September 23, 2024 • 38 mins
Welcome to Generous Impact with Bret and Amanda Brummitt. In this episode, they sit down with their longtime friend Adama Iwu, who brings over two decades of experience in government affairs. Adama shares invaluable insights on how engaging with politics at the local level and being an informed voter can significantly impact your community and the nation.
Adama details her journey from starting as a fellow in the Schwarzenegger administration to becoming a lobbyist for a large financial services company. She discusses the importance of civic engagement, the various dimensions it encompasses, and practical ways to get involved.
They explore the necessity of voting, the influence of local elections, and how outside money can shape local politics. Adama also provides tips on trustworthy news sources, tracking campaign finance, and the importance of having a voting plan. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to make a meaningful impact in their community.
Election Assistance Committee to help at the polls: https://www.eac.gov/help-america-vote
Vote Forward to write letters to voters to encourage election turnout: http://votefwd.org/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Generous Impact. This is Bret Brummitt. And this is Amanda Brummitt.
We are joined today by our longtime dear friend, Adama Iwu.
She has over two decades of experience in government affairs.
In this episode, you'll hear how engaging with politics at the local level and
being an informed voter can have a huge impact on your community and our entire nation.
(00:22):
So Adama, thank you so much for being here with us today.
I know a lot of our friends already know about you because they've either met
you or heard about you over the years.
But for those that don't know you, can you tell us who you are both personally and professionally?
Sure. Well, it's a pleasure to be here with you guys.
You know, I love you two dearly. First and foremost, I'm a good friend of both
(00:46):
of you guys. So thank you for that.
But my name is Adama. I'm kind of a kind of joke that I'm a political hack.
I'm originally from I'm from San Diego, California. I've spent most of my life
and career working in California.
I'm currently based in New York. I work for a financial services company,
but really I've always worked in and around politics.
(01:10):
I started as a fellow in the Schwarzenegger administration, what feels like
many, many years ago at this point.
Really loved working in state government, really loved working on policy and
just kind of stayed around California and around Sacramento.
And I left the administration, did a number of jobs for different companies,
(01:30):
trade associations, all around lobbying, advocacy campaigns.
And any different kind of campaigns, ballot campaigns, campaigns for candidates
for office, independent expenditure campaigns, all kinds of different things.
And then for the last 10 years, I've worked for a large financial services company,
(01:51):
managing their government engagement, basically meaning that I'm a lobbyist.
And I've done multi-state lobbying.
I've done some federal lobbying, lots of regulatory stuff, more things around
campaigns, campaign finance, running a little collection campaign for the company,
all kinds of different things like that.
(02:11):
Personally, like I said, I live in New York. I've been here about three years,
so I'm still kind of learning about New York.
If you have tips or things or places you think I should go, I will take them. I have a dog.
He's getting older. Sal is 13 years old, if you can- No way. What?
Yeah, but he's still very active, still living the puppy lifestyle.
(02:32):
So we walk a lot, especially Central Park. I've really fallen in love with Central Park.
But other than that, I love to cook. I love to travel.
I feel blessed because we've done quite a bit of traveling together. other.
But yeah, that's kind of it in a nutshell. And honestly, through all of that,
no matter what, personally, professionally, I've always been really passionate about politics,
(02:54):
love working on public policy, love working on big thorny issues that affect
lots of people that need to be made better from my perspective.
So happy to talk about some of that, happy to talk about policy that I've worked on, things like that.
But thanks for having me. Yeah, of course.
You know, it's funny, I forget that you were just finishing up being a fellow
(03:17):
when we met almost 20 years ago.
And we've seen politics, or at least I've seen politics change a ton.
And for the last 20 years, you've been one of the people that I call when you
said big thorny issue, it made me think of it when there's a really complex
issue. And I'm like, hmm.
And I feel like no matter what it is, you've got all kinds of great information
on both sides, or maybe three or four sides of the issue, which I appreciate.
(03:41):
You're really good at that.
You're very welcome counter to the
i don't know if you and i've ever had a authority issue
like hard conversation i think it's been about what
do you want to eat how fast do you want to get the food here order me some wine
that is pretty much it yeah adama also has excellent excellent recommendations
(04:05):
on food wine entertainment fashion and i would like to clarify that Adama was my friend first,
just for the record. I actually knew her before I knew Bret.
That is true. I remember when we first met, you were like, I just met this guy. We're going to go out.
Next thing I know, I'm like a bridesmaid at a wedding.
(04:30):
Well, it wasn't that fast, but it wasn't slow.
It wasn't slow. I mean, there was a lot of, I don't know, Adama,
like, get your act together and marry this guy.
Yeah, to be clear, any of the postponement of the procrastination was on Amanda's side.
Let's get back to politics. I like that better than talking about me being a jerk.
(04:52):
Well, let's step outside our normal relationship and I'll try to ask you a smart question for once.
So let's start
off with civic engagement so what does that
mean what is it how do
you think about it maybe differently than the average person yeah
you know i mean i think civic engagement the way most people kind of think about
(05:15):
it is voting right to me i think that is kind of the most large kind of
example of civic engagement but to me there's tons of different dimensions of it.
And some of it is even things like this, right?
Like having a podcast, having a place where people who know you can come to
you for information that they can trust.
(05:36):
To me, being educated on the current issues on your city, on your county, on county government,
on the school board, on the folks that work on higher ed, being civically engaged
and understanding what is going on in the community around you.
That's super important.
And I'm not saying that you have to kind of dig in and know everything about
(06:00):
everything going on, but like, what are the things that you really care about?
And is it your schools in your community?
Is it healthcare in your community? Is it making sure that there's,
you know, sufficient resources to take care of those who are in your community?
Really give yourself permission to dig in and be a real nerd about what's going on around you.
(06:23):
To To me, that's a really important part of civic engagement.
There's also things like running for
office. There's also things like just volunteering around Election Day.
There's lots of different ways that you can get engaged anytime there's elections.
And the other thing I'll say about elections and civic engagement is they don't
(06:44):
come around just every four years.
I mean, there are elections almost every year, no matter where you are.
And some of those are going to be for local government.
Some of those are going to be for Congress. Congress turns over every two years.
Some of those are going to be for your state elected officials.
There's always an upper and a lower house, you know, except,
(07:05):
well, there's one exception that's a longer story.
But, you know, there are state elections. And so figuring out who are not just
your local elected officials, but your state elected officials,
because they have a ton to say over what happens in your life and your community.
But then also looking at the four-year elections where we elect the president.
(07:25):
So to me, those are all kind of the things about being elected.
Really engage civically and really participating civically, knowing what's going
on, really educating yourself, keeping track of elections,
voting in elections, and then figuring out how you can volunteer around some
of these things to help people know.
(07:47):
And like we said, we can talk more about different types of volunteering around
elections, but there's lots of ways to get engaged.
So one of the first things that jumped out at me, I mean, two things really.
One is it seems like such a huge barrier to start from nothing to know what
in the world to get engaged in and how not to get overwhelmed.
But then number two, like you said, the very, like probably buzziest word of
(08:09):
all, like right now, which is trust.
Like how do you trust what you're learning and taking in and knowing has any
validity or what the ramifications of what you might want to get behind would do.
So where do you start? What are sources to really learn from?
Yeah. And I mean, this is unpopular and I feel sad that things like this have
become so controversial.
But when you hear the term, like the paper of record,
(08:32):
whether that for you is like a New York Times or a Washington Post or a Los Angeles Times,
and I know this is going to be super controversial for people because we hear
so much about these are liberal rags or the Wall Street Journal is too conservative
or the Financial Times is industrialist or whatever.
(08:55):
Whatever, they're the paper of record for a reason.
And it's because the people who are involved in making the news,
the people who are engaged in making public policy, they are talking to these journalistic outputs.
And so to me, I start with the papers of record and I will start there and there are,
(09:20):
I will say there are columnists in each that have a different slant and the
Wall Street Journal is going to be more conservative.
Their editors are very upfront about that. If you Google the editors of the
Wall Street Journal, they are very much conservative pundits,
conservative thought leaders.
And so that is one place where you can get information that you're looking for.
(09:42):
Then, I mean, the New York Times is also, you know, full of what tend to be
more progressive, more progressive, more liberal thought leaders.
And so that's another source. And what I would say is that you can't just look
at something that you know is going to have a more conservative slant and something
that you know is going to have a more progressive slant and then just pick one
(10:04):
because that doesn't really get you where you need to go.
So after that, I mean, I'm not a huge fan of, you know, kind of the 24-hour
news services because that tends to be more talking heads.
But if you want to hear where political thought for the day is.
You can look at the talking heads.
(10:25):
You can look at CNN. You can look at MSNBC. You can look at Fox News because
that's going to be more of a very defined slant. And so to me,
if you're going to look at one, you still have to look at the other.
And so I feel like you have to figure out what are the outlets you believe in.
And I know, God love them, Gen Z, they're going to, we know that they go to
(10:50):
TikTok more than anything,
right, to look for their news and, you know, to look for what's happening on the day.
But I would urge you to really stick with the paper of records and kind of flow down from there.
And what's interesting is once you start there at a very high level,
you'll start to see that's where everybody that you're seeing on social media
(11:13):
and on the streaming services, it's where they're getting their information anyway.
Because like I said, the sources are talking to the papers of record.
Where does NPR fall into that? That's what I listen to a lot,
but obviously they don't have a newspaper. Are they?
Yeah. So that's actually a great point. National public radio is great.
American public radio, your local kind of like NPR stations are awesome.
(11:38):
I actually love NPR and I haven't had a car now in like 10 years.
So I'm going to be honest, I don't really listen to NPR because he's listening in the car.
But yeah, that's another great source of news and you're going to get lots of local stuff.
(12:00):
And to me, NPR is fantastic because you are going to get the best information
locally about what's happening.
And whether it's the shows that they do locally that tend to really focus on
what's going on in your particular community, in your particular city or in
your state, that's a great place to get news.
Awesome. Awesome. And then one more thing I'll add to it, and I know I'm not
(12:22):
the expert on the show and this may be oversimplifying it, but especially on
local elections, just ask.
You can typically, not in New York, not in Austin, but like when we lived in
Coppell, for example, Brett and I were hosting a fundraiser for a Senate candidate.
And the day before our fundraiser, he got endorsed by a group that made me want
(12:43):
to vomit and turn my skin inside out. I called him and I said,
I am really concerned about this.
We need to talk about it. To which we had a very frank conversation about,
yes, he was endorsed by that group.
He needs to be endorsed by them to run on the ticket he was running for,
but he will never be in Austin drafting or voting for legislation their direction.
(13:07):
And I said, okay.
It is interesting once you talk to elected Thank you.
Honestly, even in New York, my city councilman stands out in front of Trader
Joe's and is, you know, letting folks know that he's here, that he's available.
(13:31):
So, I mean, local government officials are super accessible.
And I'll also tell you, if you know a local government official,
you are probably in contact with someone who is going to be a state elected
official, who may be a U.S.
Congress member, who may be a U.S.
(13:51):
Senator at some point. I mean, Joe Biden started somewhere.
Kamala Harris started as a DA in San Francisco.
I mean, if you're from San Francisco, I worked in San Francisco for years.
If you're from San Francisco, you've met her, you've known her.
So it's a great thing to get engaged with your local government officials.
(14:13):
Yeah, definitely. So beautiful segue into our next question,
which is why is it important that we become educated as voters?
And then why should we get engaged in local politics, school board,
city council, boards and commissions, things like that?
Yeah, you know, honestly, can I use your example of someone I've talked to?
(14:36):
Who started on school board and then worked his way up and eventually ended
up being a senator. So that is a great reason.
And if you want to know your elected officials, people always ask me,
like, how do we get the Nancy Pelosi's or the, you know, Mitch McConnell's?
And it's because people who have known them have been voting for them for 30 or 40 years.
(15:02):
And voting really is one of these things that's very cumulative.
If you, I mean, there were people who were voting for Nancy Pelosi many, many years ago,
70s, 80s on the central committees through San Francisco, people voting for
Joe Biden as he was on local government and then, you know, moving on to the House.
So you build those relationships and you also have then the real ability to
(15:28):
call them up because if this guy goes back on his promise and you see him carrying
legislation that he committed to you that he would not carry,
you now actually have a relationship with him and you can call him up and say,
hey, we talked about this. What changed?
(15:48):
I don't like that this changed.
I'm going to get 20 of my friends to write you letters and say that they don't change.
I'm going to find a really qualified friend, and I'm going to now support them
to run against you because you changed.
So, I mean, it's so important to know these people. And I mean,
if you have kids, yeah, you should really care about what's going on with the school board.
(16:13):
You should really care about what's going on with taxes because that's how that school is funded.
That's how They figure out how good the teachers are, what kind of food is served
at your kid's school, right? Are they struggling with budgets?
Is your kid getting fed at school? Are there other kids around your kid that aren't getting fed?
(16:35):
And that causes a disruption in your kid's classes.
There's so many different reasons to get engaged. And I mean,
if you are a local business owner, you probably care about how the streets around
you look or in front of your business.
If there's huge potholes in front of your business, do people want to come?
I mean, if there's people who are unhomed sleeping in front of your business,
(16:58):
is that good for your business?
If there's groups of kids hanging out in front of your business after school
because there's no parks in your area, there's nowhere for young kids to go,
is that good for your business?
So there's so many different reasons why being engaged locally helps open your
eyes to A, what's going on around you, and B, that so many of these problems
(17:21):
that I think sometimes we're just very accepting of because it seems like,
oh, that's just intractable.
Oh, we just always have budget deficits or, oh, the streets are just always
bad or, oh, sanitation is just never taken care of.
Sometimes you get engaged and you start realizing these problems aren't intractable.
These people are intractable. And I have a thing I like to say,
first you try to change people, and if you can't change them, then you change people.
(17:45):
And that is a great way to think about your elected officials.
Definitely. Let me go back to the unhomed thing really fast.
If there are people sleeping in front of your business, yes,
it's bad for business. Please do not call the police on them.
Call Lisa Marshall at Fighting Homelessness or call one of the organizations
that loves and cares for people that are not as lucky as the rest of us.
(18:06):
Don't call the police. Thank you.
Yeah. I mean, honestly, I wish we could kind of get back to that where the police,
you know, I mean, most of the time their motto is protect and serve.
And they get called for so many things that are so far outside of really their
scope of what they should be able to handle.
(18:27):
And a lot of times mental illness, health and substance abuse issues.
I don't know that that's really what we want our police for.
That's a whole other podcast. Yeah, they'll do this. They need a social worker.
Well, let's dive back into the local elections, their importance.
And then also, like, that seems like something that five years ago was very easy and accessible.
(18:52):
And now local elections are this massive front of outside money and super interests
that weren't there before.
So, like, is that just me because I got to see it one little area or is that
more rampant nationwide?
And how important is it to fight for that local interest?
Yeah, it's super important. And you will, depending on where you're at,
(19:16):
what state you're at, what state you're in, what is at stake in your elections.
The composition of your board.
If you live in a city that has a partisan or non-partisan city council,
there's been a lot of moves to either make the mayor They're a strong mayor
where so much power flows through them or to decentralize it and really weaken
(19:40):
the mayor where the power flows through the city council or the board or whatever
the term is wherever you live.
There has really been a move in that and that is because people are really seeing that...
All politics is local is so real, right?
(20:00):
And whether that is at the local level, whether that's at the state level or
the federal level, there's a pipeline as well.
And so people have a very vested interest in getting people in at the local
level, moving them up to the state level and getting them up to the federal level.
And you will see groups that have lots of funding that they are looking to do that with.
(20:26):
And a lot of it's special interests.
And so it is really important to figure out what's at stake.
If you're seeing a lot of outside money coming into the races,
do a little bit of due diligence because all of those, those are independent
expenditure campaigns, like I talked about earlier.
That's groups of people, corporations who have put, Banded together,
(20:49):
banded funding together to hope to sway the outcome of an election.
And they usually do that through a pretty concerted PR campaign.
You'll see it on social media. You'll see it on cable, things like that.
But whenever you see big money like that, follow the money. Figure out why those folks are there.
(21:10):
And if you're in a local one, how do you know about the money?
What are the resources you're looking at to track that?
Because I know it's got to be reported, but I don't know that many of us know where to look for it.
Yeah, so depending on what state you are, usually through the Secretary of State,
you can track campaign finance.
That's usually where you can do it.
(21:30):
What I'll tell you is that if you see one of those ads or you hear one of those
ads, they have to disclose who the funders are.
And that's usually pretty instrumental. So, you know, you'll see the ad and at the end.
So if you see the presidential ads, you'll see like, I'm Donald Trump and I
approve this message, right?
And that's really all you know. That means that is a campaign funded ad from that candidate. a date.
(21:57):
When you see ads and they don't end like that, usually in writing,
there's a bunch of different names down there and it'll say,
this ad paid for by, and it'll have like a bunch of different names, right?
That's who's funding that. And that is the same, whether that is in print,
on TV, social media, they have to disclose that.
That's also the case for mailers that come to your house.
(22:20):
So that's kind of the easy way to start.
Past that, if you're seeing groups, I would look Look on your state secretary
of state's website under campaign finance disclosures.
And then seeing the names of some of those funding campaigns,
I think you have to go one step further and figure out what they're actually behind.
Because a lot of times the names don't display the motives.
(22:43):
Yeah. And I've looked at them. Sometimes the names don't display the motives,
but the names that are down there, those have to be the funders.
So it'll be like corporation name, corporation name, corporation name,
individual name, political action committee.
And if it's a political action committee, it has to be registered with the state.
(23:04):
So, Domet, the couple of times that Brett and I have experienced this,
there was definitely nefarious intent. Like, it was super shasty, super shady.
Does that ever happen on the flip side? Like, do people ever come together and
they're like, we're all going to band together and improve this public school?
Like, is there ever a warm, fuzzy reason? Or should I always be suspicious when
people are throwing a bunch of money behind something, especially at the local
(23:26):
level, not at higher levels?
You know, it's hard. I can't really answer that.
I mean, independent expenditure campaigns, they do do like voter ID campaigns.
You'll see them that are like, you know, support Adama for local city council.
(23:47):
Like IE's independent expenditure campaigns do that as well.
They do do support campaigns, but they're candidate driven.
Okay. Yeah. And there's, you know, there are, I mean, like I'm saying that there
are ballot measure campaigns, there's all kinds of different things.
And sometimes ballot measures are brought by individuals. Sometimes they're brought by groups.
(24:09):
And sometimes they're brought by like the governor.
Sometimes they're brought forward by elected officials.
So figuring out who's behind things is always really important.
Okay, that's good to know. Well, don't forget, when you call it nefarious,
it's only because it's against the interest you believe in.
Someone else very much believes in what they're going for for that investment.
(24:32):
I also called it shady and shysty.
You did.
So you used three qualifying adjectives about how you were in opposition.
And I was worried that this was going to be me.
Moving on. Adama, if people are hearing what you're saying and they're like,
(24:54):
okay, yeah, it's time. I've got to get involved.
Where do you suggest they start? What's approachable? What's easy? Low barriers?
Yeah. So if you just are like, hey, you know what?
I would love to to be like a pool worker or I've got like a really big front
yard and I could actually be a neighborhood polling station.
(25:19):
The election assistance committee, it's .gov.
It is like the federal government's website where you can sign up and figure
out like resources in your own state.
Like I said, if you want to be an election judge, if you want to host a polling
place, if you want to be a poll volunteer.
(25:39):
And I'll say, it's really important that we start getting some younger people
in doing some of these things. I don't know if you are someone who votes in
person, but, you know, it's mostly older people.
And it would be great to have some younger people engaged and involved in this.
(26:00):
I mean, you know, it's a great way also to meet the people in your community,
to see who is voting in my community, right?
It's a great way to get engaged. Yeah, which type of people are they?
Who are they talking to? too.
Exactly. Yeah. So that's my advice for just like, I just want to see if I can
be a precinct worker or something like that. That's a really easy way.
(26:24):
If you want to get more engaged and you want to do it on a partisan basis,
if you're a Republican or a Democrat,
you can go to DNC or RNC and their websites and you can,
it will, they will immediately give you links on how to engage or,
you know, how to volunteer with a particular party.
(26:47):
I also like Vote Forward.
They do a lot of outreach to undecided voters.
You can choose a Republican campaign or a Democratic campaign and do like letter
writing, that kind of thing, reminding people who are registered to vote.
And since I know Madison and Lily will actually listen to this episode since
Adama's on it, did you hear her talking about young people getting out there?
(27:09):
We've been dragging them to volunteer for candidates at the polls since they could not.
Yeah. I mean, that's another way. And I didn't even mention that.
But if there's a race going on, and this is honestly how I started in politics.
If there's a race going on, just call them up and say, hey, I'd like to precinct
(27:31):
walk or, you know, if you have money and don't want a precinct walk,
like I'd love to buy the campaign lunch one day, you know?
Awesome. Those sound easy enough. So, Adamez, we're sliding glamorously and
beautifully into middle age.
Creating a world that we're going to leave better has gotten really important to me.
(27:54):
And I think Brett planted a lot of this because Brett's always been kind of
like, let's leave the world better off.
I've gotten there, but it took me a minute. it. So what can we do now as far
as getting involved in politics and our communities and voting that truly will
create an impact that will outlive us and leave our communities better?
I mean, to me, getting into the just civic hygiene, the habit of voting is so
(28:23):
important. To me, that is the number one thing.
That is voting in every election.
I mean, I kind of think of it like that's my tithe to the government,
right? The way that people tithe and give money to the church.
Voting is your tithe, however frequent and however often there are elections.
Because like I said, it's really cumulative. cumulative people have been voting
(28:46):
for Mitch McConnell for almost 50 years, right?
People have been voting for Chuck Schumer in New York for 30 some odd years.
People have been voting for Maxine Waters in California for 30 some odd years.
Voting is cumulative. When you vote, your kids will vote.
(29:06):
When you talk about politics, when you talk about how important it is to be
civically engaged and to understand what's happening in your community to from
everything from housing to healthcare,
you affect others and you light the spark in other people.
So to me, voting, understanding why you vote and understanding exactly when
(29:28):
you need to vote, being registered to vote, that is like so much goes from there.
So much flows from there. You can change your whole community by getting civically engaged.
I love that. And I want to remind all of our friends, especially in Texas,
a lot of our cities are small.
There were times that I would vote in a local election and we may only have
(29:52):
11,000 people show up to vote. So my vote counted a lot. lot?
Oh, there are state districts in the state of California that have been won
by 50 some odd votes. Wow.
There is a congressional race in California that ended up being like a three-way tie basically.
(30:15):
And they had to recount it like four different times. Like it's tough to imagine
sometimes, like if you are a Democrat voting in Texas or a Republican voting
in California, that your vote matters.
And at the presidential level, yeah, it's not weighted as heavily.
But on that same ballot, if there is somebody running for city council,
(30:36):
you may have a disproportionate impact just by the fact that you're voting on
that race and on other down ticket races.
That's a great point, especially judges too.
Absolutely. Judges, district District attorneys, all the school board races,
sheriffs, all of those races, those are a big deal.
(31:00):
And then you have, which was totally fraudulent. Get out of here. Get out of here.
You know, it's his company, so it's his podcast. So he's allowed to say whatever
he wants, but Adama and I have rules.
I have nothing to say on.
(31:29):
So we've been talking a lot about politics. We're obviously in a large election cycle right now.
You've got to go through this. There's ups and downs. You keep going on professionally.
You keep reinventing yourself through this. And as you do that,
that takes a toll on a person through big cycles, big ups, big lulls. You keep doing it.
(31:52):
You keep investing in that. what is inspiring you?
Like who, what organizations are you drawing that inspiration from to keep going?
Oh my gosh. You know, it's funny. I think, I don't even know.
I think maybe like a couple weeks ago, I might've even had some different answers, but I'll be honest.
I am so inspired right now by all of the people, like the, you know,
(32:16):
all of these zoom calls that are happening winning that have happened on the
democratic side since president Biden said he wasn't going to run.
Like there's like the win with black women. And that was like breaking zooms
with like 40,000 people on it.
There was like win with white men and they raised like $1.2 million.
(32:38):
They were raising like $120,000 a minute on that call.
There's, you know, chefs with Kamala there's cat women for Kamala,
you know, whatever, childless cat people for Kamala.
Honestly, grassroots engagement is so exciting to me.
I absolutely love to see it. And I mean, I'll just be very transparent.
I am a Democrat. And like, as soon as I finished this, actually,
(33:01):
I have another Zoom call that I do on Sunday evenings where I do phone banking.
And on some Some of these phone banks, so I remember phone banking in like 2020
for Biden, and there would be like 30, 40 people on these Zooms to do phone banking.
I was on this call last Sunday. There were 860 people.
(33:24):
On there to phone bank and to
call, you know, call likely and registered voters and remind them to vote.
And if you've ever done phone banking, it's kind of soul sucking because you
get like a ton of hangups, you know, people are mad.
You know, there are all kinds of different things happen, but there were so
(33:45):
many people who were on, who were excited, who were like, yes,
super excited to phone bank right now.
So I absolutely inspired by grassroots activism and the folks who are passionate
about turning out for the election.
Really cool. And it sounds, that's crazy that people are excited about phone
banking because that sounds like trying to go get $10 for the Alumni Association
(34:09):
and how much of a... It is.
It's exactly like that. It's like door knocking. it is it
kind of sucks yeah these
are not these are not great experiences but you know
there's something worthwhile at the end of it which is really cool people
get excited about that end result just don't
text me adama because i have started telling candidates that text me i'd be
(34:30):
like oh i was gonna vote for you but i'm not now stop texting me one of my really
good friends had been phone been like text you know whatever in the last election
and i got the text from her And then I got like a real text from her about,
you know, just whatever.
And I was like, Christine, no, we are not doing this.
We are not doing the text to vote and text for like nonsense. You like, you pick one.
(34:57):
Pick one. I'm either your friend or I am your victim of texting.
Or I'm a target on your, on your call list.
Yeah. Well, as we get into there, thank you so much for your time.
But what can Amanda and I and anyone listening, what can we do to pay back all
(35:19):
the investment you've put in time for all of us?
Oh my goodness, you know what? Check your voter registration.
Make sure that you're registered to vote. Create a plan for voting day or for
turning in your ballot if you're a voting absentee and vote early.
That is absolutely what I would tell you, especially y'all in Texas, vote early.
(35:42):
If you can vote early, because I see those lines.
I see those lines in your big metropolitan areas. areas vote early.
Yeah. And at our local libraries and locals, it's super easy to get in.
And I will remind people, I don't know if this is a Texas thing,
Adama, maybe you can enlighten us, but don't plan on bringing your plan in on your phone.
Have that written down like they're not playing around. You cannot look it up on your phone.
(36:04):
Yeah. There's a lot of, figure out what the different rules are around voting in your area.
Like, do you have to have been registered a a certain time? Do you need your ID?
There's all kinds of different things. So figure that out. That's why I say
you need a plan to vote, especially if you plan on voting in person.
(36:24):
Figure out what your plan is for that. Well, thank you so much for joining us. We really enjoyed it.
We hope to have you back soon when we could talk to you about nonpolitical life.
Yes. Yes. Let's just get through this election, man.
And then maybe you can come to Austin and do some lobbying slash hang out with
(36:46):
us. I'd love that. I'd love that.
Thank you, guys. I hope that was as much fun for you guys as it was for us.
Clearly, Brett and I both love Adama and adore her and always have a good time
catching up with her. In addition to being an amazing friend,
Adama is also a huge resource when it comes to anything legislative.
(37:06):
So I want to recap a few of the things we talked about today.
First is civic hygiene. Much like sleep hygiene, we're all going to do a better
job of getting to the polls and making sure that we do our part as citizens.
Next was papers of record. I think we all know that getting our political information
online could be sketchy at times, but the whole Papers of Record thing was actually news to me.
(37:30):
So maybe this will save newspapers that we need to go back to them as a primary
source for information that is political.
And then tracking campaign finance, that was really, really, really helpful for me.
So Adama said to go to your state's secretary of state under campaign finance
disclosures and get that information there.
(37:51):
And then of course, she encouraged all of us to get involved.
A couple of the resources she mentioned are eac.gov to find out how you can
volunteer to be a poll worker, and then vote forward so that you can write letters
to encourage election turnout. I'll link both of those in our show notes.
And then her final piece of real advice was to figure out your plan and vote early.
(38:12):
Last, maybe most important, and definitely the funniest, is that life is full of tough choices.
We can either be friends or you can text us about political campaigns,
but we can't be both. You choose.
In all seriousness though, I really do encourage you to get involved in your
local community so that you can take the first step in making it a better place.
(38:32):
Music.
Welcome to Generous Impact. This is Bret Brummitt. And this is Amanda Brummitt.
We are joined today by our longtime dear friend, Adama Iwu.
She has over two decades of experience in government affairs.
In this episode, you'll hear how engaging with politics at the local level and
being an informed voter can have a huge impact on your community and our entire nation.
(00:22):
So Adama, thank you so much for being here with us today.
I know a lot of our friends already know about you because they've either met
you or heard about you over the years.
But for those that don't know you, can you tell us who you are both personally and professionally?
Sure. Well, it's a pleasure to be here with you guys.
You know, I love you two dearly. First and foremost, I'm a good friend of both
(00:46):
of you guys. So thank you for that.
But my name is Adama. I'm kind of a kind of joke that I'm a political hack.
I'm originally from I'm from San Diego, California. I've spent most of my life
and career working in California.
I'm currently based in New York. I work for a financial services company,
but really I've always worked in and around politics.
(01:10):
I started as a fellow in the Schwarzenegger administration, what feels like
many, many years ago at this point.
Really loved working in state government, really loved working on policy and
just kind of stayed around California and around Sacramento.
And I left the administration, did a number of jobs for different companies,
(01:30):
trade associations, all around lobbying, advocacy campaigns.
And any different kind of campaigns, ballot campaigns, campaigns for candidates
for office, independent expenditure campaigns, all kinds of different things.
And then for the last 10 years, I've worked for a large financial services company,
(01:51):
managing their government engagement, basically meaning that I'm a lobbyist.
And I've done multi-state lobbying.
I've done some federal lobbying, lots of regulatory stuff, more things around
campaigns, campaign finance, running a little collection campaign for the company,
all kinds of different things like that.
(02:11):
Personally, like I said, I live in New York. I've been here about three years,
so I'm still kind of learning about New York.
If you have tips or things or places you think I should go, I will take them. I have a dog.
He's getting older. Sal is 13 years old, if you can- No way. What?
Yeah, but he's still very active, still living the puppy lifestyle.
(02:32):
So we walk a lot, especially Central Park. I've really fallen in love with Central Park.
But other than that, I love to cook. I love to travel.
I feel blessed because we've done quite a bit of traveling together. other.
But yeah, that's kind of it in a nutshell. And honestly, through all of that,
no matter what, personally, professionally, I've always been really passionate about politics,
(02:54):
love working on public policy, love working on big thorny issues that affect
lots of people that need to be made better from my perspective.
So happy to talk about some of that, happy to talk about policy that I've worked on, things like that.
But thanks for having me. Yeah, of course.
You know, it's funny, I forget that you were just finishing up being a fellow
(03:17):
when we met almost 20 years ago.
And we've seen politics, or at least I've seen politics change a ton.
And for the last 20 years, you've been one of the people that I call when you
said big thorny issue, it made me think of it when there's a really complex
issue. And I'm like, hmm.
And I feel like no matter what it is, you've got all kinds of great information
on both sides, or maybe three or four sides of the issue, which I appreciate.
(03:41):
You're really good at that.
You're very welcome counter to the
i don't know if you and i've ever had a authority issue
like hard conversation i think it's been about what
do you want to eat how fast do you want to get the food here order me some wine
that is pretty much it yeah adama also has excellent excellent recommendations
(04:05):
on food wine entertainment fashion and i would like to clarify that Adama was my friend first,
just for the record. I actually knew her before I knew Bret.
That is true. I remember when we first met, you were like, I just met this guy. We're going to go out.
Next thing I know, I'm like a bridesmaid at a wedding.
(04:30):
Well, it wasn't that fast, but it wasn't slow.
It wasn't slow. I mean, there was a lot of, I don't know, Adama,
like, get your act together and marry this guy.
Yeah, to be clear, any of the postponement of the procrastination was on Amanda's side.
Let's get back to politics. I like that better than talking about me being a jerk.
(04:52):
Well, let's step outside our normal relationship and I'll try to ask you a smart question for once.
So let's start
off with civic engagement so what does that
mean what is it how do
you think about it maybe differently than the average person yeah
you know i mean i think civic engagement the way most people kind of think about
(05:15):
it is voting right to me i think that is kind of the most large kind of
example of civic engagement but to me there's tons of different dimensions of it.
And some of it is even things like this, right?
Like having a podcast, having a place where people who know you can come to
you for information that they can trust.
(05:36):
To me, being educated on the current issues on your city, on your county, on county government,
on the school board, on the folks that work on higher ed, being civically engaged
and understanding what is going on in the community around you.
That's super important.
And I'm not saying that you have to kind of dig in and know everything about
(06:00):
everything going on, but like, what are the things that you really care about?
And is it your schools in your community?
Is it healthcare in your community? Is it making sure that there's,
you know, sufficient resources to take care of those who are in your community?
Really give yourself permission to dig in and be a real nerd about what's going on around you.
(06:23):
To To me, that's a really important part of civic engagement.
There's also things like running for
office. There's also things like just volunteering around Election Day.
There's lots of different ways that you can get engaged anytime there's elections.
And the other thing I'll say about elections and civic engagement is they don't
(06:44):
come around just every four years.
I mean, there are elections almost every year, no matter where you are.
And some of those are going to be for local government.
Some of those are going to be for Congress. Congress turns over every two years.
Some of those are going to be for your state elected officials.
There's always an upper and a lower house, you know, except,
(07:05):
well, there's one exception that's a longer story.
But, you know, there are state elections. And so figuring out who are not just
your local elected officials, but your state elected officials,
because they have a ton to say over what happens in your life and your community.
But then also looking at the four-year elections where we elect the president.
(07:25):
So to me, those are all kind of the things about being elected.
Really engage civically and really participating civically, knowing what's going
on, really educating yourself, keeping track of elections,
voting in elections, and then figuring out how you can volunteer around some
of these things to help people know.
(07:47):
And like we said, we can talk more about different types of volunteering around
elections, but there's lots of ways to get engaged.
So one of the first things that jumped out at me, I mean, two things really.
One is it seems like such a huge barrier to start from nothing to know what
in the world to get engaged in and how not to get overwhelmed.
But then number two, like you said, the very, like probably buzziest word of
(08:09):
all, like right now, which is trust.
Like how do you trust what you're learning and taking in and knowing has any
validity or what the ramifications of what you might want to get behind would do.
So where do you start? What are sources to really learn from?
Yeah. And I mean, this is unpopular and I feel sad that things like this have
become so controversial.
But when you hear the term, like the paper of record,
(08:32):
whether that for you is like a New York Times or a Washington Post or a Los Angeles Times,
and I know this is going to be super controversial for people because we hear
so much about these are liberal rags or the Wall Street Journal is too conservative
or the Financial Times is industrialist or whatever.
(08:55):
Whatever, they're the paper of record for a reason.
And it's because the people who are involved in making the news,
the people who are engaged in making public policy, they are talking to these journalistic outputs.
And so to me, I start with the papers of record and I will start there and there are,
(09:20):
I will say there are columnists in each that have a different slant and the
Wall Street Journal is going to be more conservative.
Their editors are very upfront about that. If you Google the editors of the
Wall Street Journal, they are very much conservative pundits,
conservative thought leaders.
And so that is one place where you can get information that you're looking for.
(09:42):
Then, I mean, the New York Times is also, you know, full of what tend to be
more progressive, more progressive, more liberal thought leaders.
And so that's another source. And what I would say is that you can't just look
at something that you know is going to have a more conservative slant and something
that you know is going to have a more progressive slant and then just pick one
(10:04):
because that doesn't really get you where you need to go.
So after that, I mean, I'm not a huge fan of, you know, kind of the 24-hour
news services because that tends to be more talking heads.
But if you want to hear where political thought for the day is.
You can look at the talking heads.
(10:25):
You can look at CNN. You can look at MSNBC. You can look at Fox News because
that's going to be more of a very defined slant. And so to me,
if you're going to look at one, you still have to look at the other.
And so I feel like you have to figure out what are the outlets you believe in.
And I know, God love them, Gen Z, they're going to, we know that they go to
(10:50):
TikTok more than anything,
right, to look for their news and, you know, to look for what's happening on the day.
But I would urge you to really stick with the paper of records and kind of flow down from there.
And what's interesting is once you start there at a very high level,
you'll start to see that's where everybody that you're seeing on social media
(11:13):
and on the streaming services, it's where they're getting their information anyway.
Because like I said, the sources are talking to the papers of record.
Where does NPR fall into that? That's what I listen to a lot,
but obviously they don't have a newspaper. Are they?
Yeah. So that's actually a great point. National public radio is great.
American public radio, your local kind of like NPR stations are awesome.
(11:38):
I actually love NPR and I haven't had a car now in like 10 years.
So I'm going to be honest, I don't really listen to NPR because he's listening in the car.
But yeah, that's another great source of news and you're going to get lots of local stuff.
(12:00):
And to me, NPR is fantastic because you are going to get the best information
locally about what's happening.
And whether it's the shows that they do locally that tend to really focus on
what's going on in your particular community, in your particular city or in
your state, that's a great place to get news.
Awesome. Awesome. And then one more thing I'll add to it, and I know I'm not
(12:22):
the expert on the show and this may be oversimplifying it, but especially on
local elections, just ask.
You can typically, not in New York, not in Austin, but like when we lived in
Coppell, for example, Brett and I were hosting a fundraiser for a Senate candidate.
And the day before our fundraiser, he got endorsed by a group that made me want
(12:43):
to vomit and turn my skin inside out. I called him and I said,
I am really concerned about this.
We need to talk about it. To which we had a very frank conversation about,
yes, he was endorsed by that group.
He needs to be endorsed by them to run on the ticket he was running for,
but he will never be in Austin drafting or voting for legislation their direction.
(13:07):
And I said, okay.
It is interesting once you talk to elected Thank you.
Honestly, even in New York, my city councilman stands out in front of Trader
Joe's and is, you know, letting folks know that he's here, that he's available.
(13:31):
So, I mean, local government officials are super accessible.
And I'll also tell you, if you know a local government official,
you are probably in contact with someone who is going to be a state elected
official, who may be a U.S.
Congress member, who may be a U.S.
(13:51):
Senator at some point. I mean, Joe Biden started somewhere.
Kamala Harris started as a DA in San Francisco.
I mean, if you're from San Francisco, I worked in San Francisco for years.
If you're from San Francisco, you've met her, you've known her.
So it's a great thing to get engaged with your local government officials.
(14:13):
Yeah, definitely. So beautiful segue into our next question,
which is why is it important that we become educated as voters?
And then why should we get engaged in local politics, school board,
city council, boards and commissions, things like that?
Yeah, you know, honestly, can I use your example of someone I've talked to?
(14:36):
Who started on school board and then worked his way up and eventually ended
up being a senator. So that is a great reason.
And if you want to know your elected officials, people always ask me,
like, how do we get the Nancy Pelosi's or the, you know, Mitch McConnell's?
And it's because people who have known them have been voting for them for 30 or 40 years.
(15:02):
And voting really is one of these things that's very cumulative.
If you, I mean, there were people who were voting for Nancy Pelosi many, many years ago,
70s, 80s on the central committees through San Francisco, people voting for
Joe Biden as he was on local government and then, you know, moving on to the House.
So you build those relationships and you also have then the real ability to
(15:28):
call them up because if this guy goes back on his promise and you see him carrying
legislation that he committed to you that he would not carry,
you now actually have a relationship with him and you can call him up and say,
hey, we talked about this. What changed?
(15:48):
I don't like that this changed.
I'm going to get 20 of my friends to write you letters and say that they don't change.
I'm going to find a really qualified friend, and I'm going to now support them
to run against you because you changed.
So, I mean, it's so important to know these people. And I mean,
if you have kids, yeah, you should really care about what's going on with the school board.
(16:13):
You should really care about what's going on with taxes because that's how that school is funded.
That's how They figure out how good the teachers are, what kind of food is served
at your kid's school, right? Are they struggling with budgets?
Is your kid getting fed at school? Are there other kids around your kid that aren't getting fed?
(16:35):
And that causes a disruption in your kid's classes.
There's so many different reasons to get engaged. And I mean,
if you are a local business owner, you probably care about how the streets around
you look or in front of your business.
If there's huge potholes in front of your business, do people want to come?
I mean, if there's people who are unhomed sleeping in front of your business,
(16:58):
is that good for your business?
If there's groups of kids hanging out in front of your business after school
because there's no parks in your area, there's nowhere for young kids to go,
is that good for your business?
So there's so many different reasons why being engaged locally helps open your
eyes to A, what's going on around you, and B, that so many of these problems
(17:21):
that I think sometimes we're just very accepting of because it seems like,
oh, that's just intractable.
Oh, we just always have budget deficits or, oh, the streets are just always
bad or, oh, sanitation is just never taken care of.
Sometimes you get engaged and you start realizing these problems aren't intractable.
These people are intractable. And I have a thing I like to say,
first you try to change people, and if you can't change them, then you change people.
(17:45):
And that is a great way to think about your elected officials.
Definitely. Let me go back to the unhomed thing really fast.
If there are people sleeping in front of your business, yes,
it's bad for business. Please do not call the police on them.
Call Lisa Marshall at Fighting Homelessness or call one of the organizations
that loves and cares for people that are not as lucky as the rest of us.
(18:06):
Don't call the police. Thank you.
Yeah. I mean, honestly, I wish we could kind of get back to that where the police,
you know, I mean, most of the time their motto is protect and serve.
And they get called for so many things that are so far outside of really their
scope of what they should be able to handle.
(18:27):
And a lot of times mental illness, health and substance abuse issues.
I don't know that that's really what we want our police for.
That's a whole other podcast. Yeah, they'll do this. They need a social worker.
Well, let's dive back into the local elections, their importance.
And then also, like, that seems like something that five years ago was very easy and accessible.
(18:52):
And now local elections are this massive front of outside money and super interests
that weren't there before.
So, like, is that just me because I got to see it one little area or is that
more rampant nationwide?
And how important is it to fight for that local interest?
Yeah, it's super important. And you will, depending on where you're at,
(19:16):
what state you're at, what state you're in, what is at stake in your elections.
The composition of your board.
If you live in a city that has a partisan or non-partisan city council,
there's been a lot of moves to either make the mayor They're a strong mayor
where so much power flows through them or to decentralize it and really weaken
(19:40):
the mayor where the power flows through the city council or the board or whatever
the term is wherever you live.
There has really been a move in that and that is because people are really seeing that...
All politics is local is so real, right?
(20:00):
And whether that is at the local level, whether that's at the state level or
the federal level, there's a pipeline as well.
And so people have a very vested interest in getting people in at the local
level, moving them up to the state level and getting them up to the federal level.
And you will see groups that have lots of funding that they are looking to do that with.
(20:26):
And a lot of it's special interests.
And so it is really important to figure out what's at stake.
If you're seeing a lot of outside money coming into the races,
do a little bit of due diligence because all of those, those are independent
expenditure campaigns, like I talked about earlier.
That's groups of people, corporations who have put, Banded together,
(20:49):
banded funding together to hope to sway the outcome of an election.
And they usually do that through a pretty concerted PR campaign.
You'll see it on social media. You'll see it on cable, things like that.
But whenever you see big money like that, follow the money. Figure out why those folks are there.
(21:10):
And if you're in a local one, how do you know about the money?
What are the resources you're looking at to track that?
Because I know it's got to be reported, but I don't know that many of us know where to look for it.
Yeah, so depending on what state you are, usually through the Secretary of State,
you can track campaign finance.
That's usually where you can do it.
(21:30):
What I'll tell you is that if you see one of those ads or you hear one of those
ads, they have to disclose who the funders are.
And that's usually pretty instrumental. So, you know, you'll see the ad and at the end.
So if you see the presidential ads, you'll see like, I'm Donald Trump and I
approve this message, right?
And that's really all you know. That means that is a campaign funded ad from that candidate. a date.
(21:57):
When you see ads and they don't end like that, usually in writing,
there's a bunch of different names down there and it'll say,
this ad paid for by, and it'll have like a bunch of different names, right?
That's who's funding that. And that is the same, whether that is in print,
on TV, social media, they have to disclose that.
That's also the case for mailers that come to your house.
(22:20):
So that's kind of the easy way to start.
Past that, if you're seeing groups, I would look Look on your state secretary
of state's website under campaign finance disclosures.
And then seeing the names of some of those funding campaigns,
I think you have to go one step further and figure out what they're actually behind.
Because a lot of times the names don't display the motives.
(22:43):
Yeah. And I've looked at them. Sometimes the names don't display the motives,
but the names that are down there, those have to be the funders.
So it'll be like corporation name, corporation name, corporation name,
individual name, political action committee.
And if it's a political action committee, it has to be registered with the state.
(23:04):
So, Domet, the couple of times that Brett and I have experienced this,
there was definitely nefarious intent. Like, it was super shasty, super shady.
Does that ever happen on the flip side? Like, do people ever come together and
they're like, we're all going to band together and improve this public school?
Like, is there ever a warm, fuzzy reason? Or should I always be suspicious when
people are throwing a bunch of money behind something, especially at the local
(23:26):
level, not at higher levels?
You know, it's hard. I can't really answer that.
I mean, independent expenditure campaigns, they do do like voter ID campaigns.
You'll see them that are like, you know, support Adama for local city council.
(23:47):
Like IE's independent expenditure campaigns do that as well.
They do do support campaigns, but they're candidate driven.
Okay. Yeah. And there's, you know, there are, I mean, like I'm saying that there
are ballot measure campaigns, there's all kinds of different things.
And sometimes ballot measures are brought by individuals. Sometimes they're brought by groups.
(24:09):
And sometimes they're brought by like the governor.
Sometimes they're brought forward by elected officials.
So figuring out who's behind things is always really important.
Okay, that's good to know. Well, don't forget, when you call it nefarious,
it's only because it's against the interest you believe in.
Someone else very much believes in what they're going for for that investment.
(24:32):
I also called it shady and shysty.
You did.
So you used three qualifying adjectives about how you were in opposition.
And I was worried that this was going to be me.
Moving on. Adama, if people are hearing what you're saying and they're like,
(24:54):
okay, yeah, it's time. I've got to get involved.
Where do you suggest they start? What's approachable? What's easy? Low barriers?
Yeah. So if you just are like, hey, you know what?
I would love to to be like a pool worker or I've got like a really big front
yard and I could actually be a neighborhood polling station.
(25:19):
The election assistance committee, it's .gov.
It is like the federal government's website where you can sign up and figure
out like resources in your own state.
Like I said, if you want to be an election judge, if you want to host a polling
place, if you want to be a poll volunteer.
(25:39):
And I'll say, it's really important that we start getting some younger people
in doing some of these things. I don't know if you are someone who votes in
person, but, you know, it's mostly older people.
And it would be great to have some younger people engaged and involved in this.
(26:00):
I mean, you know, it's a great way also to meet the people in your community,
to see who is voting in my community, right?
It's a great way to get engaged. Yeah, which type of people are they?
Who are they talking to? too.
Exactly. Yeah. So that's my advice for just like, I just want to see if I can
be a precinct worker or something like that. That's a really easy way.
(26:24):
If you want to get more engaged and you want to do it on a partisan basis,
if you're a Republican or a Democrat,
you can go to DNC or RNC and their websites and you can,
it will, they will immediately give you links on how to engage or,
you know, how to volunteer with a particular party.
(26:47):
I also like Vote Forward.
They do a lot of outreach to undecided voters.
You can choose a Republican campaign or a Democratic campaign and do like letter
writing, that kind of thing, reminding people who are registered to vote.
And since I know Madison and Lily will actually listen to this episode since
Adama's on it, did you hear her talking about young people getting out there?
(27:09):
We've been dragging them to volunteer for candidates at the polls since they could not.
Yeah. I mean, that's another way. And I didn't even mention that.
But if there's a race going on, and this is honestly how I started in politics.
If there's a race going on, just call them up and say, hey, I'd like to precinct
(27:31):
walk or, you know, if you have money and don't want a precinct walk,
like I'd love to buy the campaign lunch one day, you know?
Awesome. Those sound easy enough. So, Adamez, we're sliding glamorously and
beautifully into middle age.
Creating a world that we're going to leave better has gotten really important to me.
(27:54):
And I think Brett planted a lot of this because Brett's always been kind of
like, let's leave the world better off.
I've gotten there, but it took me a minute. it. So what can we do now as far
as getting involved in politics and our communities and voting that truly will
create an impact that will outlive us and leave our communities better?
I mean, to me, getting into the just civic hygiene, the habit of voting is so
(28:23):
important. To me, that is the number one thing.
That is voting in every election.
I mean, I kind of think of it like that's my tithe to the government,
right? The way that people tithe and give money to the church.
Voting is your tithe, however frequent and however often there are elections.
Because like I said, it's really cumulative. cumulative people have been voting
(28:46):
for Mitch McConnell for almost 50 years, right?
People have been voting for Chuck Schumer in New York for 30 some odd years.
People have been voting for Maxine Waters in California for 30 some odd years.
Voting is cumulative. When you vote, your kids will vote.
(29:06):
When you talk about politics, when you talk about how important it is to be
civically engaged and to understand what's happening in your community to from
everything from housing to healthcare,
you affect others and you light the spark in other people.
So to me, voting, understanding why you vote and understanding exactly when
(29:28):
you need to vote, being registered to vote, that is like so much goes from there.
So much flows from there. You can change your whole community by getting civically engaged.
I love that. And I want to remind all of our friends, especially in Texas,
a lot of our cities are small.
There were times that I would vote in a local election and we may only have
(29:52):
11,000 people show up to vote. So my vote counted a lot. lot?
Oh, there are state districts in the state of California that have been won
by 50 some odd votes. Wow.
There is a congressional race in California that ended up being like a three-way tie basically.
(30:15):
And they had to recount it like four different times. Like it's tough to imagine
sometimes, like if you are a Democrat voting in Texas or a Republican voting
in California, that your vote matters.
And at the presidential level, yeah, it's not weighted as heavily.
But on that same ballot, if there is somebody running for city council,
(30:36):
you may have a disproportionate impact just by the fact that you're voting on
that race and on other down ticket races.
That's a great point, especially judges too.
Absolutely. Judges, district District attorneys, all the school board races,
sheriffs, all of those races, those are a big deal.
(31:00):
And then you have, which was totally fraudulent. Get out of here. Get out of here.
You know, it's his company, so it's his podcast. So he's allowed to say whatever
he wants, but Adama and I have rules.
I have nothing to say on.
(31:29):
So we've been talking a lot about politics. We're obviously in a large election cycle right now.
You've got to go through this. There's ups and downs. You keep going on professionally.
You keep reinventing yourself through this. And as you do that,
that takes a toll on a person through big cycles, big ups, big lulls. You keep doing it.
(31:52):
You keep investing in that. what is inspiring you?
Like who, what organizations are you drawing that inspiration from to keep going?
Oh my gosh. You know, it's funny. I think, I don't even know.
I think maybe like a couple weeks ago, I might've even had some different answers, but I'll be honest.
I am so inspired right now by all of the people, like the, you know,
(32:16):
all of these zoom calls that are happening winning that have happened on the
democratic side since president Biden said he wasn't going to run.
Like there's like the win with black women. And that was like breaking zooms
with like 40,000 people on it.
There was like win with white men and they raised like $1.2 million.
(32:38):
They were raising like $120,000 a minute on that call.
There's, you know, chefs with Kamala there's cat women for Kamala,
you know, whatever, childless cat people for Kamala.
Honestly, grassroots engagement is so exciting to me.
I absolutely love to see it. And I mean, I'll just be very transparent.
I am a Democrat. And like, as soon as I finished this, actually,
(33:01):
I have another Zoom call that I do on Sunday evenings where I do phone banking.
And on some Some of these phone banks, so I remember phone banking in like 2020
for Biden, and there would be like 30, 40 people on these Zooms to do phone banking.
I was on this call last Sunday. There were 860 people.
(33:24):
On there to phone bank and to
call, you know, call likely and registered voters and remind them to vote.
And if you've ever done phone banking, it's kind of soul sucking because you
get like a ton of hangups, you know, people are mad.
You know, there are all kinds of different things happen, but there were so
(33:45):
many people who were on, who were excited, who were like, yes,
super excited to phone bank right now.
So I absolutely inspired by grassroots activism and the folks who are passionate
about turning out for the election.
Really cool. And it sounds, that's crazy that people are excited about phone
banking because that sounds like trying to go get $10 for the Alumni Association
(34:09):
and how much of a... It is.
It's exactly like that. It's like door knocking. it is it
kind of sucks yeah these
are not these are not great experiences but you know
there's something worthwhile at the end of it which is really cool people
get excited about that end result just don't
text me adama because i have started telling candidates that text me i'd be
(34:30):
like oh i was gonna vote for you but i'm not now stop texting me one of my really
good friends had been phone been like text you know whatever in the last election
and i got the text from her And then I got like a real text from her about,
you know, just whatever.
And I was like, Christine, no, we are not doing this.
We are not doing the text to vote and text for like nonsense. You like, you pick one.
(34:57):
Pick one. I'm either your friend or I am your victim of texting.
Or I'm a target on your, on your call list.
Yeah. Well, as we get into there, thank you so much for your time.
But what can Amanda and I and anyone listening, what can we do to pay back all
(35:19):
the investment you've put in time for all of us?
Oh my goodness, you know what? Check your voter registration.
Make sure that you're registered to vote. Create a plan for voting day or for
turning in your ballot if you're a voting absentee and vote early.
That is absolutely what I would tell you, especially y'all in Texas, vote early.
(35:42):
If you can vote early, because I see those lines.
I see those lines in your big metropolitan areas. areas vote early.
Yeah. And at our local libraries and locals, it's super easy to get in.
And I will remind people, I don't know if this is a Texas thing,
Adama, maybe you can enlighten us, but don't plan on bringing your plan in on your phone.
Have that written down like they're not playing around. You cannot look it up on your phone.
(36:04):
Yeah. There's a lot of, figure out what the different rules are around voting in your area.
Like, do you have to have been registered a a certain time? Do you need your ID?
There's all kinds of different things. So figure that out. That's why I say
you need a plan to vote, especially if you plan on voting in person.
(36:24):
Figure out what your plan is for that. Well, thank you so much for joining us. We really enjoyed it.
We hope to have you back soon when we could talk to you about nonpolitical life.
Yes. Yes. Let's just get through this election, man.
And then maybe you can come to Austin and do some lobbying slash hang out with
(36:46):
us. I'd love that. I'd love that.
Thank you, guys. I hope that was as much fun for you guys as it was for us.
Clearly, Brett and I both love Adama and adore her and always have a good time
catching up with her. In addition to being an amazing friend,
Adama is also a huge resource when it comes to anything legislative.
(37:06):
So I want to recap a few of the things we talked about today.
First is civic hygiene. Much like sleep hygiene, we're all going to do a better
job of getting to the polls and making sure that we do our part as citizens.
Next was papers of record. I think we all know that getting our political information
online could be sketchy at times, but the whole Papers of Record thing was actually news to me.
(37:30):
So maybe this will save newspapers that we need to go back to them as a primary
source for information that is political.
And then tracking campaign finance, that was really, really, really helpful for me.
So Adama said to go to your state's secretary of state under campaign finance
disclosures and get that information there.
(37:51):
And then of course, she encouraged all of us to get involved.
A couple of the resources she mentioned are eac.gov to find out how you can
volunteer to be a poll worker, and then vote forward so that you can write letters
to encourage election turnout. I'll link both of those in our show notes.
And then her final piece of real advice was to figure out your plan and vote early.
(38:12):
Last, maybe most important, and definitely the funniest, is that life is full of tough choices.
We can either be friends or you can text us about political campaigns,
but we can't be both. You choose.
In all seriousness though, I really do encourage you to get involved in your
local community so that you can take the first step in making it a better place.
(38:32):
Music.
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