Ep. 21 - Previewing the 2022 election, Reviewing the 2021 elections, and discussing the problematic election of Justin Bibb

Previewing the 2022 election, Reviewing the 2021 elections, and discussing the problematic election of Justin Bibb

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the FCB Radio Network.Come of the best personalities and we're real
Tucke Lists Funline a FCB Radio dotcom FCP. This is now not another
political podcast. They can't take itno more. We've been silent for toulon
on the FCB Radio Network and weare back none Other political Podcasts Episode twenty

(00:27):
one. Oh man, I calledfor it's not covid Heart. Make sure
for the rest of crazy. Yougotta get that disclaimer everywhere now too.
I was I had to tell somebodyI ain't got it. I ain't got
it, you know. Episode twentyone Other political Podcasts. We are back
with our election special. As always, I'm your host, Colin Jackson with
our co host Alex Harper, hereto give you all the insight and perspective

(00:51):
that you can only get here onthe NAP And as always, please like
and subscribe to our Facebook and ourTwitter and if you can give us those
thumbs up and those likes on whateverpodcast platform you are getting this uh and
piece of entertainment, whether that beApple, Spotify, or as always our
favorite, I Heart Radio. Wedon't get right into a heart Uh wait

(01:14):
wait, hold on, hold on, wait wait wait you gotta do your
thing. Go ahead, No,No, I just want to make sure
we shot out Australia. We missedAustralia in the first in a couple of
episodes before, so it's been awhile, but we still want to shout
out Australia, Germany, Finland,Um, Afghanistan, Souva, whoever.
Everybody listening to us, shut up. Yeah, we need y'all to get

(01:37):
back on the charts up to ourshort break, but again we're back to
give you that perspective you can onlyget on the nap. So with that
being said, the elections of twentytwenty one are over. I'll personally like
to say that it is important,incredibly important to vote in every election.
I always say being a consistent voter. It's just as important as being an

(02:00):
informed voter. So I for notvoting your local elections, whether that be
your city council, your mayor,and those types of election. So then
it puts us in a bad situationwhen we get to the big elections.
I'm sure harps agreeds at that point. No, No, I always tell
people to vote, and I tellpeople to vote because there was a time,

(02:21):
ay we weren't allowed to vote,and they like, really that kept
us from voting. So if it'sis something as simple as voting, but
be and more importantly, most times, it directly affects how you live your
life and what goes on in yourlife. So voting in the local election
you actually have more sway than onevote in the election one by twenty is
more powerful than one vote by electionone by you know, two hundred thousand.

(02:44):
Wow, man, that was propheticalright there. Put that on a
shirt. We need to put thaton a T shirt. But no,
very clearly code we can put thaton a T shirt. Shout out nice
code nice, There you go,there you go. Uh, you know,
we did not see the turnout thatwe need to see, at least
in Cleveland our local elections. Andwe'll talk about that later. But one

(03:06):
of the prime importance of these offyear, these local elections, especially when
we're going in the middle of apresidential term, is is it gives us
indications of what's to come and themid term. Most of the time,
and this is kind of political philosophy, the president's party always loses when it

(03:28):
comes to midterms, and what we'reseeing right now looking towards tween tweets two
midterms, of course, with theapproval ratings for both Biden and the president
for both President Biden and Kamala Harrisunfortunately are both falling going into the midterms,
as well as the increased crime andthe conversations around critical race theory and

(03:51):
all socialist local issues that are beingnationalized are leading what will be in twenty
twenty two What most experts are predictinga when not positive for Republicans across the
nature. So Harper, you know, I kind of know where you are
at on where twenty two is goingto come from. But why do you

(04:12):
think we're going in that direction?Well, I've been I've been saying that
since the since the election results oflast year came out, and I really
even before then, when we werejust moving around and like campaigning and hear
people talking about why they're voting forcertain people and why they're voting this way
that way, and it was liketheir expectations were way too high, and

(04:32):
they were expectations that were put atthat level, but their expectations of the
general voter, not the you know, superinformed, deep dive all those types,
but the general the general public andtheir expectations were so high, so
it was like, there's gonna bea letdown, and thence once you get
that letdown, now how do youvote? Do you come out again to
vote if there's no villain and DonaldTrump to come vote for it, you

(04:56):
know, to vote against. Sowithout having the result, do you still
vote for the same parties? Doyou still vote for along the same lines
without being informed enough to know howthings went and how things didn't. So
once these results stopped coming, oncethese results ultimately didn't show up, you
know, the approval rating for JoeBiden and Kamala We're gonna go down because
that's what they sold. They soldso much of we're gonna do this,

(05:19):
We're gonna change the world. We'regonna change the world. And as it
wasn't possible. So now people feelshould bamboozo, should they should feel they
should feel upset? I said,I saw something that they're talking about.
They're gonna they're talking about either runningKamala Harris or Michelle Obama for twenty twenty
four, you know what. AndI and it's interesting because being in a

(05:43):
Republican myself, I definitely see theadvantage to riding that way. But I
think I think it's almost like amagic trick, right, or like a
cheat told or like a glitch inthe video game that first week that is
in there. It works every time, And I think that's what the what

(06:04):
the Democrats are trying to plan todo. It's like, Okay, we're
just going to run more minority andmore women candidates, more you know,
lgpt q i A candidates in thenext election, and think it's going to
work again. Contrary, I don'tthink that's going to be possible unless they're

(06:24):
making every local twenty tweet two election. When we talk about Congress and those
things about President Trump, which Ithink in at least in this election,
it proved a little bit harder todo when the boogeyman is not here.
Now you can make the Senate thenew Donald Trump. But I don't think
it works as well when you're talkingabout local issues and what we're seeing in

(06:46):
a lot of suburbs where in particular, if you look at the twenty twenty
election, that's where Republicans lost themost in those suburbs. There was a
big coming out of suburban women.And we know suburbs usually vote at higher
rates than inner city courts. Um, they saw a loss in twenty twenty,

(07:09):
twenty twenty versus in twenty twenty one, like in places like Nassau County
in New York. Uh, thoseflip back to Republicans, um. And
a lot of people who are winningin those races are able to do that
by focusing on the local issues ratherthan being a part of the national narratives,
which tends to lean more democratic.So I think looking more locally maybe

(07:33):
Republicans way of getting more power theywant back nationally. If that makes sense.
Well, here's the thing too,and and what people don't understand and
the importance of voting in your localelection is that during the Trump era,
they packed the under like the lowerlevel courts with judges and all these things.
And these are the elections that we'renot coming out for when they're not

(07:57):
big, huge general elections. Sothese these judges, these senates, these
senators, congressmen, all this,these every two year elections that we should
be coming out for every two years, people aren't coming out for anymore.
And it's just I want to sayit's sad because as to say, it's
kind of been par for the course. But at what point, do well,

(08:18):
at what point does this and it'sprobably a question, but what point
does the paradigm shift from we're onlygoing to focus on the huge, big
national elections to looking more at froma local level and regional level. You
know, and I only disagree.I think it's I think we saw this
in some and a lot of localelections this year. Um, you know

(08:43):
where it's easier to focus on nationalissues when you're running for local office.
For example, if yeah, ifyou're a city councilman and you're talking about
the infrastructure bill or you're talking aboutfed oral bills that coming out of the
Senate, it's easy to get supportfor yourself without having to actually have a

(09:07):
platform. Uh. What we sawin again more suburb suburbs like Suffolk County.
Uh, when candidates chose to focusI mean, even if you're talking
about school board, when they choseto focus on local issues, they came
out in a better place. Now, I think school board had a had
a chink in the armor when you'retalking about critical race theory and school board

(09:33):
members then being targeted for only havingcritical race theory as their only issue point.
So again back to my point,having a local legenda, and a
local race can get you over thehump, especially if you're a Republican UM
and it gives you something to holdonto that doesn't just make you Trump Junior

(09:54):
or Trump the fourth in your localarea. And you know, I don't
think that's that's serially eight winning recipe, at least in local elections. Yeah.
Yeah, But at the same timethey're not I want to say that
most people don't look at the localelections in that way. So most people
look at the local elections as theydon't think of the actual titles that they're

(10:16):
voting for. They're thinking local elections, Oh, dog ketcher, I don't
have to go to those that's youknow, head garbage man like yeah,
yeah, municipal judge. And theydon't really realize the impact that they can
have that on almost every election,there's a congress person in some district that
needs to be re elected or somethinglike. And but then at that point

(10:37):
too, you you're asking people todo more of the research of those lower
level courts. No, not lowerlevel courts with those UM non national elections,
and right, people just not goinggoing through all that. They don't
really want to do it. Theyif it's not directly affected them. And
that's why I said that the thoughtprocess is that the national elections are the
ones that directly affect you, whenin reality, it's a lot of those

(11:00):
smaller uh you know, regi regionalelections that really make a difference in your
everyday life. Yeah, yeah,yeah, And you know, um five
thirty eights reporting that Democrats have abouta two percent lead on the general ballot
pre' looking at Congress for twenty twentytwo. But again, that's pretty much

(11:20):
within the margins there. Um,and if it's that close, you know,
you often give the benefit of thedoubt to the party that's not trically
in all of power. And andlet me remind people, there are very
small margins and uh, Congress andI think it's it's uh, pretty much
a fifty fifty and Senate because evenwith infrastructure build, they had to have

(11:43):
Kamala come over and actually be thatdeciding vote. So you know, twenty
twenty two is going to be veryimportant to the future of this country.
I would argue that twenty twenty twois going to be even more important than
who's in the presidency in twenty twentyfour. I don't know where you what
you think about that? But Ithink that you know, we often forget

(12:05):
about our third grade civic education aboutthe branch of the government and what each
body does. You know, apresident that doesn't have control or support in
those other two houses has a lotof problems getting things passed, no matter
what party they are. Oh no, yeah. And and to your point
though, that the primaries coming upor the midterms coming up are going to

(12:28):
be more important because the national electionsget swayed or presidencies get swayed by bigger
issues, and they get clouded bybigger issues. And that's not again,
that's not the important thing of yourday to day that's each person's day to
day life, the average voter like. And when it does, it clouds
the fact that you know, youyou let all your regional and district senators

(12:52):
and congressmen and without really researching theirvoting history, without really reaching searching their
platform, and now you're up saidbecause they vote a certain way when they've
always voted that way anyway, Andthat's a very fair point. I think
we see that all too often.I think the real solution is for everybody
in twenty twenty two is to sitat your kitchen table and come up with

(13:13):
your agenda. Find the issues thatare important to you. Don't follow whatever
national narrative you're listening to. AndI encourage everyone not only listen to the
NAP, but listen to other perspectivesas well, and come up again with
your own agenda going into twenty twentytwo, because that's the only way we're
gonna have a truly balanced government representativeof the people, and mid terms are

(13:35):
a great way to do that.I'm excited to see who comes out in
the mid terms and what the outcomesare going to be. And I'm excited
to also further forecast what's going tohappen in twenty twenty four based off of
those mid terms. With that whatin segment one, not on the Political
podcast, Episode twenty one, You'rein the Nap, not another political podcast.

(14:01):
This is a knap. Segment two, not another political podcast, Episode
twenty one. You are still inthe Nap, and we are doing our
election special a little late, alittle late, but we're here. We're

(14:22):
excited to, you know, talkabout the new development and now after we've
talked about the far out forecast fortwenty twenty two, midterms. We want
to kind of focus on actually whathappened in twenty twenty one, particularly on
the governor's race out of Virginia,where Glenn and Yuncan and Lieutenant Governor elect
win some sears actually for the firsttime in a long time are going to

(14:46):
be elected as Republican leaders in theGovernor's House in Virginia. The race was
particularly interesting for a variety of reasons, and for most pundits is now becoming
the post Trump era. We'll putthat in quotations of how Republicans can win
in places where Republicans don't typically win. So harp I asked you really quickly,

(15:09):
what was your reaction to seeing M. Glenn Younkins win in Virginia.
I know that was a big topicleading into an election day. Yeah,
I was. I was actually curiousabout how much does the actual position pay
because they spent a lot of money, like hundreds of millions of dollars since
last year, um on this particularrace, like this specific race. Yeah,

(15:35):
it was, and I understand it'ssupposed to be like a forecast of
foreshadowing of things to come if theDemocrats couldn't hold the seat. But there
was a lot of money spent here, like like it was like two hundred
million, I know, numbers off. It was like two hundred million like
in March, then like another onehundred seven million in September. And my

(16:00):
thing is that I get it thatthis is a seat that you need,
is that swing seaton, and mathematicallyyou just need it, and really from
a strategic standpoint, but it alsogoes to show that you if you can't
hold it, dude, you're stillsupposed to be in your honeymoon phase as
Democrats. You're still supposed to be. It shouldn't take you this much to

(16:21):
win this selection. And then youdidn't win it. So you put in
all of these resources, all thiseffort. You had the Rock come down
there and speak on his behalf,You had Joe come down there give his
endorsement for whatever that's worth, andthen you had Kamala come down there as
well. So you you basically threwyour big guns at this race, plus

(16:41):
a lot of money, and stilllost. And and it's and it's kind
of like, well, I mean, I know what happened. And then
after that, I feel like theywere like, we gotta hurd pass some
stuff, we gotta get some winsbecause there was just so much in decisiveness
with them as far as what theirwhat their actual agenda was versus what their
hugender ended up turning out to be. So it was just it was interesting,

(17:03):
Like I said, how much moneythat would spend, how many resources
were allocated to this race they had. It showed his value somewhere somebody felt
like this was important. Well,you know it one's Virginia. Virginia is
a very interesting state, uh,as far as it makes up goals.
I mean, I would consider itsimilar to Ohio, um in that there's
a large rural community as well asin northern Virginia, which is more um

(17:30):
metropolitan, I would say, anddefinitely heavily African American minority driven to your
point. Um, you know,just at the end of the race,
you know, and maybe their lastfiling between October one October twenty first,
you know, dunk And raised fiftyfifteen million UM and then his opponent Terry

(17:52):
actually put about twelve point nine millionat the same time. So those are
big numbers. Uh. And ifyou which we'll talk about later, in
this race, the yunk In campaign, like you said, started very early.
They started spending money, and ofcourse that's not just all adds.
Some of that money is spent buildingcoalitions, which was one of the things

(18:15):
that helped young In a lot.You know, in Northern Virginia, Republicans
very rarely get over forty of thevote just because of the makeup racially and
economically out of Northern Virginia. Junkingot you know, somewhere around forty three
forty four percent, which was alot more than most Republicans tend to tend

(18:36):
to get done out there. SoI think, you know, to your
point, spending a lot of moneyin this race was important because it's kind
of a bellweather again, We're goinginto twenty twenty two holding a seat that
as Democrats you would think when youjust won the presidency that you'd be able
to hold. Holding it definitely senda message to I think Republicans that we're

(19:00):
still in control. The outcome endedup saying that they weren't um and and
it's a lot of interesting things thatthe Juncan team did um to actually make
that happen. You know, alot of the people from inside of the
campaign are are speaking on some ofthose things, you know, and a
big one that they talked about wasthat you can't have too many messages at

(19:23):
the end of the campaign. Inparticular, Terry had eleven commercials, they
only had three running, which speaksto I wouldn't say the simplicity of voters,
but the understanding that most people aren'tlike us, Harper. A lot
of people aren't paying that much attentionto politics. They want to the exposure.
You don't have the same exposure,and you're not reaching that. And

(19:45):
then I always call them swing votersbecause they're more of the I'm gonna vote
high field type voters. Those I'mtoday, I feel like this and the
last commercial I heard was great,so I'm gonna go with that person.
And that the same time, evenjust their approaches from a meant how much
they mentioned Trump in the I'm gonnajust calling forty five, because that's how

(20:07):
they started referring to him. Noone wanted to say his actual name.
But he got the Trump endorsement early, Yet he got he got the Trump
endorsement early, so now he wasable to back back off of it and
send one singular message from then onout where and that's ultimately what I think
helped helped get him over the humpas well, because yeah, that's what

(20:30):
the Democrats. No, no,no, I'm just saying that's what that's
what the Democrats was saying, Likehe's a he's a Trump guy, he's
a Trump guy, and he wasable to distance it ulf just enough from
Trump while still getting those Trump votes. And you know, I agree with
you there. Um. One ofthe things from inside of the campaign,
they said that every day the opponentof Junkin was focusing on talking about Trump

(20:51):
every day. But for the Dunkincampaign, again because he did get that
endorsement early, Um, that wasa plus for them, because they're essentially
saying that every day that the opponentis talking about Trump is the day that
we can actually be talking about issues. One thing that the Youncan campaign did
that I think more Republican candidates needto do is invest in data and go

(21:12):
after every vote. And this issomething I talked about all the time,
even when we were talking about thewhat I would call the false argument of
voter suppression, the argument being that, you know, Republicans want to keep
people not voting so they don't haveto compete for those votes. My political
philosophy, as I learned it fromsome people that mentored me was we want

(21:33):
as many votes on the table andthat no vote is a vote that you
don't go after. You know,they were targeting the Youncan campaign was targeting
and targeting four hundred thousand Asian Americanvoters, you know, two thousand Polynesian
and over you know, sixty fivethousand Middle Eastern votes. Though the groups
that don't typically go Republican even thoughthey have particular conservative views. But having

(22:02):
that data driven campaign is something thatI think a lot of Republicans don't do.
They didn't. They tend to wantto again nationalize issues um and run
on that when really what you shouldbe doing is finding out exactly what moves
the voters within your district. Yeah, no, you're you're right. And

(22:22):
but on top of all that isusing the data effectively and when when they
get so when let me back up, So here's my question. Even with
them going out to these different demographics, they've never made over the top effort
to reach them in the same orthe pander to them in the same way
that people make. It seem asthough you know, they're pander to to

(22:48):
to black people, to the blackvote. They didn't pander to them.
They just spoke directly to them.And and that's a difference in the way
other ethnicities and nationalities are treated whenit comes they're voting their votes and they're
voting blocks, as opposed to theway that black people are treated in the
sense of, we know, wecan give everybody one message, we can

(23:08):
give them to come out and voteby just you know, a lot of
the extras. And when they wentout to some of these other demographics using
the data, and it was like, Hey, we're gonna tell you a
direct message that affects you and howto help you and why we're the best
candidate to receive your vote. AndI think that that's an approach to your
point that not only Republicans should use, but just we'll have a better I

(23:33):
think we'll just have a better poolof candidates if they actually spoke directly to
the constituents and not in just agroup, not in just a whole.
You know, all the black people, we're gonna talk to you a certain
type of way, but all thePodnesians, we're gonna talk speak a different
type of way. And in reality, using the data, like you said,
it helps get them the direct messageto the direct people, whereas the

(23:56):
Democrats weren't even pandering to are notpandered. Sorry, I did you pandering
so much with them, because that'swhat they do so much, But they
weren't appealing to these other minority groupsat all. They when they weren't trying
to appeal to them at all,And so that you know, ltimately the
results show and that's how they are. Yeah, and then before we move

(24:18):
on to the Lieutenant governor, becauseit's important that we also talk about her
being the first African American woman tohold that seat in Virginia. Lieutenant governor,
it's important to bring up, youknow, the hot Bush issue of
the times when it was critical ratestheory, and what the young team did
was, you know, they seta basis like, yeah, we're against

(24:40):
uh, critical race theory, butwe're also concerned about education standards. We're
all was concerned about um school spending. We're also concerned about school choice in
school policy issues as well, inan entire education package, and particularly in
Northeast Ohio. I'll draw a similarityhere though that worked to a degree with

(25:03):
school board candidates. I've always toldthem that needs to be more than just
CRT. We know that that's nota single defining issue for people overall.
You know, it's not something thatyou can say all black people agree with
this. You know, we've seenPoland that says four nine percent of African
Americans don't agree with CRT and don'tthink it should be taught in schools.

(25:26):
But when Yuncan did a very goodjob of was making sure that it wasn't
just about that, it was aboutoverall education policy, which again, to
your point, is something that appealsto all parents. And I think again
similar to what Mark Mike Huckabee didwhen he got so much African American vote
when he ran for governor. Youhave to understand that black people aren't aliens.

(25:49):
Minority aren't aliens, that they havethe same concerns as everyone else.
It's just about talking to them andmaking sure that you're on the same page
as them with those issues. Umreally quickly before we end the segment,
because I see uh Darbio giving ussome time constraints here. But when some
seers Jamaican born Republican woman again causinga lot of how do I say a

(26:19):
panic? Uh? Monks, mostliberals, Uh, they're giving you the
Uncle Tom treatment. Uh, they'regiving her the Clarence thom As, the
Larry Larry Elder treatment of saying,you know, even going as far as
to saying that this woman was aventriloquist for Republican Talking Points harp. You
know, we talked about it allthe time about political diversity amongst African Americans.

(26:40):
You know, what, do youthink the significance is of having a
black lieutenant governor in a particular racelike this where they actually flipped the state.
No, it's huge. But sohere's my problem with all that.
When you start telling, when youstart making people feel that anyone that thinks
other than they think, or itthinks other than the group, is not

(27:03):
of the group and not part ofthe group, it trickles down. So
it doesn't just start at start andend that the lieutenant governor. It also
trickles down to how you know,your local politicians act and move and what
they're willing to endorse and how they'rewilling to vote because they don't want their
career to be ended in the inthe same light or be portrayed in the

(27:23):
same light. And then then atthe same time, the troop that just
go full full a joker and justdon't care. Yeah yeah, we know
something, yeah yeah yeah, Andthat's and that's cool too. You know,
it's up to everybody's how how theircomfort level with receiving criticism. But
the dangerous part is that it's startingto get too commonplace just to dismiss the

(27:47):
the black, the black unpopular paid. So it's becoming oh, you're just
Candice Owens. Oh you're just settingsets. Oh you're just seting sets without
even hearing or take and taking intoconsideration how they came to the decision that
they came to and and if if, if someone, if someone gets to

(28:08):
achieve that level, we should atleast celebrate the fact that somebody has to
achieve that level. Like for blackpeople, there has to be a first
before they had there's a best,So there has to be we have to
get a first everywhere before we cantalk about who's the best one way the
other. And I think that's wherewe're having a problem right now. And
I agree, and you're you're beingyou're getting your profit on the day.

(28:30):
You know, there has to bea first before there can be a best.
Uh, if you don't particularly clearingTimmonds, that's fine, but you
should respect them for being uh,you know, one of the first black
uh Supreme Justice Supreme Court justices.And it's the same thing with Lieutenant governor
when some seers uh she called alot of flat for being a black woman
holding a gun. Uh. Andand I think in later episodes we'll talk

(28:53):
about gun rights and how important thatis. And we even had Maage on
here. But you know, thestigmatism that we have around particularly minority Republican
candidates is something that we have todeal with in our culture, because,
like you said, someone has toachieve this. Even if you want a
black Democrat in there, it's goodto see a black woman in these positions

(29:18):
and it's important. And I wouldeven go as far as to say that
that was a major part of thegovernor's appeal in those minority areas within Virginia
that made it possible for him towin. So I would just say overall,
congratulations to the entire ticket in Virginia, the governor and Lieutenant governor.
I'm excited to see what they doand how far they could take the Republican

(29:42):
Party into some of the areas thatwe may not have been previously. And
again, this is the blueprint Ithink for Republicans across the nation. We
can do this in suburban areas ifwe're able to speak to these people,
speak to their issues, and doit in an authentic way that doesn't seem
like pandering. Segment two Another politicalpodcast, episode twenty one. We'll be

(30:06):
back. Not another political podcast.This is the Knaw and we are back.
Last segment of episode twenty one.Nonother political podcast has always Please please

(30:30):
please like, share this episode onyour Facebook, on your Twitter. Make
sure we're getting those likes on whateverpodcast platform you're listening to. We need
those. Harp almost got our Facebookband other weeks. How you do that,
hard man listen. I didn't knowwhat I didn't even know what it
was. I put a meme upand I thought the meme was kind of
funny, and it was just likea chuckle funny. It wasn't even a

(30:52):
whole you know, don't whatever.They didn't try it as humorous as I
thought it was. It didn't landproperly. And then next thing I know,
Facebook gym. Yeah yeah, andit's me too. It ain't just
the nap, it's my personal what'sname too? That's because you're controversial.
Um No, but we didn't doanything like um tweet out a video of

(31:14):
a member of Congress getting like captatedor hurt anything like that, because we
never we never stand behind violence againstanyone in particular. But we did get
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(31:37):
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platforms, you can rate us andreview us, give us five stars.
If you give us four stars,I'm gonna have to definitely think that you
are hater, that you got somehate in your heart somewhere. So in
five star reviews, that's right,that's right, that's right. So very
lastly, in our set in segmentthree, we're gonna get even more of

(31:59):
my arol on elections and talk abouta local election here in Cleveland. For
the first time in Cleveland, amillennial has been elected to the seat of
mayor in the city. A thirtyfour year old Justin Bibb, nonprofit executive
one not only his primary running awayby about a number of twenty points in
the primary, but then seventy fiveto twenty five in the general election,

(32:22):
marking a new area era in thecity of Cleveland using using his data driven
background. Formerly he was an internat Gallop. He's been all over the
place as far as nonprofit goes,but was a political first timer in the
city. You know, it wasan interesting election. I'll say that hard

(32:45):
having a someone who has never beenelected to office as city councilman or anything
like that actually dominate in a mayor'srace. And the campaign was driven particularly
off the back of young people,political outsiders for the most part, and
a need for change as we've hadthe former mayor of Frank Jackson in for

(33:08):
almost most of my lifetime as faras I can remember, as being thirty
years old in the city of Cleveland. So initial reaction to the changing of
the guard in the city of Clevelandheart So to be honest, I don't
I feel like it was It wascreative the way he won the election.
It wasn't inspirational in the way inwhich they're trying to make it seem like

(33:30):
it was old as young black manjust came in and it wasn't like that
because he literally didn't campaign to blackpeople his entire campaign until he was the
last black man left. So alot of his base were the young white
progressives, a lot of his basewas the is not even was, but
it is that. And if you'refamiliar with the Cleveland kind of in general,

(33:54):
the west side of Cleveland is moreHispanic, and even by the numbers,
not even perssual, but even bynumbers, are more Hispanic and Caucasian.
And that's where his base lies.Majority of the African Americans and African
Americans especially in the in the inthe stereotypical as we know black people to

(34:14):
be on the east side. Sohe his whole campaign was not geared towards
those, not geared towards us.And I'm trying to be as nice as
possible when I say this, buthe was really just his whole campaign was
more so geared towards the other sideof the town. And then so when
he became the only black man left, he gets all the black vote.
What the problem to me is thatit becomes dangerous, It becomes a blueprint

(34:37):
to show that you don't really haveto directly campaign to black people, which
means you don't owe them anything onceyou get elected. You they can't hold
you accountable once you once you're actuallyelected. And that's where it becomes a
dangerous It becomes a given goal becausepeople will come out and say, hey,
well, he needed a black voteto get over, but he won

(34:59):
something like three out of every orhe wanted like something like seven out of
every ten votes or something crazy.I don't know what his ratio was,
but he wanted by a landslide.So he never literally campaigned toward black people
and then didn't need to seemingly afterthe results came out. So's it's just
a little dangerous and just it's aslippery slope of if we don't have to

(35:19):
campaign to you that you can't holdus accountable and we don't owe you anything,
and now we can just push ouragenda with you without you. How
do you But here's my question toyou, though, how do you feel
about justin Because I know you feelI know you have a little bit more
of a little bit more insight onthe you know, the the to tiety

(35:40):
of the situation. I just knowhe came from the private sector. But
how do you feel in that aspect? Of it because he's a through and
through liberal. Yeah. Um,Justin Bibb has been cemented as the face
of the progressive millennial, particularly onthe local level. But I'll say this,

(36:00):
and I'll be very clear about this, Justin Bibb is is the savior
of the city of Cleveland. Withthat being said, I think some of
the policies that he's now pushing andsupporting may not be the best for the
East Side of particular. We didhave a conversation about Issue twenty four and

(36:22):
how that's going to affect our policing. Justin is of the mindset that you
can have smart policing and respect forthe community. Don't disagree with that.
Don't know if this was the wayto do that. Justin's also trying to
open the Tamira Rights Deo JKS again, the thing that got us to a
consent decree, or help get usto a consent decree. I feel like

(36:43):
that's kind of opening old wounds.Justin is also in heavy support of issues
like green space and bike lanes.All of those things I don't think are
necessarily issues for the community that asthe black savior now in the mayor's office,
are particularly concerned about. I thinkin this way his election is a

(37:08):
bit alarming to me because it saysthat we can put a person in office
for the esthetics and not the actualimpact of the legislation he supports. I
am worried. I am worried.At the same time, I do want

(37:30):
our city to succeed. Listen,we were previously the poor city in the
country. Look at our murder rate. We're up in the top five last
time to look per capita from murders. I don't know how bikes and green
space are gonna fix that. Ithink jobs can fix that, But I
don't think that screaming equity, screaminginclusion is going to necessarily change some of

(37:53):
the right now problems. And Justin'sJustin's tagline was the right leader for the
right time. I think it's theright I think he's the election for the
right message, the right feeling forthis time. I don't know how he's
particularly going to deal with the rightnow problems and right now. That is

(38:15):
my uh division with an election question. Let me ask you a quick question
though, like I think, becauseI personally think he just extremely benefited from
the summer. George Floyd and Iand I always recommend, you know,
refer to the summer of George Floyd, because that's more of a It was
the spark that changed the thinking ofthe equality d and I, you know,

(38:38):
diversity, inclusion and equality, allthat, all that stuff, and
I think he became the face ofthat. And the timing of which he
ran was perfect, was perfect,and was a distraction away from the fact
that he doesn't have a solid platform. If he ran four years ago or

(38:59):
four years is in the future,that there may have been more attention paid
to his actual platform, to theactual results he can create, as opposed
to the social outcry of that thetime permits, and that at the time
allowed him to take advantage of Andand we say it all the time,
people vote with their feelings and notwith the facts, and I think that

(39:20):
was evident in this race. ButI will say this, that campaign was
run amazingly well. You can't getthose type of numbers out of those communities
without doing that. And one thingthat I will applaud Justin on is you
know you weren't a politician when youstarted this. You're definitely one now,
or or or at least a politicalYou ran and and Justin ran a race

(39:45):
that will now be the gold standardfor pushing out the votes you meet and
when you need to go get thosevotes, because we talked about in the
primary his base was not particularly onthe East Side, but then when it
got to the general, that's whereit needed to be. So you know,
and we talked about it earlier inthe episode, data driven campaigns with

(40:07):
the things that make people motivate toget to the voting booth. If there's
anything we can learn from Justin's electionand the election of young minority candidates across
the nation, is that there isa way to get to these voters and
make them come out. Even ina low turnout year like we had in
Cleveland. We're only twenty three percentof the vote showed up. Seventy five

(40:29):
of the electorer did not make thisdecision to put this man in office.
But we're here now. And thelast thing that I will say is,
because you know, I don't wantto be accused of being a hater here,
I am not wishing that Justin's administrationfails, because if he fails,
then city fails, and that's notwhat I want. I'm identifying some of

(40:53):
the issues he may have and whatthe outcomes could be. But I think
if he is even seventy five percentof the person that the narrative in this
city is pushing him to be,he'll look through some other people to secure
some support, to secure some legislation, to have some impact that will actually

(41:16):
take us from where we are nowinto the future, as his campaign says
he was all about. So withthat, we'll end Episode twenty one,
not another political podcast. Thank youfor being in the nap We'll see you
on the other side. The FCBRadio Network first class broadcasting worldwide