Ep. 35 - Exposing Political Control at the Local Level

Darvio "Kingpin" Morrow joins Jeff Charles to expose the tangled web of politics at the local level that leaves people trapped, even if they know that they are being underserved. Politics are embedded in nearly everything at the local level, and our conversation exposes the what, how and why.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You know. This is the FCBPodcast Network. This is a Fresh Perspective

(00:23):
with Jeff Charles. Yo yo,yo, Welcome back to another episode of
A Fresh Perspective with Jeff Charles andHappy New Year, everybody, very happy
to be with you, and Ihope that twenty twenty three is even better
than twenty twenty two. So inthis episode, I'm doing something a little

(00:44):
bit different. Some of you arefamiliar with the Twitter spaces platform. It's
been around for a few years nowand a lot of people are using it
to great effect. I actually useit quite a bit, especially lately,
been using it every day with myWith my partner Liberty Donnie Anthony, we
hold Twitter spaces where people can basicallycome on and talk about the issues of

(01:06):
the day, whatever topic they want, but for ours we focus on liberty
and the Liberty movement. But I'vealso done other spaces even before that,
and this one that you're going tolisten to today is with my good friend,
my comrade, my brother from anothermother, one of the few people
who I will actually pick up thephone for when he calls, because if

(01:30):
y'all know me, y'all know Idon't like being on the phone but I
will talk to this dude on thephone. He also happens to be the
CEO of the FCB Network, whichis what this podcast is on. So
we had a very good conversation aboutlocal politics, but specifically when it comes
to black communities. Right, that'sbeen a huge topic of discussion in the

(01:55):
Republican Party and among the conservative movement. How do we reach black voters?
Now, some of you already knowwhere I land on that now, but
that's a different topic for a differentday. But the fact of the matter
is that there are still a lotof good Republicans who want to make a
difference. And Darvo served on thecampaign of one of these individuals, and
you're going to hear him talk aboutthe campaign, but also some of the

(02:17):
difficulties inherent in making inroads at thelocal level in black communities. The Democratic
Party has become so firmly entrenched,which has been very clever on their part,
but so entrenched in the culture andthe community and in the local governance
that I think a lot of Republicansare really anybody who wants to challenge the

(02:38):
Democrats in these areas aren't aware ofThey don't understand how deep it goes,
they don't understand how they have beenable to grow their power and hold on
to their power for so long.So in this conversation, it's going to
give you a little bit more insightof the different factors that go into the
stuff that people don't really think aboutand some of the obstacles Republicans who actually

(03:00):
do want to reach these communities aregoing to face. It was very educational.
Um, he goes through his Darbia, goes through his experience of some
of the things that he learned andthings that the GOP would be wise to
learn. So check it out.Let us know what you think, and
I'll see you on the flip side, like Darba, can you hear me?

(03:23):
Yes, sir? All right,what's good with you? What's going
on? Brother? Not much chilling? Right, So maybe we shoul just
go ahead and get started because Ionly have about an hour or so because

(03:46):
I'm gonna be on Teslin Figureos spacesright after this. So right, yeah,
So we wanted to hold this space, and I have a feeling will
probably need to do another one too, because you know, just based a
little bit that you and I havetalked about, based on what you've seen
in Ohio there working on a campaignin a black community. There was a

(04:10):
lot to it, and there's alot of stuff that might blow some people's
minds because what you told me isstuff that people don't really think about too
often, mainly because they don't know. We always talk about Republicans doing black
outreach, trying to make inroads inblack communities, and I think a lot

(04:32):
of us have an idea of someof the obstacles that Republicans will face at
specifically at the local level, butit's actually even more complex than we think
it is. You know. Obviously, there's the obstacle of having not really
made much of an effort to knockon doors and to speak with Black Americans

(04:55):
face to face. I mean,we all we all know that the Republican
Party has been very bad, thatbad over the paths six seven decades or
so. But this absence has allowedDemocrats to really build deep and entrenched roots
in strongholds in these communities in waysthat we don't even think about. So
we wanted to have this conversation sothat DARBYO can educate us on what he

(05:20):
saw, because if I remember correctly, there's some stuff that even you were
surprised by oh yeah, oh yeah, and you know you're on the ground
there. So I wanted to justkind of start out, darbya with can
you just kind of give us akind of an overview of some of the
things that you notice, and firstintroduce yourself, let people know who you

(05:42):
are and what you've been doing thiselection season, and then kind of give
us an idea of what you weresaying. Yeah, So, first of
all, for those of you whodon't know me, I'm Darvia Marrol CEO
of FCB Network. We produce alot of media and entertainment content, including
my brother Jeff Charles's show, AFresh Perspective, which you can get on

(06:05):
all podcast platforms, by the way. And so this election cycle, I
was helping on a campaign for countyexecutive here in Kuyahoga County. So I'm
in Ohio. Kuyahoga County is thelike the blue stronghold that's still left in

(06:26):
the state of Ohio as the restof the state has gone read and the
position of county executive For those whoare not familiar, most of you probably
have like county commissioners and things likethat. We don't have commissioners anymore because
we had a big scandal in twothousand and nine and our commissioner, our

(06:47):
auditor, a judge, and severalother people are currently sitting in prison.
So wow, it was so badthat the voters said, screw this whole
thing, through the entire system outand replace the commissioners with a county executive,
which kind of functions like a mayorand a county council. So even

(07:08):
with that, Republicans have never hadthat position in this county and Republicans have
not been in county leadership going backto the commissioner days in twenty five years,
so it's been a long time.So we knew we were kind of
facing headwinds. The guy who wasrunning for office, who was running for

(07:31):
county executive, his name was LeeWeingart, and he was ironically the last
Republican commissioner as well, So weknew that it would be historic if we
were able to be successful, andwe knew the kind of head wins that
we were facing. But the thingthat I saw the most, and this

(07:51):
is what we were talking about,Jeff, the things that I would call
and tell you, like, yo, this is crazy. We knew that
there's a machine, But I thinka lot of people didn't know how big
the machine is or how the machinefunctions, especially if you're a black Republican,

(08:13):
because if you're in the community,you typically don't get access to those
rooms. But because of some ofthe relationships that we have here, because
up until very recently, you know, our Democrats in Cleveland and Kyholy County
was you know, they were prettymoderate, you know, normal traditional Democrats.

(08:33):
You know, the progressive brigade hastaken over, you know, within
the last year or two, butprior to that, you know, there
was a lot of normal Democrats thatwe were able to have sincere relationships with.
So when you get to see themachine up front and up close,

(08:54):
it's the wildest thing that I've everseen. And Republicans typically have no idea
even when you do go into thecommunity, because you're right, Jeff,
Republicans don't do it enough. Thisis that's part of what has led to
the problem, because you've been gonefor so long that that power has become

(09:15):
entrenched and taken a foothold. Butalso a lot of times Republicans don't know
how the machine operates. They don'tknow how the machine works. They've never
seen it before. So a lotof times Republicans are going to these communities
asking people to vote, you know, vote your values, and vote for
me because you believe in such suchthing. So and these people are like,

(09:39):
I can lose my job if Ivote for you, I can lose
my house if I vote for you. I can lose everything I have if
I vote for you. That is, we were literally told that on a
campaign trail by several people who arelike, I like you, I support
you. I know the Democrat ain'tish because the Democrat candidate that they put

(10:01):
up with somebody who was in chargeof a police department that targeted black drivers,
was somebody who when he got inthe race, there was a black
man in the race who probably wouldhave won had he stayed in, but
somebody quote unquote leaked his tax problems, and the Democrat who who ended up
winning the race, this idiot senthim a text message that basically was like

(10:22):
an extortion letter. So we knowthat this guy, we know the history
that this guy has, and peoplewere still afraid to vote against him because
of how much they were dependent uponthe party, the Democratic Party. Now,
can you talk to us about hisopponent Chris nine. I mean,

(10:43):
because you know, what he didwhile in office and what he allowed to
happen would easily get candidates disqualified inother types of races, especially, So
I want you to kind of talkto us about about the issue, especially
when it concerns racism that he presidedover, just to get people an idea

(11:05):
of how vulnerable this guy should havebeen, right, Yes, I mean
he could. He was president ofa neighborhood called the University Circle, and
he was president of a community developmentcorporation here in Cleveland. The community development
corporations basically run everything, right.I don't know if that's the case in
other cities, but the community developmentcorporation here and most neighborhoods have them,

(11:33):
and the ones who get a lotof money have really good ones, have
really strong ones that are entrenched andconnected. And this neighborhood is a rich,
you know, wealthy, it's oneof the it's an enclave, right.
The black population is very small inthis community. But they have a

(12:00):
police department. Now, mind you, I just said University Circle is a
community development corporation. They have theirown police department, a private a private
police department that has ticketing and arrestpowers. That is not accountable to anybody.
They're not accountable to the citizens,They're not even accountable to the politicians.

(12:24):
They were only accountable to one personand one person only, and that
was the president of the university circle, in which was Chris Rona and their
police department. It was in twentytwenty pro Publica did a study that showed
that eighty eight percent of the ticketsthat that police department gave was the black

(12:46):
droppers. Now, I just toldyou the demographics of this neighborhood, so
it's clear that it was targeting,right. And when Chris was made aware
of it, he said, oh, this is awful. I will fix
this. And about a year later, right before he left, it didn't
go. It wasn't at eighty eightpercent anymore. Now was at that was?

(13:13):
That was his idea of haling.He was like, Oh, that's
not enough. That ain't enough,right, So so this obviously becomes a
campaign issue, and he if youcould paint the picture of what we would
associate as like a stereotypical, outof touch white Republican response to that,

(13:39):
that's what the Democrat games like.He went on and he went on an
on an interview and called it racebaiting. Like race baiting, are you
serious? Like? His his responseis when he chose to respond, because
most of the time he ignored it. When he chose to response, it
was awful. Absolutely, he hadno answer. The entire camp campaign he

(14:01):
still had no answer for it.And for most of the campaign he had
no policies for black people. Mycandidate did. My candidate had a full
He did everything, basically everything thatwe tell Republicans to do. Lee did.
And so we'll kind of, Iwant to jump ahead of myself.
We'll get to the rest of thatin a minute, but go ahead,

(14:22):
So can you give us an ideaof the type of policies that Lee Weingart
was proposing specifically for black people.So the one, the first one that
really got my attention, that mademe intrigued with him in the first place,
was the issue of contracting, whichis something that that's a problem in

(14:43):
pretty much every major city in Americathat has a lot of black people in
it. So in Cayahoga County,they have these what's supposed to be these
set asides that ten of your contractingis supposed to go to a black owned
business. So a minority did well. In Kyahoga County. They have what's

(15:03):
called a good faith excemption. Soin other words, if you're a white
business, you can just certify onthe honor system and say we cried,
we couldn't find any We looked atblack businesses and we couldn't find any,
and you can get an exception andstill get the contract. So as a
result, even though the laws onthe books that says black businesses are supposed

(15:26):
to get ten percent, black businessesin actuality in Kyahoga County ended up getting
one percent. So Lee's policy wasthe first thing he does on day one
is removed the good faith exemption.It becomes a past failed equation. Either
you have ten percent of your bidgoing to black businesses or you don't,

(15:52):
and if you don't, you don'tget the contract. That was the first
thing that caught my That was thefirst thing that caught my attention. And
then he wanted to increase it.He wanted to he wanted to increase it,
you know, eventually getting up totwenty percent and eventually, you know,
slowly getting up to thirty percent,because that's the percentage of the of
the county. That's black, Sothat was the first thing that really kind

(16:17):
of attracted me to him in thefirst place. Then he was also talking
about taking money. So the countyhere owns things we shouldn't own. Right.
We own a private building for thefor the medical industry, which is
big here. We also own aHilton hotel that is being paid for with

(16:40):
taxpayer dollars. And as a result, because we own it and we have
to service the debt, the countypays fifty million dollars a year on the
service of the debts of the HiltonHotel. So one of the things he
wanted to do was to sell thosetwo buildings, take the pro seeds from
that, and create a ten thousandhomes plan which would build ten thousand new

(17:07):
homes and targeted specifically to people whoare either currently renting or in public assistance
to be able to give them ahome that they own so that they can
build wealth and equity through that home. Right. So that's just a couple
of the things that we were talking. It was probably the most robust policy

(17:30):
for black people on a local levelthat I have ever seen in my entire
life, and it came from arepublic. So that was what got me
on board in the first place.Okay, So one thing I want to
go back to. You mentioned thatthere were residents who were saying, you
know, if I vote for thisperson, I will lose everything. But
you were telling me about the politicalthe political operatives, the black political operatives,

(17:55):
specifically, who were who are involvedin the community, and can you
talk to us a little bit abouttheir motivations, because if I remember correctly,
you're telling me that some of themactually liked what Lee Weingart was proposing,
but there were reasons why they stillhad to remain with the Democrat.
Yes, because the fear for alot of them was if I go with

(18:18):
you and you lose, I getcompletely locked out and then I can get
nothing for nobody. So I wouldrather instead of trying to help y'all win
and get a bigger plate, Iwould rather take the scraps from this guy,
because at least I know I'm gonnaget back. So that that was

(18:38):
one of the issues. Another oneof the issues is the is the dirty
things that this guy did? Youknow? I think probably maybe two weeks
two or three weeks after I hadstarted helping the campaign, there was a
guy by the name of Bashier Jones, who was a former Cleveland City councilman.

(19:02):
He's a Black Muslim and he's oneof those all about what you're gonna
do for my community. He becamethe first person as a Democrat. He's
a Democrat. He decided to endorseLee. Within a week, probably about

(19:23):
four days after that endorsement was publicand became well known across the city in
the county. Magically, a reportends up in the paper that oh,
there was an there's an FBI subpoenawith looking into stuff about him. Now,

(19:48):
mind you, four months later,still there's been no indictment. No.
I talked to bust year, nottoo long ago. He's like,
my, my lawyer hasn't heard anything. Still still, And so then it's
like, well, well who Myfirst question as being somebody in the media
who linked it, right, Andso it had to come when I started

(20:11):
doing a process of elimination. Hadto come from city Hall, which is
controlled by a black Democrat mayor whowas supporting the white Democrat candidate. So
that was my first introduction to ohthis is different. Yeah. Oh,

(20:33):
So there were things like that thatcontinued to happen. There was a there
was a debate that was scheduled thatwas hoped supposed to be hosted by some
of the black fraternities here that magicallygot moved until after early voting had already
started. There was several incidents werebasically the Democrat would pull out of any

(21:02):
of any debate that had him goingup against the Republican in an audience that
was predominantly black, including talking tosome teenagers. By the way, he
bailed on the teenage so it wasall kinds of tricks and cinnatigans. There
was a black organization that was gettingready to endorse the Republican who then changed

(21:22):
their vote because of pressure from theDemocrats. And then the thing that really
kind of hit me the most,and I shared this with you, was
something that I witnessed in a meetingthat I wasn't supposed to be there.
Yep. So I'm looking at thisand there's these, there's all these.

(21:44):
There's a bunch of black pastors,it's a bunch of black pastors, and
they have elected officials that are here, and it's basically just a full on
propaganda session to the point where theywere actually telling pass this is what you
need to be saying to your congregations. That's a direct quote, right.

(22:06):
And so someone pointing somebody who Iknow, pointed out to me and said,
are you seeing something? Because hesees me like getting ready to lose
my mind, right, especially whenone of the elected officials lied and told
this whole room that the civil rightsand voting rights had passed without a single
Republican vote. And that's a boldfaith lie if you like, if you

(22:30):
know anything about that, you knowas a damn lie. All right,
So I getting ready to lose mymind, and the person points this out
to me, He says, areyou noticing something? I said, yeah,
I'm noticing a lot, right,And he says, look around the
room. They are. You arewho they used to be. He said,

(22:52):
when they started in their twenties,most of them start because these folks
are probably about their sixties and seventiesaround the room, right, he said,
most of them when they started,they were in their twenties, and
they wanted to help. They wantedto make a difference, he said,
But people stopped tithing, you know, their church attendants went down the community

(23:15):
change. So they started getting moneyfor their programs and to keep their doors
open from the government. From electedofficials, and as a result, they
lost their teeth all this time.A lot of times we would think,
man, how do they not seethis? Yeah? I was wondering when

(23:37):
you were telling me about it,because I'm like, why are they going?
Yeah, And when you have conversationsoff the record, what you learn
is some of them do see it, but they're powerless to do anything about
it. These days, it seemslike everybody's talking, but no one is

(24:02):
actually listening to the things they're saying. Critical thinking isn't dead, but it's
definitely low on oxygen. Join meKia Davis on Jeff Listen to yourself every
week as we reason through issues bigand small, critique our own ideas,
and learn to draw our talking pointsall the way out to their logical conclusions.
Subscribe to Just Listen to Yourself withKia Davis, an FCB radio podcast

(24:25):
on Apple, on Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts.
So, can you tell us alittle bit more about how this democratic machine
manages to shut out the Republicans whoactually are trying, Because I know there
are some Leeweiner and probably some others, but even what you've already described as

(24:47):
how they manage to kind of shutthese people out. What are some other
ways that they kind of solidify theirhold here, so they stop they stop
you from having any oportunity to getyour messaging out right, Any door that's
open that gives you access to theaverage person, they shut it down because

(25:11):
really, especially when you have acampaign like ours where we were telling factual
information things that this person allowed tohappen two black people, what they did
was just they couldn't refute it.They couldn't say it wasn't true, they
couldn't say it was a lie.They just made sure nobody heard it.

(25:33):
So we had to go above andbeyond to make sure the people heard it,
whether it was going on television,social media. You guys were big
help, you know what I mean. My FCB family, we had to
go above and beyond to get aroundthe roadblocks that they continue to set between
us and the average person. Becausethat's really what it's about. It's about

(25:56):
the average person. And I learnedthat on election day as I'm going around
different polling locations, um dealing withkind of our folks that we had in
these different polling locations, and I'mseeing people who are coming into coming into

(26:18):
the polling locations, either with aDemocratic sample ballot in their hand already which
has been mailed to them, orthere were people who were literally standing in
front of the polling locations with signsaround their next saying get your Democratic sample
ballot. Wow? So what wasso? What it happened? And I

(26:41):
looked after looking after results, right, there were judges, for example,
who were who had no opposition andstill got like over two hundred thousand votes.
I'm like, that's a sample ballot. It isn't an elite to do
that. Though not here, ohnot here, you can you can't go

(27:07):
in the like you can't go likeclose to the door of the voting of
where you go in for the votingboup would you can stand outside? You
stand outside and they handle sample ballotsall day. I'll give you another another
story that really disturbed me. Itwas a friend of mine who was working
at a pole um and they wereworking, you know, with the Board

(27:30):
of Elections. So they couldn't doany of this stuff right, like they
they you have to be non political. They told me. A person walked
up to them and was like,because in our in our county, the
judicial races don't have Republican or Democratlisted, uh next to the Kennedys okay,
and so it was like a nonpartisanrace. Correct. So this person

(27:53):
walked up to the my friend andwas like, my mother told me,
I gotta vote all Democrat, butI don't know which judge is Republican or
Democrat. Can you help me?Of course they couldn't. But the fact
of the matter is like, waita minute, you don't even know the
candidates. Now I would, yeah, and that's actually a problem nationwide.

(28:15):
But but but go ahead, yeah, but it's but when you have that
Democratic sample ballot, which is oneof the reasons why uh, candidates pay
money to make sure they get endorsedto get on that sample ballot. Oh
did I say that out loud?Um learned that too. Uh. That's

(28:38):
why that that's why that that happens, Because if you're in a Democratic county
and your name ends up on thatsample ballot, nine times out of ten,
you're gonna win because people just getthe sample ballot and just vote all
the way down. Another thing thatI learned, and some of the people
listening may have known this already,I didn't. We you know, had

(28:59):
some spiti Um, did you knowthe candidates pay for sols to the post?
No? No, I didn't.Actually, I mean I'm not surprised,
but I mean I'm not. Imean I'm not surprised because I mean
you just said they pay to geton the ballot, and then that that
happens in a lot of places.So candidates do pay a lot of money

(29:19):
to buy themselves an advantage. ButI didn't know what the bulls. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, they paid thechurches. No, it's not a
payment, it's a tie right comingto the storehouse. Um. So it's

(29:41):
just so it's a it's a machine. It's we always hear people say the
democratic machine, the democratic machine.It's a literal machine. They they bully
people, they twist on And we'retalking about other the way they're treating other
democrats. We're not talking about howthey treat Republicans. These are other democrats
that they're treating like this, youknow what I'm saying. And I'm sure

(30:04):
it's similar in other places, whichis why I wanted to to bring this
to light because the stuff that Isaw, I was just like, Wow,
this is this is insane. It'slike a it's like in a simile
line. They have an a simileline to produce, to produce votes,

(30:26):
you know, and especially with theintimidation factor, I mean they, I
mean you and you told me aboutthis even before you started working on this
campaign, about how you and peoplethat you've known, Colin, you know,
people were trying to intimidate you guysto not support the people you're reporting.
And I think you told me thatthere was somebody who told you that
you were going too hard against Ronane. That's correct, can tell us about

(30:48):
that, correct? Yeah, Soyou know, we every black person who
supported Lee Winegard got some sort ofwarning or threat from somebody where you know,
you're hitting them too hard, youpush them too far, you know,
all that kind of stuff. Becausehere's here's the other thing. And

(31:11):
this kind of goes back to thepoint that you're always making and the point
that you know, I agree withhis will. Democrats in these areas are
not used to competition, right,So as a result, when you have
a Republican who comes and actually bringslegitimate competition, a lot of times they
don't know what to do. Sothat's why it becomes a threat. It

(31:37):
becomes a threat to the power structure. Forget Republican democrat. It becomes a
threat to the power structure. Itbecomes a threat to the ruling class.
Yes, and so even people whoagree with you are like, I can't
tout y'all. So, and here'sthe question that I want to ask before

(31:59):
we you know, open it upthe questions. Yeah, how do Republicans
get by get by that? Imean, if Republicans do start to try
to make more inroads in communities likeYears and others, I mean, you've
got again, you've got democratic operatives, Black people who might be more open
to supporting a Republican, but theystill got to eat at the end of

(32:22):
the day. They still need toneed a job after the election. You've
got the role of the black pastorswho are depending on government funding at this
point because they're not getting enough inties. How can Republicans get past all
these issues, the intimidation and theentrenchment of the democratic machine in these communities.
Because I always say, you know, if Republicans want to make inroads,

(32:43):
they got to fill up in person. Well, yeah, that's the
first step, but they also needto understand the obstacles that they're facing.
So how so, what ways canRepublicans start to get past some of those
obstacles if and when they do starttrying to compete. So I think a
big part of what they can doin a lot of these places. In

(33:07):
the blue states, it's a lotharder because you have the blue cities and
the blue states, right, soyou have a gigantic machine, and it's
a lot harder. But in placeswhere you have blue cities in red states,
Republicans in those states who have poweroutside of those areas have to do

(33:30):
more so that people who do thispolitically for a living having alternatives, because
really one of the biggest ways thatthey enforce the power of the machine is
to threaten to cut you off ifyou don't obey, right, and Republicans

(33:54):
don't do a good enough job ofhiring black people to work in their staff.
So if you hire more black peopleto work in your staff, now
those folks who are who are underthreat and underseeing in those blue cities,

(34:16):
those blue counties, in those redstates have an opportunity to go elsewhere.
These people can vote their conscience withoutworrying about someone threatening to take their livelihood
away. That's that's number one,okay, And that's really mainly for like
the blue cities that are in likeOhio, or like Texas or like you

(34:38):
know what I mean, in thosethose blue cities in those red states.
You really want to take that thatbarrier away. You need to start hiring
more black people so that Okay,well if I can't, if you fire
me here, I can just gowork for the governor. Well, I
can go work for the auditor orwhoever right take correct, correct, Because

(35:00):
what we see a lot of isthat the people in power. You know
this, our community is very topdown in a lot of ways. So
the black folks in power are theones who are afraid the most because they
have the smallest grip on power.Because the Democratic Party, the dirty little
secret is the Democratic Party is notultimately controlled by black people. The Democratic

(35:22):
Party is controlled by white liberals.So when you're in a party that's controlled
by white liberals, you get yourpower by your proximity to them. So
there's a lot of black folks whowe tend to try to put all Democrats
in the same box, but there'sa lot of black Democrats who are still
black first, but they're put inthis position where they're stuck because they get

(35:45):
power by by being in close proximityto white liberals. So as a result,
they're like, yo, if Igo with you, I can lose
every time. And so they haveno covering. They have no covering.
You know, it's the same Imean, it's the same way like with
with conscious black Republicans. When youhave when you're a conscious Black Republican and
Republicans don't back you, when youget hit, you have no covering.

(36:07):
So Republicans have to do a betterjob of making sure that black people have
enough covering to to do what theywant to do, you know what I'm
saying. And that's so that's reallya huge, huge, huge part of
the problem because if you if theblack people in power feel threatened by you,

(36:31):
you don't get access to the massesbecause they're the ones that control the
access the gate keepers, correct,correct, So if you don't get access
to the masses, you're not you'renot going to be competitive in that vote.
So there are some things that Republicanscan do. But step one is

(36:53):
for these red states that have theseblue cities in them, you need to
hire more black people. Okay,macess, what are some other I mean
that sounds like that that'd be likeone of the main things that they need
to do, But what are someother that that state party should be doing.
So the and this is the Thisis a hard one to say because

(37:16):
sometimes you're not going to see theresults right away, but you have to
compete in these areas, and youhave to compete on a regular basis,
and sometimes you have to spend alot of money to lose. The reason
why I say that is because partof the other problem that we saw is
because Republicans are so non competitive inour areas for so long that when a

(37:44):
Republican does show up to try tocompete, everybody's afraid to support because they
don't believe you can win, andif you rouse, they get locked out.
Especially in these areas. A lotof people don't don't see that there's
an internal battle going on in theDemocratic Party as well, right between what

(38:04):
we would consider to be traditional Democratswho are largely black and the Progressives who
are largely white. And they're blackand they're black enablers who understand that they
get powered by being in proximity.Right, so there are there are black
folks who like, I can't trustyou because I can't touch you because I
don't trust you gonna win, andif I go with you and you lose,

(38:27):
I'm done. We had somebody whosaid, specifically who did not like
the Democratic candidate at all, knewhe was bad for black people, but
he told us if I support you, my career is over. Okay.
Well yeah, I mean that seemsto be one of the main issues.
So, um, I'm going toopen it up for a little bit to

(38:49):
questions. Um. We got tokeep it short though, because like I
said, I only have about Ihave about twenty four minutes left because I'm
gonna be going on Tezan Figura spaces. But if I have a question or
a comment, then come come graba mic. Okay, got one right
here, Lucas Scott Roberts. Let'sbring you on here. Okay, go

(39:14):
ahead and un meet your mic.Brother. Hey, thanks, Jeff.
Hey. I just wanted to askif has any have you ever been approached,
like in a good faith effort bya Republican to like, hey,
m is it how can I tryand garner votes out here? Um?

(39:36):
Yeah, in this campaign that Iwas that was that I was a part
of. I mean, you know, they put up real effort. I
mean it's Lee's campaign spent one pointtwo million dollars in its county. Like,
so it wasn't just a wasn't likeit was an also rand, wasn't
like it was just a let meput my name on the ballot. Now
they spent, They spent real money, and I at at one point two

(39:58):
it was a considerable amount that wasspit going after the black community. So
it was a full effort. Butthe problem is because we don't that's so
rare that when you do it,the first guy who does it is basically
like taking a pile of money,putting in the floor and setting it on

(40:21):
fire because everybody's afraid. Because everybody'safraid to suward you. You know,
you know what I'm saying, becausebecause the party is usually not there.
So here you have a guy whowas sincere. I mean he had did
all kinds of stuff. He raisedmillions of dollars as a private citizen and
put it in black communities, replacingroofs on community centers, doing all kinds

(40:44):
of stuff. This is Darby O. Kingpin, Marl co host of The
Outlaws radio show. And if youhaven't heard our show before, check out
this clip. One of the thingsI think we have to do on the
publican side because we've got the whiteworking class and I think we've got them
solid, is start to attract youknow, the black and I guess now

(41:07):
the Latino working class into our coalitionbecause I think we do that and we
serve those voters well. I mean, we could become the majority party in
this country for a generation if weactually see the opportunity and we're going to
be a stronger party if we acceptthat the country club set maybe is never
coming back, but we acquire someof those black and Hispanic working class voters

(41:29):
into our coalition, Like let thecountry club set go, you know,
let them use their preferred pronouns andobsess about racial issues and gender issues because
they're all crazy. And I thinkthat this is something that actually unites a
lot of working class white and blackvotes is we just want to live in
a country where we don't have toobsessively worry about everything that we say.

(41:52):
Subscribe to The Outlawed Radio Show onApple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio,
or wherever you get your podcast that'sout Laws The Outlaws Radio Show an FCB
radio podcast. Do you know ifif lee are part of his team reached
out to the Ohio Republican Party.Oh yeah, yeah, the Howe Republican

(42:15):
Party participated. Okay, they did. They did try to help. They
because because Lee, you know,his personal friends with a lot of them.
So it wasn't like usual where thestate party usually doesn't give a damn
about this race. They actually chartthis term and then this becomes the problem

(42:36):
too. So a lot of timeswhen we had these conversations, it's uh,
Republicans need to show up versus whatblack people need to vote for Republicans
right, And one of the thingsthat I saw is the answer is a
little bit of both. Right,Republicans do need to show up. If

(42:57):
they were showing up on a regularbasis, trying to win a race like
this wouldn't be so hard because you'dknow people on the ground, you know
people in the community that work forRepublicans. You'd know that these faults can't
starve you if you do if youdon't do what they want you to do,

(43:19):
you'd be able to combat things likethe sample valley, right, you'd
be able to do like all ofthose sorts of things that they that they
use in the machine to hold theirpower. If Republicans competed in the black
communities on a consistent basis, you'dbe able to to fight a lot of
that. But they don't, sothat's a problem. The other problem is

(43:42):
when you have a Republican that doescompete and still gets a poor showing.
That does two things that people aren'teven realizing. There were a lot of
Democrats, a lot of Black Democrats, who wanted us to win, and
the reason why they wanted us towin is because Lee winning increases their leverage

(44:05):
in their party because they get togo to their party and say, y'all
up. It also creates leverage forthe black Republicans who are connected to the
community, because the Black Republicans getto go to the Republican Party and demand
that you continue us with stain effortto read black people. But when that

(44:28):
doesn't happen, the black Democrats loseall leverage and the Black Republicans have to
deal with the white Republicans. Someof them, I'm not saying, ah,
but there are some white Republicans inevery party like this across the country
who are like seeing y'all sitting thespent all that money trying to get those
black people in here, right,So I guess my what what's the best

(44:55):
like, what one thing the bestthing that a Republican can do to win
the gatekeepers that you were talking about, what's the best thing that they could
do to try to win them over. The best thing that they can do
to try to win them over is, like I said, if you're if
you got blue cities and red states, the best thing that they can do
to try to win them over ismake sure that those state Republicans or those

(45:17):
Congressmen in areas in red areas makesure they hire black people. That's the
best thing. That's the best thingthat you can do because a lot of
folks are afraid of losing jobs,a lot of folks are afraid of not
being able to feed their families.A lot of times Republicans go in these
communities, you know, just I'masking for your vote, but not realizing

(45:43):
what you're asking people to sacrifice inorder to support you. So if you
can give them a little cover,a little landing spot, because there is
gonna be backlash, there is gonnabe retribution, especially if that Republican doesn't
win, which in the first coupleof cycles they probably won't right, So

(46:05):
there is going to be backlash.But if those Republicans in the areas of
that state where they actually do win, if they can give black those those
black leaders cover, that's how youcan kind of start to like rip the
veil down a little bit. Whatabout the issue with the with the pastors
that you were talking about earlier,I mean, with them not receiving as

(46:28):
many ties and getting government funding.How can Republicans and deal with that?
I mean, because you know,even when I talked to Mike Mike Husany
and he ran a lot of whathe did as his outreach was to speak
at black churches and speak with blackpastors. And I don't know the same
issue was present back then in Arkansas, but it's an issue here in your

(46:50):
community in Ohio. What can Republicansdo about that issue? So, and
this is going to involve Republicans actuallybeing on the ground in the communities to
understand how to do this for someof these black pastors. And I'm just
gonna be honest how people may beoffended by this, but I'm gonna just

(47:12):
be honest with some of these blackpastors. They are too entrenched, they're
too compromised and there really isn't anythingyou can do about that. So what
Republicans need to do is start reachingout to the black pastors who are not
compromised, to the black pastors whoare not in those rooms. That's another
thing. I'm glad you brought thatup, because another thing that I saw

(47:36):
the Democrats are extremely organized and theRepublicans are extremely disorganized. You know,
the Democrats have ward leaders, theyhave like it's a it's a it's an
assembly line. And Republicans are sodisorganized you don't even organize the people that

(47:59):
you that you already have. Iasked the black Republican who lives in an
inner city neighborhood, I say,hey, what's the closest Republican club to
where you live? Ohn't no?This an active person. There's an active
person who's active in politics. Andthen I look up, all right,
ain't no Republican clubs. Those arepart of the that's part of the problems,

(48:22):
because if you look at locally inmost of these cities, definitely in
Cleveland, they got all kinds ofgroups for Democrats. That's how they organize,
that's how they communicate, that's howthey build relationships and bonds. With
each other, so it becomes soit goes beyond politics. They don't just

(48:42):
interact when it comes to politics.They're friends with each other. They go
to the same churches, they belongto the same fraternities or sororities, all
this, all this kind of stuff, and Republicans are totally disorganized. So
a lot of times Republicans think thatthey can just go into community and who
the gatekeepers and that's good enous,But again, they don't have no covering,

(49:05):
so they can't really mess with you, and some of them are too
compromised to even mess with you evenif they wanted to. So specifically,
going back to the pastor's part,Republicans have to have to build real relationships
with pastors who are outside of thatsystem, and there are plenty of them.
Yeah, and I would also imaginethat, you know, if they

(49:25):
do get elected, they have togive some assurances that that funding isn't gonna
go away, at least not rightaway, correct, correct, I mean
at the end of the day.And but this is Republicans have a part.
Well, they had a policy forthat. You know, nobody talks
about it anymore, but you know, the faith based and community initiatives that

(49:47):
George W. Bush did was like, Hey, you know, some of
this money that we spend on socialprograms, why don't just give it to
you? You do it. Youknow, we can have like you know,
parameters and all that sort of thing, but if we can support you
you in the community anyway you cando it better than we can, We'll

(50:10):
just write the check. Right.So that was a policy that I always
support it because my mother comes fromthe nonprofit sector, so I saw firsthand,
you know, the kind of strugglesthat they faced, you know what
I'm saying, And my mother wasone of those people who refused to be
bought off, because that's what endsup happening. A lot of these nonprofits,

(50:32):
a lot of these organizations and geo's, they they they have funding issues
and they get bought off. Soa lot of times, so Republicans can
come into the community and be like, hey, we want y'all to vote
for us, but we're not gonnahire you, we're not gonna make sure
you get any resources, and whenyou get attacked by the Democrats, we're

(50:53):
not gonna back you up. Itdon't work that way. You gotta do
something. So other than the leadhave you seen other Republicans trying to get
elected or I mean, is helike the first one who really made a
concerted effort or what does that looklike? So this year there were several.

(51:14):
Um, we had a judge bythe name of Wanda Jones. She
was like the first black Republican inthe county and as a county judge for
like years, she was very involvedin the community and had a lot of
support. Um there was another guyby the name of Tim tim Hess,

(51:37):
white Irish guy with a black wife. Uh, he was a civil rights
attorney before he decided to run forjudge, had a lot of support as
well. So you know, thereare some that are trying, but the
problem is they all lost, right, So so now what happens and you

(51:57):
know how you know how the GOPis you know, Republicans, the Republican
Party. I put it like this, not the activists, because some of
the activists get it, but theRepublican establishment is not very long term strategic
in their thinking. And so that'sthat's the fear that when you have a
bunch of candidates who pop up whoreally understand the community, really understand the

(52:22):
issues, and really understand the importanceof going to the community and they lose,
the fear is that Republicans then turnoff the spigin and like, we
ain't giving y'all no money. Soit's like basically there has when I've been
saying this too, that there hasto be a mindset change in the GOP,

(52:43):
because you're right, they do takea very short term approach, which
is why a lot of them havebeen afraid to really start investing because they
know that they're not going to wina whole lot, you know, exact
and on the flip side in fairnesstoo, and I totally agree with you
on that, but in fairness,you know, our voters also have to

(53:08):
just stop voting up and down withthe sample ballot because when you do that,
you make it harder for us toadvocate on your behalf. I've been
in those rooms. I fight withyou, I fight with these folks all
the time. Some of the stuffthat Lee did not everybody was in favor

(53:30):
of him doing, and a lotof it was him deciding himself, no,
I'm gonna do this because it's theright thing to do. So when
you lose, it makes our argumentharder to make. So it's so it's
kind of both Republicans have to makea sustain effort because if you don't,

(53:52):
that's why you're in this predicament inthe first place. But the voters do
kind of have to meet you halfway. And part of the issue that we
had is when we're talking and empowermentagenda and we're talking about all of these
like really really really really pro blackissues. A Democrat operative who was supportively

(54:19):
warned me probably like a couple ofweeks before the election, and they were
like, better make sure these peopleshow up and vote, because the black
people who are most favorable to themessage that we were presenting are the ones
who are typically the least likely tovote. Wow, Okay, And on

(54:43):
election Day, that's exactly what happened. The turnout, particularly in the city,
particularly in the city of Cleveland,to turnout was abysmal in the areas
where black people live. So Clevelandhistorically has been one of the most segregated
big cities in America. So theeast side is predominantly black and the west

(55:04):
side is predominantly white. The eastside turnout is abysmal. It was like
or something like that. It wasa bysmal and as a result, a
Republican candidate will get blown out inthe city because the West Side is now
full of white people. Yeah so, and the black folks who did show

(55:30):
up are the ones who just voteto sample vallet. And the other issue
that we had was when we willwarned this by Democrats. The problem is
Republicans don't know how to have aturnout operation to get black voters to vote.

(55:51):
Yeah, there's no Republican version ofSouls of the polls, right right,
right, So then that becomes theif you when it's like, okay,
you know it's a problem, butthey don't know what to do about
it. So it's just all kindsof stuff, man, all kinds of
stuff. Okay. I mean,so this is kind of just like an

(56:14):
introduction to what's been going on.And I do want to have more conversations
about this issue because, like wealways say, a lot of people ignore
local politics, but that's the politicsthat impacts your life the most. So
I think we need to have moreconversations about this. I think that we
need to continue these because it's notgoing to change if we're not putting pressure

(56:37):
on our leaders to do the rightthing. I mean, I'm glad to
hear that Ohio's GOP was willing toget involved, but we need more of
that and it needs to be asustained effort. So I think we're gonna
go ahead and close it out there. But before we close out, Darbio,
why don't you kind of just giveus some closing closing words of what

(56:58):
you want people to know. Yeah, so, I guess you know the
thing that was just kind of disappointingto me because for me and you know
this, Jeff, and we kindof shared this, Like, my goal
is not I want every black personto be a Republican, right. My
goal is that we are free enoughto vote our conscious without having to make

(57:28):
these other considerations that other voters typicallydon't have to make. Right, the
average voter typically doesn't have to makethe observation of I'm going to lose my
political job if I support X person, or you know what I'm saying.
I want black liberals to feel freeto vote for liberals. I want black

(57:52):
moderates and conservatives to feel free tovote for the people who share their interests.
And the unfortunate thing is that there'sa long way to go for that.
And the really sad thing to mewas to see how many black Democrats

(58:14):
who understand the problem but are powerlessto do anything about it. And I
don't blame them, because if theRepublicans are, like I told you,
poggasm in the leadership here in twentyfive years, we haven't. I was
two years old when Cleveland's last Republicanmayor left, right, So you can't

(58:39):
you can't blame them. You can'tblame them from like, yeah, I
agree with you, but I can'treally mess with you because y'all don't normally
show up, and when you doshow up, you don't win. Yeah,
I mean that consistency needs to bethere. Yeah. Yeah, So
it's and then to see kind oflike how this machine operates from the from

(59:02):
the media, from the institutions.A lot of our institutions, a lot
of our black institutions are compromised.I'm sure most of the people listening to
this know that. But they arecompromises because again, they get money from
the same sources. There's the sameissue with the with the churches. They're

(59:22):
getting money from the same sources.So as a result, when Republicans forget
we're trying to win elections for asecond, when you're not in the community
at all. You're not the oneswriting the checks for those food banks,
you're not the ones writing the checksto that homeless shelter, you're not the
ones funding these community resources on aconsistent basis. Now Leave did that,

(59:49):
but again he's only one, right, right, So but you're not doing
it on a consistent basis. Soyou're not building relationships with people, and
people don't know old that. Well, if the Democrats are cutting me off,
I'll be okay. So that's athat's a huge, huge problem,
and that goes back to not beingaround. Gotcha. So we'll go ahead

(01:00:13):
and even there. But before wehead out, why don't you tell everybody
where they can find you your podcasts, all that good stuff. Follow me
at DDA Kingpin everywhere as dt HE K I N G P I N.
Make sure you subscribe to the OutlawsRadio show. That's all ut Laws
on Apple's Spotify, Higheart or whereveryou get your podcast. Awesome, Well,

(01:00:37):
thanks a lot, and we'll bedoing doing this again soon. Appreciate
your brother. All right, allright, everybody, thank you for listening,
Thank you for tuning in to afresh perspective with Jeff Charles. I
hope you like that conversation between Darvoand I. It was very eye opening
for me, and we even hadphone conversations before we did the Spaces where

(01:00:58):
he kind of laid out a lotof this stuff. And you know,
it's for anybody who wants to deposethe Democrats in these areas, They've got
an uphill battle. Now. I'mnot saying that it can't be done,
because it can, but it's importantto know exactly what you're going to be
dealing with. So I appreciated havingthat Spaces session with him. And if

(01:01:19):
you like this podcast, please dome a favor like this and share this
with your friends, shared on yoursocial media, leave me a five star
rating, especially if you're listening tothis on Apple Podcasts, and also leave
me a review. Just a fewsentences for people to let people know why
you love this podcast so much.But until next time, God bless and

(01:01:43):
good night or morning or afternoon orwhatever your time you're listening to this.
This has been a presentation of theFCB podcast Network, where real talk lifts.

(01:02:05):
Visit us online at FCB podcasts dotcom.