No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Beto O’Rourke on finally flipping Texas blue

Episode Date: October 25, 2020

Trump and Biden have their final debate, where Trump leaned on a conspiracy theory that might have blown it for him. Brian discusses some promising early voting signs AND a warning about those same numbers. And an interview with Beto O’Rourke about the massively important work he’s doing to finally flip Texas blue.Written by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberRecorded in Los Angeles, CAhttps://www.briantylercohen.com/podcast/To use Vote Save America’s Built Your Own Ballot tool, visit votesave.us/btc.Visit www.poweredxpeople.org to get involved in a phone bank and help flip Texas blue.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we're going to talk about the final debate between Trump and Biden, along with the conspiracy theory that might have blown it for Trump. I'm also going to touch on some promising early voting signs and a warning about those same numbers. And I speak with Beto O'Rourke about the massively important work he's doing to finally flip Texas Blue. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. Let's start off with the final debate. This came after a first debate where Trump's strategy was apparently to prove to the American people that he's a lunatic relative to Joe Biden, and a second debate that Trump bailed on only to hold the town hall where his strategy was, again, to prove to the American people that he's a lunatic relative to the moderator.

And so clearly, Trump had one strategy here, which was to show people that he was capable of being calm. And that's not because he's a benevolent person. It's because he was basically held hostage against the threat that the moderator, Kristen Walker, had a mute button. Because in Trump's desperation to look strong, you would not be able to find worse optics than Trump's screaming silently on stage. And just the fact that we need a mute button for a 74-year-old, full-grown man with the nuclear codes, pretty much sums up this presidency. Now, in terms of what we actually saw at the debate, here's what it boils down to.

This wasn't a debate on their different philosophies. It was a debate on their different set of facts. Donald Trump and Joe Biden do not live in the same universe. And that was on full display. Biden spoke about issues facing the American people. He spoke about a concrete plan for getting this virus under control, a virus that Trump is not only allowed to spread uninhibited for eight months, but that's spiking to its worst point ever now. The U.S. just reported its highest number of coronavirus infections in one day since the start of this pandemic, proving that Trump has no plan and it's only getting worse by the day. Biden spoke about transitioning to renewables, wind and solar, which are the fastest growing sectors in this country. And he admitted his goal of eventually transitioning away from oil.

And I know that Republicans thought this was some huge concession, but it was smart. How many voters out there have a litmus test of voting in lockstep with ExxonMobil? Like, especially considering from a job's perspective, relying on fossil fuels is completely counterintuitive. It is a dying industry, not a burgeoning one. And by the way, Biden also spoke about the disparate impacts on communities of color who live near oil refineries and chemical plants that are making them sick. He gave a detailed answer about fence-line communities and proved that he's not only familiar with the concept of environmental justice, but he's taking it seriously.

And finally, Biden reiterated on numerous occasions that he will be a president not just for blue states, but for all states. And for however, you know, hokey that might sound to people, for a lot of others out there who are sick and tired of division and pitting half of the country against the other, this was exactly what they needed to hear. I'm sure there are people in red states who have family in blue states that maybe don't want disaster relief withheld from their loved ones after a wildfire or a hurricane. Maybe you don't even need to have family to just be able to believe that a president shouldn't play favorites with people's lives depending on the electoral benefit of their states.

But either way, Biden spoke to those people. And meanwhile, Trump spoke about, what, Hunter Biden's email scandal? Where Hunter Biden apparently dropped off a laptop brimming with incriminating emails in a shop in Delaware? even though he was living in California to the owner who was an avowed Trump supporter, but we can't confirm anything because the security camera footage had miraculously disappeared. But the shop owner swears it was Hunter, even though he is legally blind. And the story was written by a former producer for Sean Hannity and sourced by Rudy Giuliani, who was the target of Russian disinformation campaign.

The story was so flimsy that even Fox News refused to run it. That's what Donald Trump included in his final pitch to voters, that story. he said that he was the best president for black people except maybe with the exception of Abraham Lincoln. Donald Trump, the guy who has white supremacists literally marching in the streets for him, the guy who called for the executions of the Central Park 5 who were exonerated by DNA evidence,

the guy who began his campaign on the promise of building a wall to keep Mexicans out and ban Muslims from entering this country, the guy who refused to disavow the endorsement of the KKK's David Duke, the guy who attacked black athletes for peacefully kneeling to protest police brutality. Yeah, yeah, Donald Trump, just a regular Martin Luther King, Jr. He spoke about Ukraine and Burisma and China and the deep state. The point is that while Biden was focused on issues that actually impact Americans, Trump was living in this Judge Janine Fox News fever dream.

This was his final pitch to the American people, his last chance to appeal to an electorate that judging by the polls are not supporting him, and he used that opportunity to wail about Burisma? I don't even think it's so much a matter of him purposefully trying to make this a major issue. I think that him living in this insulated right-wing ecosystem has convinced him that it already is a major issue. He thinks that everyone is down the same conspiratorial

Q&on rabbit hole that he went down, but they're not. Think about how dangerous it is to have a president that lives in this separate plane of reality. Americans' family members are dying from coronavirus. They're looking for jobs and wondering how they're going to pay their mortgages or not get evicted from their apartments. They're trying to juggle their kids being home from school with trying to work. And the fact that Donald Trump is screeching about the deep state is all the proof you need that today's GOP is so woefully, dangerously out of touch with the American people. This man and the party that backs him are not looking out for your best interest.

Their only focus is Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton and jailing political opponents and taking marching orders from a compromised Rudy Giuliani. It is a circus and everyone wants out of the tent. What's crazy is that these measures that Trump is leaning on to pull off an upset victory are what is ultimately turning people away. This is having exactly the reverse effect. If the point is that people are voting on some serious issues like this pandemic, or jobs or the economy, all of which are as tenuous as they've been in a generation, then spouting off conspiracy theories just proves that you are not capable of empathizing with people.

Every day Trump spends screeching about Hunter Biden's laptop is an in-kind contribution to Joe Biden. And it's a message to the American people that he just doesn't get it and he's never going to get it. We do not live in the same world as the president of the United States, which means he won't be able to solve any problems here either. Next I want to talk about early voting. We are seeing record early voting across the country. As of Sunday, October 25th, we're seeing a 500% increase in 18 to 29-year-olds in Florida, a 700% increase in North Carolina, a 2,000% increase in Michigan.

Across the U.S., early voting for 18-29-year-olds is up 31% so far compared to 2016. More broadly, as of Sunday, about 60 million Americans have voted so far, which is about half as many voters as there were in all of 2016. and we still have more than a week to go until election day. Voters have been waiting as long as 11 hours in line to vote. Speaking personally, my mom has never voted in over 60 years. And if you thought I should have been able to convince her, you do not know the stubbornness of a Jew from Brooklyn.

She just voted for the first time in her life for Joe Biden and Democrats straight down the ballot. And we're hearing stories like this everywhere. First time voters in their 70s, 80s, 90s. I saw a picture of a 106-year-old woman dropping off her mail ballot and full PPE. And that's in addition to those 18-year-olds defying the odds and turning out in what we hope will be record-breaking numbers for young people, too. What this tells us is twofold. One, there is clearly

massive enthusiasm for this election, and rightfully so, right? Because democracy is at stake, the planet is at stake, and our lives are at stake. I don't think I have to explain why this election is so important. I will, but I don't think I necessarily have to. But second, and more importantly, is that while we see numbers like these with demographic groups that are favorable to Democrats or a higher number of mail-in ballots received by Democrats than Republicans, do not let any of these early voting advantages make you complacent. You can take some fleeting momentary joy in them, sure, but just know that Republicans are going to turn out on election day. In numbers that have historically

won them elections, that was always their plan. Trump has been grooming his supporters specifically to avoid requesting mail ballots. He wants them in line on November 3rd. These gaps will close, so do not let up. Do not sit back and relax and definitely don't get complacent because we've seen this movie before and it didn't end well. So the same calls to action remain. It's you plus a friend.

You plus a family member, you plus a neighbor, you plus a coworker. Find someone who didn't vote in 2016 to vote for Biden. Find someone who voted for Trump in 2016 to sort of switch to Biden. In Michigan in 2016, the winning margin averaged out to two votes per precinct. Two. Those are the margins we need to overcome. You don't need a podcast to make a difference. You just need two people. Two people to flip a precinct, which will flip a state, which will flip an election. That's how much power you have. So use it. Next step is my interview with Beto O'Rourke, who has been crushing it on the ground in Texas

for months now. And his effort seemed to be paying off in a big way. as Texas leads the nation right now in votes cast. Okay, so today we've got a former presidential candidate and the guy working to flip Texas blue, Beto O'Rourke. Thanks for coming back on. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be with you. So I feel like the entire nation's eyes are on Texas right now.

In 2016, Texas was dead last in the nation in terms of turnout. Now you're first. As of this recording, about 6 million votes have been cast in Texas. We still have two weeks to go until Election Day. And you compare that to 2016, the total number of votes was about $9 million. So we're already about two-thirds of the way there with a couple weeks to go. Do you have any indication of how things are going beyond these broad strokes numbers that we're getting? Well, first of all, with these big numbers that you just cited, this is really encouraging because beyond, you know, partisan advantage and the candidates that we're supporting, which is critical, the fact that democracy is on trial right now or being tested on.

like any other time in our lives and perhaps any time in the life of this country, the fact that the state that was, as you said, 50th in voter turnout now leads the country in both absolute numbers and leads the country in turnout relative to turnout in 2016 and is the most diverse swing state in the country and is the most voter suppressed state in the country. The fact that all this is happening is really, really good news if you're a fan of democracy. For for Democrats, it is encouraging. Harris County, which is our largest county, has five million residents. So more people live in Harris County than live in the entire state of Nevada, for example. Harris County, which has really trended over the last 10 years,

bluer and bluer has doubled its early voting turnout on the first day of early voting from the highest level of voter turnout on any day of early voting in the, in the the highest year before that, which was 2016, you know, that was just the first day. And we have since had more than a week's worth of early voting. And the fact that you have nearly a million ballots cast in Harris County alone, on top of, you mentioned these other, you know, five million ballots cast across the state of Texas, many of them in our larger metropolitan areas, which again, trend to be or tend to be democratic strongholds. And then there's this, and you've probably been following this, but in the places that have not been safely, you know, Democratic in the

past, Collin County or Denton County in North Texas above, Dallas County. These were Republican bastions for, you know, probably most of my life. They are turning. They began to turn seriously in 2018. And now I think it is fully on. And their voter turnout is exceeding even the turnout in Harris County, which for the first few days early voting was the big. big story. And so whether it's the metro areas, whether it's the suburbs like Colin and Denton County, you're seeing big turnout. And what we can begin to extrapolate is that that looks good for Democrats, not, you know, mission accomplished, not a slam dunk. We're nowhere near out of the woods yet. And we might want to get into this in the conversation, but Ken Paxton,

our attorney general, Greg Abbott, our governor, both Republicans, are. throwing the kitchen sink in terms of voter suppressive tactics right now in real time, like literally today, to try to stop people from boating or invalidating votes. So they know that they're losing. They're desperate. They're frightened. And they are going to do anything within their power, including completely destroying democracy in Texas, if it will allow them to hold on to their purchase on power.

So things look good, but we have a lot of work to do over the next 12 days. So let's dive into that a little bit. Texas does have the most restrictive voting process in the country. Republican Governor Greg Abbott did limit drop boxes to one per county, which obviously disproportionately hurts larger, more Democratic counties than it does Republican counties. Does that law still stand? And more broadly, have voters in Texas been able to overcome these suppression efforts? Yeah, I think the last part of your question is the really exciting story here because, you know, it's no news. that Texas is trying to stop people, and especially, let's be clear, black Texans, Mexican-American Texans, Texans and communities of color from voting. That has been literally the story of Texas for 144 years ever since the end of reconstruction. And as you suggest, Greg Abbott is only trying to add on to that by removing the satellite absentee ballot drop-off locations, now contesting drive-through voting in Harris County, which was blessed by the Texas Secretary of State who has purview

over these elections. There are threats of litigation and prosecution and really trying to scare and intimidate voters here despite all of that. And maybe to some degree because of all of that, in other words, maybe this has backfired. I think voters who are wise to the fact that if they're trying this hard to stop me from voting, then maybe my vote is really more powerful than even I thought it was. And I will wait in a line five, six, seven hours long. I got a text from a guy in Fort Bend, which is just outside of Houston on the first day of early voting. Voting machines went down for the first two hours. The line was, you know, half a mile long at that point. And he said, I'm waiting this line until I cast my ballot. And seven hours later, I got a text from him. And he said,

I finally made it through. I voted. Now, that guy could have come back the next day of early voting. He could have waited until election day. But he was there to defeat this voter suppression. He was there to make sure our democracy works. And there are a lot of people doing that. Again, you know, we see it in the aggregate in terms of Texas leading the country and turnout right now. And then we see it in these super powerful stories of perseverance in the face of intimidation and suppression. So I'm pretty proud of Texas right now, and I think our responsibility, really wherever you live in the United States, whether you're a Texan or live in Idaho or California or Wyoming, is if the people of Texas are willing to take on this fight and against these long odds, have a shot at overcoming this. And then by the way, maybe help Joe Biden win this thing on election night with our 38 electoral college votes, then it is incumbent upon all of us to do all that we can to support. those voters and what we've been doing empowered by people is literally calling them by the millions

and you know we'll say hey brian this is betto from powered by people early voting has already started it continues through october 30th can i help you make a plan to vote well i've got you on the phone and then we work through your closest polling location the documents you need to bring with you because we have a very restrictive voter ID law on the books in texas and then i'm there on the phone to answer any other questions you have to address your concerns and give you comfort in trying to cash your ballot that next day. And there are thousands of people like me, not just in Texas, but all over the country, who are making these phone calls into Texas. And so that's exciting. The candidates who are running, who are energizing the electorate are exciting. You know,

we've seen some positive indication from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that they're going to invest in Texas. We frankly, Brian, have not seen as much as we want to. And given that democracy is on the line as well as, you know, our constitution and the outcome of this election and so much of it rests on Texas, we'd love to see more from them and from national Democrats. But even if they do not come in, I am so encouraged and proud of my fellow Americans who have stepped up and done this necessary work in this critical state. So let's speak about registering new voters and powered by people specifically. Can you give me an idea of how many new Democratic voters were able to register in this cycle? And then talk a little bit about powered by people specifically

the accomplishments that you have been able to make through that group. So to put it in perspective, in a typical four-year cycle, around 700,000 Texans will get registered to vote. In this last four-year cycle, 1.9 million, and they're still counting them. So may inch closer. 2 million, 1.9 million Texans have registered to vote. So we're approaching three times the level of registration in one of, if not the fastest growing states in the country, in a majority minority state that is trending younger and more democratic. I mean, some people thought that my race in 2018, where we won more votes than any Democrat in Texas history, where we got within two and a half points that Ted Cruz was an anomaly or an outlier. But if you look at the last

decade of voter trends in Texas, Hillary Clinton's performance in 2016, where she got into the single digits in Texas, which was the first time a Democratic nominee had done that in 20 years. It shows you where the state is going and the state is going there very quickly and just added two million net new voters to the roles over these last four years. All of that is encouraging. And as you know, we can only begin to guess the party affiliation of those newly registered voters because in Texas, you don't have to claim party. The only way, the only evidence we have is how you voted in a primary. However, powered by people, our volunteer-driven organization has spent the better part of the last six months mailing to and then following up with a phone call or a text to unregistered likely Democratic voting. voters. And we know they're likely Democratic voters because they've moved to Texas in many

cases from other states where they reliably voted in that state's Democratic primary or they were registered as a Democrat where party registration is available in those states. And so they've moved to Texas, have yet to update their voter registration and bringing them into the fold and onto the rolls and turning them out to vote adds net new democratic voters. And here's the thing, Brian, you saw yesterday, Quintapioch, pretty respected polling outfit, which last had the Trump Biden race in Texas, Biden down five points, just released a poll yesterday. Biden 47 percent, Trump 47 percent. As encouraging as that news is, I guarantee you, Quintapioch has not talked to those new voters that have just come on the rolls in the last.

three weeks, the last three months, maybe in some cases the last three years. And what we also know is that pollsters tend to undercount Democratic performance. They had me down eight points on the eve of the election when I lost by two and a half. They had Hillary Clinton down in double digits when she lost by single digits. So if they're tied in these polls, I'd say Biden is ahead to some degree. This is one of those instances where we hope the polls are just as bad as they we're in 2016 or 2018. Absolutely. Absolutely. So to your question about registration, that's another bit of encouraging news when you add that to the record turnout to the quality and number of candidates running right now in Texas in districts that last saw a Democrat on the general

ballot 30 years ago and now for the first time since then have one. This is really, really exciting, really encouraging. And I think it's going to be really, really close. So let's talk about those Texas State House candidates that you referred to. Texas is nine seats away from flipping the state legislature, and you won in all of those nine districts in your last race. How are those targets in particular looking right now? They're looking really good. So what you essentially have is about two dozen competitive races largely clustered around the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area and suburbs. So Tarrant County Dallas County, Collin County, and Dallas, Terrant, Colin, Denton.

And then in the southeast part of the state around Houston, you know, Harris County, Fort Bend County, you have another cluster. And then in the San Antonio Austin Corridor, you have some races. So these are the big cities and suburbs around them. And we have to pick up nine, as you said, and we know we can because we've turned out those voters in 2018, insufficient numbers. But in addition, there's, you know, another dozen competitive. races, probably another dozen that we have to defend. So this is on, you know, literally

across the board. And then you have this new development that to me is just thrilling. I mentioned a second ago, there are parts of Texas that last saw a Democrat on the general ballot, you know, when I was a kid. And you now have Democrats running there for the first time since then. In East Texas, for example, there's a guy named Jason Rogers, who is an army veteran, a retired public school teacher, currently is a diesel mechanic, is a Democrat, and is running in a district that hasn't seen one in forever. And for those people in that community, he now defines what it means to be a Democrat, service to country, service to your community, work in a blue-collar job just like everyone else in that district. And getting us

away from the corporate politics that, frankly, the Democrats flirted with for far too long, and back to the little guy and the little gal that we used to fight for tooth and nail, and which won us these states back, you know, generations ago. We're getting those districts, and by extension, we're getting these states back. So I think we can pick up those nine seats. I think we can pick up more than nine seats. I think we can defend the 12 that we won in 2018. And if we do that, then in 2021, when this legislature is seated with a new Democratic majority,

we will be at the table when districts are redrawn in Texas and when we draw in three new congressional districts given our population growth that will be accounted for in the census. So this is like a 10-year moment on November 3rd. It locks in or changes power for a decade and not just for Texas, but for the rest of the country. Totally. That's a really great point. There is one demographic group in particular that I want to talk about, and that's Latino voters. And they've been an area of some concern for Joe Biden. Why is that? And how are we able to overcome that? So there are five and a half million eligible Latino voters in the state of Texas. That's the largest Latino voting bloc, certainly in any swing

state, maybe in any state bar none. This is by far the most diverse battleground state. You know, we take California out because we can reliably predict it'll vote blue up and down the ballot. But in terms of swing states, no other state even comes close to the diversity that you find here in the state of Texas. And that growing Latino electorate, which is very young. And I'll tell you, Brian, very powerful in terms of achievement academically and business life, civically and politically and politically within Texas. That electorate needs to hear from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Here's what they're doing right. Biden Harris are running Spanish language radio ads across the state.

They're investing in communities like El Paso, which is 85% Mexican-American and San Antonio. And we love seeing that. But really, they're spending pennies on the dollar that they're investing in other battleground states. And that lack of investment is not lost on the electorate here in Texas. If they were to reach out to with just a fraction of the attention and focus that they're giving to the white voter in Pennsylvania, if they were to give the black and brown and diverse voter here in Texas that kind of attention and love and focus, I tell you what, Texas comes through for Joe Biden on November 3rd. And then there's this. We now have for the first time a field of candidates that, looks like the state. You look at Salina Montoya, Natalie Hurtado, Akela Bacy, Elisa Simmons.

You've got black and Latino and Latina candidates running across the board in the state of Texas. And there's been this perennial question. How are you going to engage the Latino electorate in the state of Texas? I think now that Latinos and Latinos see Latinos and Latinos running for office, pursuing positions of public trust that they can win, if if Biden and Harris and the Democratic National Committee and National Democrats were to

invest in those races or to invest in those communities where those races are taking place, not only do we help the top of the ticket, but we set up Democratic power for a decade, maybe decades going forward. And we do it the right way in investing in candidates who look like the constituencies of their communities, who look like the state of Texas. So I see huge, huge opportunity. And though we're only 12 days away from this election and the window is certainly closing, there is still time for the top of the ticket to come in and show Texas that we are important and show this electorate that we are important.

And I'm certainly hoping that they will do that. So what's been the most effective technique that you've found so far in persuading voters to both vote Democratic and to get them to the polls? And this is inclusive of all of your work, you know, your phone bank, I know you had a million person phone bank on October 12th. So just after having done this for so long, what are the most effective techniques that you found? You know, I think in my years in volunteering for campaigns and running as a candidate, there's nothing but nothing that beats meeting someone at their doorstep, you know,

eyeball to eyeball, showing them the respect, demonstrating the courtesy of meeting them where they are. hearing their story and sharing with them why you are running to represent them, that is, that is primal. It goes to the just essence of what it means to be human and what it means to live in a community and what politics and elections and democracy is all about at its best. The TV ads, the, you know, the tweets, the stuff you post on Facebook, the slick mailer. that some consulting firm put together, all that stuff probably has its place, but is really to me just interference that kind of distracts from that essential connection. This is obviously made very difficult in the time of COVID. The next best thing is a phone call, a human voice,

unscripted, honest and open, connecting with a perfect stranger on the other end of the line, and having this conversation about this state representative and this important race for a majority of the state house and what that can mean for that person in their family and listen to that person. What's important to you? What do you expect out of this candidate? Why are you voting? Why have you decided not to vote? And can we talk that through? I remember one of the phone banks I was on. I talked to a woman in Kelly. And she said, you know what? I'm not down with Biden and I just can't get there. And, you know, I've got some issues with Kamala Harris as well. And I said, yeah, but Trump. And she said, no, I don't like him either. And I'm not, I just, I'm not, I'm not

going to vote in this thing. And we just talked. I listened. I didn't judge. I didn't, I didn't sell. I didn't push. And I gave her my cell phone number at the end of the conversation because I was calling to a dialer that kind of hides your personal number. Yeah. And I said, just reach out to me if you have a question. So a few weeks ago, she calls me and she said, you know what, I've been thinking about our conversation. And I'm going to vote. And I now have some questions about voting absentee. I don't understand the rules here. And she came here through the military. I was relatively new to Texas. Texas makes it very hard, as you said, at the top to register and to vote, even harder to absentee vote. She said, I don't understand this. Can you walk

me through this? And I did. And Brian, even though it was just one vote in a state of 30 million people, I felt so damn fulfilled. And I felt like I'm not a witness or a bystander to this election. I have some agency. This woman, Kelly, she has some agency. You know, we have a role to play in this. And so I think if you can't knock on someone's door, if you can't meet them in person at a town hall, if you can reach out to them by phone, maybe less effectively by text, but make that human-to-human connection and don't feel like you have to read talking points or follow a script, just connect with that person and try to bring them into our democracy. That's when this thing really works. And that's what essentially powered by people our organization is doing. You mentioned the million voter phone bank. We ended up making three million phone calls that day.

And part of what was powerful about it was reaching those people. The other part was that we had so many thousands of volunteers who stepped up to do something that's not very easy and not always fun, but is absolutely necessary for this thing to work. So I find in these very dark times reasons to be encouraged and optimistic and hopeful, and all of that is based on the people that we work with and who volunteer with us and the voters that we meet. Building on what you just said, I say in just about every podcast that I have every single week to, you know, to take care of your circle to make sure that you bring, find one person who wasn't registered to vote in 2016 or 2018 to make sure you get them to the polls. If everybody just does their small part, you know, not everybody needs a massive social media following or some giant microphone. You just find your circle and you do your part and it might seem small from far away, but ultimately that that's what's going to swing this election. So one thing I did want to ask, and I'm curious about this, we think of Texas outside of Texas as this like conservative bastion, right, like deep red Texas. But in reality, it's really not that. Trump won Texas, like you said, by nine points in 2016. This isn't West Virginia, right? So do you attribute that to the fact that more Democrats are coming in or are Republicans in Texas just not the brand of Republicans that Trump has turned the GOP into? Yeah, this is such a good question. And I think it gets to the heart of this, this democracy test that we're undergoing in Texas. Because I would argue we really have never been a red state.

What we have been is a non-voting state. And that non-voting status was achieved through very artful and purposeful voter suppression tactics aimed at black and brown voters and voters and communities of color. And, you know, the racial gerrymander, for example, that the white Republican legislature finds the black voter, moves them out of a congressional district where they may have some voting power and impact and puts them in a district where the power of their vote is diminished and then the likelihood of their vote is diminished. And so any of us who get on our high horse and are like, you know, if you don't vote, you get what you deserve. And if you don't vote, you're not a full American and all that jazz. I've learned to be much more empathetic and understanding

when I hear the stories of black voters in Texas who say, you know, my vote really does not count for much. And I was moved from this district to this one to this other one. And I finally gave up. And I don't blame that person. I blame all of us who didn't stand up and stop this racial gerrymander when it happened. And so, you know, by design, not by accident, not for any lack of love of democracy, we found ourselves at 50th. So I think, you know, to the spirit of your question, And what you are seeing is Texas moving from a non-voting state to a voting state. And in so doing is revealing its true character and nature and genius. And that's not necessarily by party affiliation, although I do think that tends to help Democrats.

You just have one of just right behind California's second most diverse states in the country, finally able to tell the rest of the world who we are and beginning to look like in our government the way that the state looks like in in our in our lives and this incredibly diverse slate by the way brian primarily of women who are running right now from mj hagar to you know alisa simmons to candace valenzuela who will be the first afro latina elected to congress if she wins her race you know all the way down the ballot to these judicial positions where in 2018 we saw in harris county 17 black women win election to judgeships and we talk a lot about criminal justice reform on the federal level, you elect 17 African-American women in Harris County. You've

changed the face of criminal justice in the biggest county in our state, the third biggest county in America. So there's some really, really, really exciting stuff happening in Texas. And I think our call to the rest of the country is come help us do this and finish the job. The voters of Texas, And I want to give specific credit to voters of color in Texas, Texas have stood up and overcome this oppression so far or this suppression so far in this election. But they're going to throw more at us and specifically more at those voters. And so please help us help those voters make a plan to vote and answer their questions about voting and then help them to help decide the outcome of this election, which decides the outcome for. for this country. This is where it's at. So last thing, you know, I know you had spoken just before about about making, continuing to make phone calls. How can we help? Is there, are there still calls to

be made? Yes. I'm so glad you asked. So powered by people is basically hosting a phone bank every day for the next 11 days, you know, going through till election day. And it's pretty simple. you jump on a Zoom with me. I introduced the phone bank while we're doing this. We get a quick tutorial on the dialer, and then we hit the phones. And you don't have to sell a candidate or a political party. You just talk to those voters who will decide the outcome of this election

and ask them to make a plan to vote and help them to do that if they have any questions. And think about it this way. If you join one of these phone banks, you're not just fighting for Democrats, you're fighting for democracy. You know, Brian, you said, and the Washington Post reported it on Friday.

This state makes it harder than any other state in the union to vote. And it's doing so in a cynical, unconstitutional attempt to hold on the power for Republicans. When you call these voters, you're helping them to transcend and overcome that and actually cast their ballot to guarantee that not only do Democrats win, but our democracy works. And so if you go to the website, it's powered by people.org. Poweredxpeople.org is the way that we spell it. you can you can go to the events tab and literally every day there there's a phone bank sign up for one try it for 30 minutes if it's the worst thing you've ever done you know go find another way to help

save democracy if if you can grin and bear it and get through those those 100 120 phone calls you may not enjoy every minute of doing it I'll tell you this you will never feel better than when you finish that last call because you know you've put in the work you remember the voters you connected with and you know that you advanced our cause and I think all of us will want to look back on this moment after this election is decided and know that at the moment that this democracy was under attack unlike any other time in our nation's history that you pitched in and you did all that you could and making these phone calls is one of, if not the most effective ways to do that in the state of Texas.

Well, we'll leave it there. I'm going to put a link to powered by people in the episode notes. Beto, thank you so much for what you're doing. doing. We're rooting for you. You have a really grateful nation behind you that's beyond appreciative of the work that you're doing in Texas. So thanks for coming back on. Thank you. And very grateful for what you're doing out there. And let's all of us push as hard as we can for the time that we have left in this election. Just all that we've got, sprint through the tape and leave it all out there. So I know you're doing that. And I know the folks who listen and watch you are doing that as well. Keep it up. Thanks again to Beto O'Rourke. All right. Well,

We are a week out. What else can I say other than get out and vote? That's it for this episode. Talk to you next week. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. Produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesie, interviews captured and edited for YouTube and Facebook by Nicholas Nicotera, and recorded in Los Angeles, California.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe on your preferred podcast app. Feel free to leave a five-star rating and a review, and check out Brian Tyler Cohen.com for links to all of my other channels. Thank you.