family first,
and my family made an executive decision to not go
door to door because I will not be shot for
speaking my voice. I get it, that was the fear.
(10:54):
But I am kicking myself in the butt for not
putting myself out there more. But at the same time,
I care about my family, and my husband was not comfortable,
my mom was not comfortable, and my kids were not
comfortable with me going door to door alone because I
was alone. I had a couple people, Yes I did, Yes,
I did, but they have lives and they have work
(11:16):
and they have family too, So it would have been
me alone going door to door, and we just made
that decision We're not going to do that. We will
set up public meetups, in which I did and people came.
Thank you those who came and showed love and support.
I thoroughly enjoy you. So that silence, though, is costing
(11:37):
us local leaderships, seats, and most importantly faith in the process.
And it's unfortunate, and it's unfortunate that we have such
a large GOP organization here but no support, no support
for smaller people because quite greatly it seems like we
(11:59):
don't matter to them. And now then now they're like
wondering what had happened. Well, maybe you should look in
the mirror. And that's that. But despite everything, though, I
do want to say thank you. I want to say
thank you to the community members who believed in me,
and thank you for showing up, for voting, for sending
messages of encouragement, for every single kind word and wave,
(12:24):
and the conversations you guys had with me at the
voting locations. I met so many incredible people, so many
funny people, so many you guys are awesome here, you
guys like you are rock stars. And you reminded me
why why I wanted to do this in the first
(12:47):
place when it was brought to my attention and the
opportunity was there, And the president of the council member
my council club even came up to me and he's like, no, no,
despite you know, since we're sensus, is all said and done,
this was after polls closed. Why did you feel this
certain way? And I told him so, I think you're
(13:09):
a cool person. I just don't agree with how you
wanted two positions from you know, being the economic developer
of what is that Brook Park but also representing North
Orylton as a council president. I just it was a conflict,
and I believe that in my heart. I don't think
somebody should be able to be elected in one town
(13:30):
and appointed in the other and then you know, that's
just who I am. I think you're a cool dude.
I just don't think that was I just don't think
it was cool. And I wish this was never on
the ballot, but it was so he won. The Issue
twenty five was no, so he won. But the other
issues passed, which was great. Issue twenty six and twenty
seven I think those were really important as well. But
(13:52):
he totally knew how to convince his voters that what
you know, that that was the right way to go,
and so be it. And then every single right leaning
council member lost their seat. So but anyway, I do
and needless to say, I think it's just a I
think it's a power grab, so and that's my belief.
(14:14):
But I think he's cool. I think he's cool as
a person politically. No, And he didn't make a comment
to me. He was like, this was nothing everything, This
was nothing ever personal against you. So my gear started
turning and I started wondering, was he the one who
was sending people uh to my in my direction to
try to silence me? Who knows the world may never know.
He knows they know, But you know, ones that continue
(14:37):
to be in my inbox and say they wish I won.
Thank you think you might. My journey is not done.
So no, I didn't win, but I didn't lose my voice,
and most importantly, I didn't lose my heart. You guys,
this chapter might be ending, but I am not done.
God has other plans, and maybe city council just wasn't it.
(14:58):
Maybe it's something bigger. Who knows I who knows? I
am grabbing onto my faith much more now. But I
will keep speaking for faith, family, community, and for every
person who has ever felt silenced or unseen or harassed
or just pushed into the corner and told you and
was told to sit down and be quiet. Because no,
(15:20):
that's not how we're gonna do things here with Ali Michelle.
Absolutely not, because sometimes you do have to lose a
battle to understand how to win the war. And you
know I won't lose my heart, the unity and courage.
I know there's people like Nick Fuentas who thinks you
have to be obnoxiously insane to get your message across.
I don't. But I do think we need to be louder,
(15:41):
and I do believe that Republicans and MEGA have to
become more unified, and especially in conservatives too. So the
bigger picture here is I love my community, I love
my neighborhood, and I love my award. Even if we
don't see eye to eye on national politics, I would
have listened to everyone equally, and that's something I wish
more people would have understood. But they But you know
(16:03):
it's okay. Despite what social media or fear might tell you.
I never ran to divide people. I ran to listen
and to help and because I care. So if you
showed up with the polls, no matter how you voted,
good for you. You used your voice. That's what democracy is
supposed to be about. You used your voice, and I'm
so proud of you. But you, guys, Conservatives, Republicans, Mega
(16:29):
listen up, GOP listen up. If we want to win
the midterms, we have to show up. We have to
become unified. We have to become more organized. We have
to or Ohio's gonna go blue and then we'll lose
to presidency. We have to go. We have to be unified. Midterms, presidential,
(16:53):
local elections matter. Just because I lost, I'm not bitter.
I'm not bitter is just becoming more fueled. So with that,
I will see you guys on the next one. Don't
forget to send this to your friends, your family, your haters,
your community members, and the ones that follow me from
my town. Hello, nice to see you here. I'm not done.
(17:15):
I'm not done, Ali, Michelle is far from being done.
So with that, I will see you guys on the
next one. Don't forget to follow me on TikTok At
Ali Underscore Michelle twelve Instagram. Oh I'm sorry, that was
my Instagram name. So Ali Underscore Michelle two y's on
TikTok At Ellie Underscore Michelle twelve on Instagram, And don't
forget to subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already. Guys,
(17:38):
I'm on YouTube too, by the way, Ali Underscore Michelle
twelve on YouTube. And yeah, I'll see you guys soon. Bye.