#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Black Votes Matter Election Night 2022 coverage Pt. 2 | #BlackStarNetwork #RolandMartinUnfiltered

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

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This is an iHeart Podcast. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

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Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, folks, welcome back to the Black Star Network. It's the election night coverage. Black votes matter. We are in the beginning of our third hour. We'll be on the air until 1 a.m. Breaking down what's happening.

The race is tightening in North Carolina. We'll give you an update on that race in just a second. The sister in Iowa, she loses in the governor's race. AP is calling the race for Republican Governor Kim Reynolds in that particular state. And, of course, the brother who was running for governor in Arkansas. They've already called that race for Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Joining us right now, folks, is Reverend William Barber, president, senior lecturer for Repairs of the Breach, Poor People's Campaign.

Also, Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University. Dr. Shonda Macy is founder of National Holistic Healing Center. We also are joined by Caleb Athea, communications strategist, and in a moment we'll be joined by Latasha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. Reverend Barbara, I want to start with you. We were talking about, before we went to the break, Julian was talking about the economy and talking about, again, candidates not speaking to these issues. You have been yelling from the rooftops, stop ignoring poor and low-income voters.

And you were running some numbers down to me last night that was powerful. The number of poor and low-income voters in these states who are not voting, we're talking about 500, 700,000, a million, upwards of a million, two in a million, three. That's how you win elections if you target them. That's what you've been saying for the longest. You're right, Roland. And as Julianne said, you can talk about both the economics and abortion. For instance, there's 73 million poor and low-wage women in this country, and

poor and low-wage women are the ones that will be hurt the most by denying voting abortion rights. I don't know why in the world that Democrats are not honing in on this. For instance, if Sherry Beasley pulls this out, and it's closer than many thought, you know, we contacted 717,000 poor and low-wage voters in North Carolina who had not been voting. 56,000 formerly incarcerated people received their voting rights back because we were part of a coalition with Second Chance that fought to do that. The numbers are there. In North Carolina, the margin of victory in 2020 was only 70,000 votes for Trump, but 1,179,000 voters, poor and low wealth voters, did not vote.

In Ohio, the margin of victory was only 470,000 votes, but 1,695,000 poor and low wealth voters did not vote. In Florida, the margin of victory was 370,000, but 2,826,458 voters, poor and low-wealth voters, did not vote. And in Pennsylvania or Georgia, the margin of victory was only, what, like 12,000. But the number of poor and low-wealth voters who didn't vote in Georgia was 1,076,000 people. You cannot have those kind of numbers and not have intentional on the ground, not on TV, on the ground campaigns to reach those people. You cannot run campaigns and not talk about economics where you have upwards of a million people. And as I said, in Florida, two million people who are poor and low wage, and you not even talk to them.

And what we also know now is, in 2020, when Biden and Harris were talking about living wages and voting rights together, that 54 percent of poor and low wealth people, not black, poor and low wealth people, voted for that ticket, because they at least heard something about their experience. So I think when Democrats didn't talk about all that they have done, but also when they failed to pass living wages and didn't have a second vote on it to make sure people knew where people stood, and then did not have a direct campaign to poor and low wealth vote,

if the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival with voters, with volunteers, can reach 5.1 million low propensity voters in 50 days. What should a party be able to do? And it's trying to get through, and I'm going to keep hammering this, and you know this, when you have these white strategists who control the money, who control the messaging, who control the candidates, they keep trying to say, oh, let's go after all those white suburban voters. You win by turning out your base voters and the people who you can likely convince to actually vote.

And if you have an economic message that's appealing to working class workers, we talked about that earlier when Lee Saunders have asked me, then you can turn those people out, and guess what? You don't need those suburban voters because you got enough folks out there, but you got to talk to them. You got

to show up. You got to speak to them. You got to go touch them. We put people on the ground. We created another C4, the water repairs called Rev Up, and we put people on the ground in key places in North Carolina. People literally were crying when folks knocked on their doors and said people had not talked to them in 10 to 15 years. That is untenable. That is morally indefensible and

economically insane for any politician, the group of folks trying to win, to be that politically in the air, that you don't go after this broad. And you keep saying, well, poor whites are voting There's not many politicians, a group of folk trying to win, to be that politically inept, that you don't go after this broad. And you keep saying, well, poor whites are voting against their own. First of all, it's not true when you look at the numbers. But more importantly, Roland, what you just said, I wrote an article in the USA Today about the real swing voters are poor and low-wage voters, because there's not one state in America where if just 25 percent of poor and low-wealth voters who have not voted in the last few

elections, if they could be organized in a block, could not change that election and close the Martin Luther King. And in most states, Martin, like Florida and Georgia and Pennsylvania and Michigan and Ohio, it's under 10 percent. And then in North Carolina, it's 19 percent. But the party cannot continue to walk away and think that what you can do is just bring some high-powered speaker in at the last moment. It's going to be planting the seed over and over again, even when we're not in the middle of an election, and then talking to people and going to them door by door, call by call, and reaching out to people. Otherwise, we are literally leaving the victory off of the field. Greg Carr, that whole point there in terms of organization, organization, organization, that's how you do it.

This here, Early, go to my iPad. This is, as Breonna, I think, spoke about this, this is the University of Michigan, how folks are voting on that campus. There were similar lines at the University of Houston. And so if you're not targeting these people in a conservative way, that's the University of Houston right there, Greg.

You know the case at Howard University as well. Those are the folks who are likely going to be appealing, who will be appealed to a message that Democrats and progressives offer. But if you keep trying to get, they just keep trying to get that mythical white suburban woman, and the bottom line is she's going to let you down every time. No question, Roland. Well, our brother Barbara, Brother Barbara, Reverend Barbara, has framed it. This is what Gary Chambers was screaming for a better part of a year.

Get those people who haven't voted to the polls. I spent all day today in conversation with young people, with my Howard students talking about this. And, you know, a number of them and, you know, didn't get their absentee ballots. I had students who drove home to Georgia, to Pennsylvania to vote because they didn't get their ballots in time, flew to Texas to vote, all these things that were going on. But one thing that we are encouraged by, and we certainly saw this, we saw the students at North Carolina A&T lined up to vote. Virginia State, our frat brother up there, the president of Virginia State, Makola Abdullah, they closed the university today for people to go out and vote. And maybe that

makes the difference in those three house races that we are looking at, Spanberger and the other two. One of them is leading. I think Wexton is leading in the D.C. suburbs. But at Southern University, the young people took the second line to the polls. And, of course, Raphael Warnock and Angela Roberts on the campus of the Atlanta University Center today, Morehouse, Spelman and other places. So young people are engaged. But one thing young people are saying to me today, and we went deep in conversation about this, is that there is a sense that this electoral system is not working. And so trying to generate enthusiasm really is a matter of organization. And as Reverend Barber has said, and we were all together with him and Reverend Thea Harris down at the Poor People's March this summer, we have got to now engage in the next leg of this Cold Civil War.

Whatever happens tonight, it's very clear that we are in a moment now that is getting closer and closer to that moment in the 1890s, 1900, 1910, when these white nationalists, having recovered from Reconstruction, are fighting with everything they have. They're trying to roll back this clock to the 1950s, and we're simply not going to stand for it. Reverend Barber, I'm going to go to you. And look, no matter what happens tonight, the next wave is going to be local elections in 2023 and what happens in 2024. And you see what happened in Florida. Republicans, for the first time since Reconstruction, control all of the levers of power in that particular state. We're seeing what is happening.

Same thing in Texas. You don't change that if you keep doing the same thing that led to you losing. This would be allowable if Democrats had fought and won the voting bill that John Lewis put in place and restored the Voting Rights Act and had said to Manchin and

Sinema, you can get your infrastructure, but you will not get it if you do not vote for voting rights, for the John Lewis bill as it was written, and for living wages. Those three things should be pushed together. What we need now is we're going to have to organize deeply. One of the things we're fighting for with Rev Up is to have at least four poor and low-wage workers who are organizers for every Electoral College vote in a state. So, in North Carolina, it would be 60, working year-round, going into the communities, building from the bottom up, and raising these issues. You know, also, Roland, we brought a group of ministers to the Capitol Hill that represent

over 50 million people in October, September. And we said to the Congress, have one more vote on living wages and voting rights and women's right to choose, even if you lose the vote, so that the public could see clearly who's not with them. You're talking about 55 million people when you talk about the need for a raise of a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour. And that's 43 percent of African-Americans. This business of having one vote and then quitting and not pushing and organizing is hurting us.

But what we must do now, we can't wait on the party anymore, Roland. We've got to, and then the Poor People's Campaign, National Call for Moral Revival, we've now got 38 coordinating committees. We're going to continue to go deep. As I said, we practiced. We tried this year. Last time, we did 2 million voters. This year, we did 5.1 million touches in 50 days. We're going to analyze where that made a difference. We're going to analyze how it got things closer. And we're going to continue to drill down, because what we're not going to do is leave the sleeping giant of 27 million people. That's how many folk out there, Roland, poor and low-wage folk, did not vote in the last

election. Fifty—I think it was 52 million that voted, but something like 27 was left. Twenty-seven million. And 80 percent of them in some states are already registered to vote. They just need to be touched directly, and we need to articulate an agenda, or these candidates do, that appeals to them and pulls them into the polls. Indeed. Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, we certainly appreciate it, sir.

Thanks a bunch. Keep up the great work. Thank you, my brother. Take care. All right, then. I'm going to walk over here to our panel over here. That's right, Monique, put your damn food up. You didn't think I was coming. Yeah, you busted. Go ahead Scott, go on over to the other side.

Go on, y'all walk on over. Go on with Randy, go ahead. That's right, that's how we do it here. Just stop talking and walk, just go on. So, Kappa, just go on, sit your ass down. Sit your little short ass down, go on. I don't wanna hear all that nonsense. I wanna hear the, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Coke ain't paying no bills over here. Take that Coke can down, Sprite down. Ain't getting no freebies. What's wrong with y'all? All right. If they will cut the check, all right, we'll do that. So they cut the check for S's, not for this. All right.

All right. So let's, Randy, you over there. So let's break this thing down. And also, y'all, flip this monitor. Hey, I don't know who my man right here is. I need you to flip the monitor, bro. Let's talk about, I'm going to go ahead, Larry. You called it earlier, total wipeout, Democrats in Florida.

Again, you got to, hey, hey, hey, we got a live show going over here. I think they had a family reunion or something. All right, Larry, go ahead. Listen, Roland, you said it a few minutes ago. I called it. Um, you know, listen. Democrats in Florida really need to figure out what the message is. Not only that, let me put another word for it.

What's the consistent message to members of the black community, but also to the Latino community in the state of Florida? Listen, it was a wipeout. Like I said, we called it DeSantis. And now we have to have six more years of Rubio. And I say we, well, me, really, because I live in the state of Florida. But what happened in Florida is really a microcosm of the bigger issues

in terms of the Democratic Party, in terms of the national, consistent national message. And like we talked about earlier, it has to be 365, 24-7, you know. And listen, Roland, you've talked a lot about black media and the lack of support of black media, particularly your show and other black shows. We Democrats, and particularly Democratic leadership, the DNC, et cetera, has to put money into black media

to get black folks energized throughout the year with a consistent message. Because when we don't do that and we, et cetera, has to put money into black media to get black folks energized throughout the year with a consistent message. Because when we don't do that, and we, you know, I love President Obama, but when we air drop him in a couple days before the election, that's not part of a consistent message. And look, we know we live in a celebrity culture, but we have to do a better job of explaining to black folks

why you should vote Democratic, what we can do for you, and also what have we done for you. And when you don't do that, you get wipeouts in Florida, and then we have to wait and see what happens to some of these other states. Kelly, on the point Reverend Barber was making about what bills get voted upon, Joe Biden spent a whole bunch of political capital on his infrastructure bill, and it was a dud with voters. Again, you talk about, again, a calculation. Even if they had made another run at a voting bill

and that economic bill Barbara was talking about, if you at least make the attempt, you show folk you're trying. And I think that's the crux of the problem when it comes to the Democratic Party. It doesn't feel like they're trying, especially when it comes to the Democratic Party, it doesn't feel like they're trying, especially when it comes to outreach for Black voters. Like, all for the past two weeks or so, I've seen this push towards Black voters as far as politicians reaching out to us and the like. But as someone who has been following this since the primaries, it just feels like you want us for the end result, and that's it.

It's like you use us literally as a token each and every election, and that's it. And it's really frustrating because on some level it still works because I'm looking at the polls right now. I'm looking at the results right now, I'm looking at the results right now. And they're getting what they want out of us, which is our vote. But at what cost? Because they got our vote. But are we going to get the policies that we requested? Are we going to get the change that we seek?

And the pessimist in me is saying no, because they use this as a token. They didn't use this as anything else other than a pawn in this political game. And that is what's frustrating. And unless Black people say that ahead of time, it is going to continue having this issue. We're going to continue seeing positive results, so to speak, but not at our benefit. It's always going to be for the party. Well, I'll say this, Monique. Again, we could talk about in terms of, Kelly said they're getting what they want. I still go back to the issue is not the percentage of black vote. It's the number of people who's actually turning out. And again, this is where, and I'm just going to keep saying it, Reverend Barber even said it,

we can't leave this in the hands of a party. This is where Black Voters Matter, other groups, this is where we have to make a decision. Are we going to fund our own institutions and have boots on the ground and not wait for somebody and then hope and pray they actually spend some money. Right. I mean, and I'm a Democrat. So the they is me.

And I take ownership of what happens in the party. And I think that black voters who are Democrats, who don't just vote the way they, whoever they is, want us to vote, but instead are on the ground and actively a part of the process. And I know you have Mel and some others on here who are nonpartisan, but who work year after year. I believe we do see results. I agree with what Reverend Barber said, that we can't wait for a particular political party because we align wherever our interests align. But I think it's clear, at least in this country right now, that there is no part of the Republican Party, there's no part of the grand old party that has

any interest, any desire, or any follow through in terms of doing things that matter in the black community. And that is what Democrats have done during the Biden-Harris administration. And I can name enough examples of it that I believe everybody has been touched, whether it's by health care or whether it's by PPP or whether it's by infrastructure or whether it's by cheaper prices on drugs or whether it's by the most Black judges who've been appointed, Black women judges of all of the administrations combined. So I can't get on board with we don't get anything in exchange for our vote. I just believe that that's patently false. Do we get everything that we want? No, nobody does. Do we get everything that we should? No. And that's why we work.

But I think that the difference between the parties is clear. Dylan Sellers, National HBCU Manager for Fair Election Center's Campus Vote Project. Glad to have you here, Dylan. When you talk about, again, what do we get, it was amazing to me, all the people who kept saying, man, we ain't got nothing for Biden, nothing for these CBC people. And I'm like,

do you understand the billions that literally came to HBCUs? When President Biden spoke at North Carolina A&T, he could have done a roll call on the amount, the money that actually came to HBCUs in North Carolina. And then I had somebody tell

me, which, and I really want, I think I did cuss them out. I don't know if I wanted to, I think I did cuss them out. And they were like, well, how did the money go into HBCUs to help black people? And I'm like, first, dumbass. HBCUs, you got students, you got faculty, you got staff. Oh, there are actually businesses that are around the HBCUs

that also help as well. I mean, it was just my, so this notion that, oh, $6 billion going to HBCUs is just sort of irrelevant. That's crazy. Dylan? Go ahead. Can you hear me? Dylan, can you hear me?

All right, so y'all let me... Okay, y'all get Dylan's audio fixed there. That, to me, Avis, is nuts. It is nuts. But here's the bigger challenge. It's indicative of a bigger problem. And it's not just a problem that the Biden administration has. It is, unfortunately, a problem that seems to be indicative

of the Democratic Party, is that the party does care a lot about policy, but they are clueless when it comes to messaging around their policy victories. I mean, they win elections. When we get in office, we're very focused on getting the thing done, trying to get things done. But there is zero effort in really messaging so that the public knows what is done. And if you're going to wait until the 11th hour to start telling people, it's not enough time for the messaging to really take hold. So, yeah, there have been some incredible victories. Obviously, not everything.

But there are things that this administration can be very proud of. However, you know, it's like they get in a little bubble. They do what they need to do on Capitol Hill. And in terms of letting the general public know, and specifically the black community know. Who don't follow the show every day. Exactly. First of all, Dylan, can you hear me now?

Okay, all right. So y'all let me know. Let me go to Shonda Macy's with the National Holistic Healing Center. Shonda, here's a perfect example. Biden waits late in the game to make his marijuana decision, and I'm like, dude, what the hell? Why'd you wait until October? I mean, you kind of did it a little bit earlier, maybe

in August. Now you got September, October to talk about it. You don't just, like, give essentially two or three weeks. You have to build things up. That's a perfect example. That and a student loan decision, I just thought it was just too late in the game.

I agree. You know, what's so crazy, Roland, is that the cannabis industry, with these five cannabis bills coming on board today, most likely, it's going to be $1.7 billion just in the first year. And Biden's salute to saying, let's go ahead and pardon people who have been convicted of drug policies that were unfair to them in the first place at this point in the game is unfair to our community. We should have had that signal to be a part of the cannabis industry years from now so we could actually, one, look at sensible policy that can help install our voting rights for those that were disproportionately impacted, and also think about the entrepreneurial

aspects. But even with that, I have to always go back. Patient rights to cannabis will free our community. And until our community gets on board and support that narrative, the vote still won't count for us because we'll be excluding ourselves. Michael, when we start talking about, again, in terms of how this night is shaping up,

one, people keep talking about Democrats must have a national message. Well, actually not true because, first of all, congressional races are 700,000 people. So it depends upon your congressional race. Well, actually not true because, first of all, congressional races are 700,000 people, okay? So it depends upon your congressional race. And so, look, Tim Ryan runs in Ohio for U.S. Senate. He has to run a different race to make sure Beasley runs because it's a different state.

Same thing in Florida, same thing in Texas. So you can't have the same message. That's why what AOC runs on in one place can't be the same as somebody who's running in California. And even if you're talking about California, Katie Porter is representing Orange County, okay? She can't run the same as Maxine Waters.

And so people just get deluded with that. But I do think that I do believe that one of the greatest failures of Democrats across this country was not taking advantage of, we did this, this, this, this, this, this, this,

dealing with the economy. Again, I guess what keeps jumping out at me is that scene in Jungle Fever when Flipper, played by Wesley Snipes, was leaving the architecture firm. He was like, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.

They were like, ego, ego, ego. He's like, hell no, I did all the work. You've got to take credit for shit you do. Exactly. And you've got to tell people, yeah, we did this. You know. You got that $1,500 check? See, you've got to be real black.

You've got to be real black. It's like, so like, if I get. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution.

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Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling.

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And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early

and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. mindfuck what you did. Exactly. And, you know, I talked about the American Rescue Plan a number of times. The reason why Democrats really had to drive home the point of how the

$1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan saved the economy and no Republicans in the House and the Senate voted for the bill is because the bill was passed and signed into law in March 2021. So that is two years, two months, basically, into the Biden-Harris administration. So people don't make a distinction

between that COVID bill and the two previous COVID bills under Trump. You have to explain to people what was in it. And what was in it over and over again. $46.5 billion for renters assistance and landowners, property owners.

Hold up. What? Okay, property owners. Hold up. And this, what? Okay, something wrong with your mic. So come fix the thing. Your mic fell. Your mic fell. Okay. Well, find your mic, Michael.

It's on the floor. What? Michael. I didn't know it fell. I'm telling you to find your microphone. So I'm like, he's on the floor. Pick that shit up. What's wrong with you?

So here's the whole point here, again, as you're laying out. See, here's what Biden and the Democrats would do. We have $46 billion for rental census. No, no, no, no, no. You got to say, who helped y'all pay your rent, Grant Carr? Right. Thank you. Who helped you from getting evicted? We did Thank you. Who helped you from getting evicted?

We did. Who didn't help you from getting evicted? Them. Exactly. Same thing with insulin. Well, we tried to cap insulin at $35. No. Big Mama spending $400 a month on insulin.

We wanted Big Mama to spend $35. Right. Hey, Joe, what does my man Joe Madison say? $400 a month on insulin. We wanted Big Mama to spend $35. What does my man Joe Madison say? You got to put it where the ghost can get it. You got to make it plain, Greg. Guys, pull up Greg. He's on mute. I got my mic fixed, too. I can't hear Greg. There we go.

Go ahead, Greg. Yeah, no, I was saying, even as we enter the first stages of what's going to be a long night and the next long few days, no, that is the kind of messaging that has to be done. And it has to be done between election cycles. We know that. That's what everybody is saying. I mean, but unfortunately, here we are. Here we are. And of course, the early

results seem to indicate that things may not be, certainly not going to be what the pollsters were talking about. But we've seen the young brother, the 25-year-old Maxwell Frost, the Afro-Cuban, take Val Demings seat in Florida. We've seen, unfortunately, we should all pray for the state of Arkansas, since they seem to have elected Sanders as the governor. But Massachusetts has elected Healy. So she's this. That's a seat that's been flipped. And Shapiro is being called in Pennsylvania.

And this is before all the votes are coded, of course. There are two Supreme Court seats in North Carolina that are very closely being contested, 5149 for the white nationalists at this point. But of course, we know that as we put it where the goats can get it, something is going to happen in the next election cycle between 22 and 24 that may change everything. The Supreme Court is going to hear this Moore case out of North Carolina, where they may turn over the legislative control and the state legislatures in the state to the white nationalists to basically wreck

the federal elections. We are facing a moment when this election may set up a better scenario for Democrats for 2024, because we're going to have real enemies to run against for the presidential election. And God help us if Kerry Lake wins in Arizona, because while everybody's looking down at that charisma-less pufferfish in Florida, DeSantis, you better be worried about a female Trump who's been on TV who talks a little slicker and doesn't turn down any interviews and ain't too crazy. It might be Kerry Lake we're looking at in 2024. And at that point, if they lock in these legislatures to really rig the election,

we got a real problem on our hands. Earlier, folks, I was on social media and I saw this tweet and I said, look, we got to get them on the show. I'm always talking on this show, and y'all know this, anybody who doesn't watch this show and they say, I don't discuss mobilization organization, they

lying. I'm always talking about how you can use your circles and begin to build your circles to get folks registered. So joining us right now, folks, a group of folks who actually have done that. First of all, Prentice Haynes, Co-Executive Director for Ohio Organizing Collaborative. He's joined by Ebony Deloach, as well as Michelle Deloach.

And Prentice had a tweet and he was talking about by Ebony Deloach, as well as Michelle Deloach. And Prentice had a tweet, and he was talking about what the Deloaches did, organizing their friends and family. And we're talking about what Prentice jumped out. So the Deloaches, y'all used your network, and y'all registered or got, what, 20,000 folks voting? So explain, what did y'all do? How did y'all do this?

We just recruited people in different neighborhoods to recruit family, friends, whoever they think probably wasn't most likely to vote. We just recruited them to tell their family and friends to vote. So y'all just said, look, we got to do something, and just it began to build and just kept building and building? Yes. Yes.

That's exactly what happened. So these two are a part of our campus team with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. They've been with us all year. They started off registering thousands of voters. We registered 40,000 voters this year, which crossed our 400,000 voter goal since the inception of our program a couple of years ago. And then when we switched gears towards get out the vote, we decided that the most important thing we could do is reach out to our friends and family to vote because it's the most potent way

to get people to vote, especially Black voters. And so when we went out, we had a goal of 50,000 relational contacts throughout the state. And to Ebony Delo, she's a little shy right now. She was like, oh, 50,000. I know I could do that with just my family. And so over the course of 25 days, she sat down, made a list, went out to the park, went to the churches, went to the schools.

Her daughter here, Michelle, was the first time voter this year. And they recruited over a thousand volunteers, which we call democracy builders, to contact 15 to 20 of their friends and family. In over 25 days, 20,000 Cincinnatians in Hamilton County were contacted to go out and vote. And when we look at the data, 86 percent of those voters were African-American voters. Over 60 percent of them were under 39 years old. So when we're talking about, you know, you all were just talking about how the Biden administration has delivered and done all these things, but it's so hard to get the message out. I knew that this

story, when we talk about what's going to happen in Ohio, no matter what happens in Ohio, that this woman, Ebony Deloach and her family went out and delivered for black voters in Ohio. And this is what's capable in all places across this nation. But we know what this woman went out there, she had the determination to make sure that her family did it and she reached, you know, numbers that no one has seen in

this county. And I guarantee you nobody talking more people than Ebony when they're out in the community. And that's why I wanted to have y'all on, Ebony, because I saw the tweet. I know MSNBC, CNN, ABC, none of these folks will be calling y'all. But these are the kind of stories that we need

to give folks encouragement out there who say, well, you know, I'm waiting on somebody to knock on my door. No, this is what we've been saying all night, how we must take matters into our own hands if we want to see results. Yes. Yes. And what's so great is that Michelle,

she did all this and just turned 18 this year, and today was the first time she ever voted. You gonna say something? I feel empowered to be able to vote. Y'all don't understand, like, there's so many people that's out here that's my age and feel like they vote don't count. It's

crazy. It's a blessing to be able to vote and still be here at 18. Well, I'm glad you actually talked. You were just sitting there trying not to say nothing. And I'm like, come on, say something. But that is, and the thing that also that I think is great, because of what y'all have done, y'all collected data,

so now when it's time to move folk to the school board, to the city hall, the county government, state legislature, you have a database and now can go back to remind folk, hey, we need 500 to show up, 1,000 to show up. That's what organizing and mobilizing is about. That's exactly it. And I'm going to do you one better, Roland. While they went out and they did 20,000 in Hamilton County, overall Hamilton County with the rest of our team, they reached over 50,000. And then in Franklin County, they reached over 75,000. So across the state, 75,000 families, friends, co-workers, colleagues were touched and told to go out to vote through over 3,500 volunteers.

The majority of those are African-Americans. There's no one in the state of Ohio talking to that many Black voters. We run the biggest and the largest Black empowerment program, voter empowerment program in the state. And we know that those numbers are going to make a difference tonight. And, you know, I said in a tweet, and I'll say it again. Any candidate, especially Hamilton County, if they win by a margin, any margin, in Cincinnati tonight, it will be because of this woman right here, her daughter, her mother, and their grandkids. They all went out there and made that happen.

And, you know, they are not waiting around to see if the Democrats are going to deliver for themselves. They're delivering for their own communities, and they're going to continue to do that. Well, that's why I wanted to show y'all some love. Ebony, that is awesome. Michelle, that is awesome, being 18 out there doing your thing.

Prentice, thanks for posting that tweet. That's how I saw it, and we're certainly glad y'all were on the show. Thank you. I appreciate it. That right there, Melanie Campbell, who joins us, is what we're talking about. I'm about to walk over to the other right there, Melanie Campbell, who joins us, is what we're talking about. I'm about to walk over to the other side there, Melanie.

That's what I'm talking about when we talk about people taking control of their own destiny. They didn't ask anybody for permission. They just went and said, this is our community. Let's do it. Yeah. And that's what time it is, right? And I was listening, and that was really powerful to hear that from the sisters and the brothers from Ohio. And it is going to take, you know, it's been a long year, not just a long night, as we struggle through this 2022 year. But I do think that our folks showed up, you know, and we'll see where the dust settles, and then we'll pick

up from there, because the fight will continue, and we'll also celebrate some victories. Absolutely, absolutely. All right, folks, I'm back over here with the Wild Bunch, and we're joined by two loudmouth youth group members, Michael Brown, former chair of the DNC, former chair of the DNC Finance Committee.

You know he's an Omega. You didn't wear any purple. I'm shocked. Oh, oh. All them ugly ass shoes you got on. And then, of course, we got the little Kappa in the house. Scott Bolden, he's here. And so, dressed like a Sigma.

Glad to have him here. How's the Alpha world? How's the Alpha world? That's the big Alpha world. And so, just like a Sigma, glad to have him here. How's the Alpha world? How's the Alpha world? That's the big Alpha world. You damn skippy. Remember, Alpha's your daddy. And, of course, we've got a DEI expert.

We've got Randy Bryant over here. Randy, how you doing? I'm just trying to stay quiet and keep out of this. No, no, no, no. You ain't got to do that. I've got to smack him down. So, all right. So, some results here.

All right, so what? So, what? You're a.k.a. You're a.k.a. Y'all two deltas. Remember, Alpha's still all y'all's daddy. All right, so, remember. Huh? No, but we first.

Remember. You said me when you said Alpha's all my daddy. Easy. Without Alphazard, y'all can't decide. Y'all need our name. All right. In Georgia, they've called the governor's race for Stacey Kemp. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. For Brian Kemp. And then it's too close to call the U.S. Senate race in Georgia. Bud has gone ahead with about 60% of Cherry Beasley in North Carolina. But we're trying to assess what counties are still out, where the votes are there. So that race is flipping. So, again, pray for Beasley in that race. Still waiting to get information on the Mandela Barnes race against Ron Johnson in Wisconsin.

And so all of this talk about, you know, a red wave, you know, we'll see what happens. Everybody keeps focusing on Florida, Michael. And this is how media runs after this. But if you ignore, as Greg was saying earlier, if you ignore the fact that Democrats win the governor's mansion in Massachusetts, and then you begin to look at some other races. Spanberger looks like she's going to win in Virginia. We saw what DeSantis did in Florida by his illegal power.

And so they wiped out Democrats there, picking up three House seats there as well. And, of course, the whole gerrymandering effort. I mean, what people are seeing is what happens when you have control at the state level. Absolutely. And, by the way, Senator Hanson is doing very well in New Hampshire. So she should be able to pull that out.

But, you know, we and you've been talking about it all night. We always talk about about people of color and we love the top of the ticket. We forget about you got to go all the way down through that ballot, through the initiatives, the resolutions, everything. And we just sometimes, if Obama's not on the ballot or if Trump's not on the ballot, we sometimes forget that we got to vote in midterm elections. That's why I'm worried about Georgia. It would be great if we're not going to get to 50 percent. Otherwise, we got to rely on people of color to come out twice in the month. And remember, they changed the rules at the last time,

not allowing people to register during the runoff period because they were ticked off. The folk who didn't register during the general who then registered in the runoff. Right. So, you know, people need to, you know, we, you know, it's tough. And obviously, Reverend Barber talks a lot about educating folks to understand their responsibility to participate in this democracy, which means voting for everything from city council to president. But Randy, when it comes to the issues, though, it also has to be broadened. I really think Democrats made a huge mistake somehow thinking the Roe v. Wade decision was the be-all to end-all, and that's what everybody was going to be voting on. That simply

wasn't going to be the case. There needed to be... I mean, you've got to hit folk on different issues. It was clear the economy was a fundamental issue. It was clear inflation was an issue. And to somehow think that the Dobbs decision was just going to be it, that's crazy. You need as many votes as possible, not just hope more women turn out than you expect.

You're absolutely right. I believe that they thought that when the Roe versus Wade was overturned, that absolutely was going to be a watershed moment for us. And I believe they somewhat got comfortable and lazy. And it looked good early in the summer. It did look good. But that was early. People forget.

And, you know, we have... But inflation kept rising. Right, right. And that's it. And at the end of the day, people are going to vote with their pocketbooks. Can I get to work and not spend so much money on gas? Can I pay my rent? Is the rent affordable?

At the end of the day, you have to deal with the issues that people have just to survive. And particularly when you look at the Democrat... the profile of a typical voter. There's not people who are actually right now concerned with Roe versus Wade, if we're being honest about it. And so, yeah, I think that was a typical voter. That's not people who are actually right now concerned with Roe versus Wade, if we're being honest about it.

And so, yeah, I think that was a major mistake. But the Democrats had an argument and a message. They were just afraid to run with it. To run to the inflation issue. And to say what their legislative accomplishments were.

If they had an argument and they were afraid to run to it, that means they had no message. They didn't know how to craft a message. They thought that the Dobbs decision and democracy on the ballot was going to trump inflation. That's crazy, but that's what they decided to do strategically. I think it's because a lot of people actually blame Biden for inflation. That's crazy, but that's what they decided to do strategically. I think it's because a lot of people actually blame Biden

for inflation. And so the issue is, it's saying, okay, the reason why Republicans can say inflation, inflation, inflation, because someone was in office who should have been able to, or they say, cause inflation, right? So I think it was more that the Dems were running from that because

there was too much causal for who was already in Power, but the president's always gonna get blind, but but Julian here, but here's what Julian Here's what Dems did not do and I understand and I didn't hear they didn't say these punk-ass Corporations are jacking up prices record profit. they wouldn't call the corporations out. Make them the boogeyman. So from that perspective, when you talk about inflation, it was basically corporate folks taking

advantage of an inflationary environment to jack their prices up. But they wouldn't call them out. I mean, I'm saying... They wouldn't call Jerome Powell out. Of course, the Fed is supposed to be nonpartisan. But the timing of those interest rate increases seemed to me to be extremely political to have so many so quickly. And then he stood up and said, and we're going to have another one.

But first of all, the thing. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that

Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves.

Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeart

radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here, Omicongo, it's real simple. When you get power, put your own people in.

Most definitely. They should have bounced Powell's ass. I'm like, Republicans don't keep nobody. I'm like, Republicans don't keep nobody. They don't. I'm serious. This is probably one of the biggest things that drives me crazy about Democrats. It's like, uh... Democrats go... Democrats say,

well, you know what? I want to show bipartisanship. The other side don't give a damn about bipartisanship. They don't care! It's chess versus checkers. You know, at the end of the day, these Republicans only care about power. And we're sitting here talking about inflation. Robert Wright talked about it.

Inflation at a 40-year high, corporate profits are at a 70-year high. And Democrats couldn't drive that message home. Furthermore, Democrats couldn't drive from the message of all the things they've been doing to help the economy since Biden came in office. What, over 10 million jobs created? The Build Back Better plan? The idea of we can do more if

we get more people in, they couldn't sell that message. And he wanted to call out the gas companies, but he wasn't calling out the corporations like you said. He should have been calling for people to be protesting at these guys' doors. You know, people coming down to the White House to protest, they should have been protesting at these corporate doors, at these oil execs,

because really, at the end of the day, when it comes down to it, the Democrats have done a lot to help the economy, but they haven't. We talk about this every night. Monday night panel. We always talk about it. They have a message that they don't want to put out there. For two reasons. Remember what Barbara said. They're afraid of talking to poor people.

If you start talking about prices, it costs 10% more to buy food. 10% more. Anybody around this table is not bothering us. Some of us need to eat less anyway. But, you know, poor people and black people that Democrats are afraid of. But the other part of it is that the Republicans, they're afraid of embracing

their base. They're afraid of embracing their base. They'd rather cuss than say black. But they were also afraid to show that Republicans don't have a plan. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold tight one second. Melody Campbell, I'll bring you in here.

I'll give you a perfect example. It was late in the race when somebody said black businesses get less than 1% of state contracts in Georgia. I'm sitting here like, well, who in the hell gave a narrative that somehow Brian Kemp was good for black folks economically in Georgia? I'm like, that's one of those things that should have been a hammer at home. Melody? Melody, go ahead. I'm like, that's one of those things that should have been a hammer at home. Melody? Melody, go ahead.

I think you're on mute. There you go. We got you. Okay. Can you hear me? Earlier this summer, late fall, I've been out here quite a bit, and one of the things you did keep hearing was that

people were looking at Kemp as actually being better for the economy. And he was selling a really good shell game. And unfortunately, it seems that it works, at least at this point, in where they're saying that they're calling the race. But it is a shell game. And how he was handling Black businesses, I saw my sister, Sarah Julianne Malveaux in the room, Dr. Malveaux, who could break this down much better than me. But at the end of the day, he is a shell game. And he's going to flip right on,

gets back in there for four more years, and folks are going to feel that pain. He's not going to take care of black businesses, right? He's not going to do the things that he—he's not going to take care of teachers. And so he was able to sell this game that he was really about the people more so than people realized. a lot of discussion about, and you had some political things, I think, that were not to Stacey's favor when it comes to some of the folks who at the last minute jumped in to endorse him,

and that I had to have heard. But it was something I heard a lot, that people saw him as being better for the economy than her. And I don't think that's true, but people bought it. It looks like in some cases, people bought it. Folks, just an update. Bud

is increasing his lead in North Carolina, so it's going to be real tough for Sherrod Beasley there. We'll give you an update of there, but his lead is increasing. You've got about 150 to 200,000 votes really left there. So she's going to have to really pick up probably two to one in many of those places to close that gap.

In Georgia, that Senate race is under 50 percent. Both Warnock and Hershel Walker as it stands right now. That is going towards a run off. So we're watching that race as well. Brianna. So, you know now that is going towards a runoff. So we're watching that race as well. Brianna. So as someone who was on the ground in Atlanta and talked to people who split the ticket, I think one of the issues that they, I think some Georgians believed incorrectly,

was that Kemp got them through COVID. And they said they would never forget that Stacey would have shut down... Because he wouldn't close the state down. Right. And so they thought that was good for the economy. And so having the discussions of, okay, do we care more about our pockets than human lives,

was the disconnect, right? So I was able to reach some, but some early voting, they're like, well, we already did it. So I think the issue where it comes into why they thought the economy incorrectly was better under Kemp was because of COVID. But Rebecca, here's the deal, though.

This is just real basic. If I know what you're gonna say, look, I do this when I'm debating on TV all the time. If I know what you're gonna say, I'm gonna figure out my counter to what you're going to say, look, I do this when I'm debating on TV all the time. If I know what you're going to say, I'm going to figure out my counter to what you're going to say. And frankly, you know, Stacey's camp and Democrats, they allowed that to take root as opposed to, yes, he kept the state open. But you know what I would have done? I would have ran down all those black folks who died because of COVID. Correct.

I would have ran down the funerals. I forgot the city we had them on, uh, and the first wave of COVID, there was a funeral, uh, and literally, there were like 20 or 30 folk who died. The morgue was, uh, backed up. We had the funeral home director on talking about the bodies that were stacked up.

I mean, you have to be able to counter that as opposed to, and what ends up happening, how national media works, when that story hops here, here, here, then all of a sudden it became, states has a black male problem. And then it becomes it's a black voter problem and all

that. But here's the other thing. The polling data showed it last year. That Biden was unpopular among black voters. Folk were not paying attention to that. They assumed, oh, black folks are going to come around. No. Folk were actually concerned. You got to have a counter message to that.

Yeah. Well, there are two things. Randy, you're next. Rebecca, go ahead. One, we need to explainer in chief. We need to have someone who is unafraid to speak truth to power and to take a complicated policies or sometimes uncomplicated policies and use plain language to talk to people. The second thing that we need is these labels. The parties label black voters as low propensity

voters, meaning that they only show up during presidential years. Black voters are the most engaged when it comes to politics because our survival is rooted on that. But what we see with both political parties, they don't engage with those voters. During the three phases of voter engagement and voter contact, you have the ID phase, where you ID your potential voters. The second phase is persuasion, where you persuade those voters to vote for you and to turn out for you. The third phase is GLTB,

where now you're turning out all those voters who you have ID'd and persuaded to turn out. The issue is, both parties, and the Democratic Party especially, they wait until the GLT phase, which is right before the Democratic Party especially, they wait until the GOT phase, which is right before the time to vote, to actually touch black voters. And that's what we see across the country.

But, Randy, here's the other thing that people have to understand. And this is where I absolutely believe Democrats lose it, but Republicans have gotten smarter. And that is black voters are not monolithic. We vote different ways. I was in Georgia. I talked to a sister who owned a coffee shop. She's owned it for three or for four years.

She said she was undecided. Why? Because as a business owner, she was attracted to the tax policy of Hershel Walker and not Warnock. Now, a tradition. No, no, no. He's up because he's a Republican. And the reality is this here. And this is what I heard it from black business owners when the tax rate went from 43 to 39 when Trump was in the Oval Office, I had a brother who said, look, that was a difference of $500,000.

Now, what happened was a typical Democratic strategist would say to that sister, oh, she's going to be voting based upon Roe v. Wade. She was like, no, I'm not. I ain't having an abortion. She said, no, she literally said, I have extra employees. I am making a thing and it's not going to be limited swing by the church. It's going to have to be tailored, targeted messaging and also a tailored message to black women that's different to black men. You're absolutely right. I feel as if they do see us as monolithic. We're just seen as one group. And even when you go back and you were talking about the corporations and how they didn't play on how corporations have been greedy.

If they could have taken that narrative and drilled it down to the human story. Remember, people couldn't even get formula for their babies, right? If they could make them remember that. If they could make them remember how these corporations were gouging us on prices when it comes to gas, when it comes to

formula, and how did that affect us? When it comes to small businesses, how are we affected? Even on the outside, yes, it looks like there may be a tax cut. On day-to-day, how are we being affected by that? And that's what we need to do is really speak directly to a person's day-to-day. And I think that we oftentimes speak theoretically and talk about things like democracy. And like you said earlier, we can't eat

democracy. Democracy doesn't fund my business. Democracy doesn't help me feed my baby. Democracy, you know, and that's what we need to get out of. You know, messaging is so difficult, especially in our party where, I don't mean our, because I don't know everybody's party affiliation, certainly mine,

Democratic Party is because when you have, the problem, it makes it easy for Republicans because you have such a small party affiliation, certainly mine. Democratic Party is because when you have the problem, it makes it easy for Republicans because you have such a small tent. Michael, hold tight. Hold tight one second. I've got to hit it right now, folks. Let's go live.

The third African-American elected governor of the United States of America, Wes Ford, of Maryland, speaking now. And we are making sure that we are keeping these illegal guns and these violent offenders off of our streets. In our Maryland, you will have safe in your own neighborhood and you will stay within your own skin. And we will protect our worship rights of ancestors.

And we will empower women to make decisions about their own reproductive health. I went to San Francisco. San Francisco I went, yeah. And in San Francisco she made a woman and her doctor. Thank you. Now we will build a world class education system starting with free pre-K for every single child. And we will invest in apprenticeship programs and strength programs so that every male and female can have a chance to be a part of the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system.

And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system.

And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in the education system. And we will invest in apprenticeship programs and strength programs so that every male and every young person knows that there is a pathway to their long-term economic viability and

long-term economic success. We will be the first state in this country to offer a service year option to every single high school graduate. Because if we build a truly spirited service in our state, a service that will help to save us, our Maryland will be more competitive and more equitable. And we are not going to choose between those two things. We can and we will do both. And we will make this state a true hub of innovation and economic growth.

A place where small businesses can thrive. A place where small businesses can thrive, but also, later, your means are strong. All-in-all, our troops. A place where people want to pursue and build and grow and retire and age in place and age in dignity. Last week my grandmother passed away. My grandmother passed away at age 95. Her name was Lelle Thomas. We all affectionately called her Mama Wynn. I couldn't think of a more appropriate name tonight than Mama Wynn. And I know that despite us losing her last week, that tonight, she's got the best seat in the house.

She was born in Cuba. She immigrated to this country from Jamaica. And she taught public schools. And she's a great person. And she's a great person. And she's a great person. And she's a great person. And she's a great person.

And she's a great person. And she's a great person. And she's a great person. And she's a great person. And she's a great person. And she's a great person. And she's a great person. And she's a great person. And she's a great person. She was born in Cuba. She immigrated to this country from Jamaica. And she taught public schools for nearly 40 years. She came here to build a life. And she ended up building a white center.

She also helped take care of me and my family after my father died. Because he didn't get the health care he needed. My father couldn't have been saved. But he was left behind. So you see, this is personal. I have seen how a society with broken policies can leave its people broken too. Leaving them behind is not just a slogan. It's a gun.

And is the value of your values as your next government. Our administration will fight every single day for every single barrier and make sure they have a chance to succeed and this is our time to do it and make it happen. But before I do close, I just feel like I do want to take a moment just to speak about history. This state is blessed because we got a lot of firsts tonight. A room of milk. The first immigrant and the first woman of color in the state's history to be sung as Lieutenant Governor. We'll clear with our first female counselor.

Anthony Brown, our first black attorney general. And, uh... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice

to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And it's not wrong, Stoneman, that I wasn't the first one to struggle. This is just more proof that progress is not inevitable, but progress is possible in the state of Maryland. And I am genuinely honored to be part of this legacy. But it wounded me that's not why we got into this race.

The history that matters most to us is the history that we and the people of this state are going to make together over the next four years. Now we know these results are still going to win, right? But it is clear, y'all gave us a mandate. And that mandate is for a vision for a healthier and a wealthier Maryland. And something else is very clear too. True patriotism is alive and well in Maryland and it is alive and well in the United States of America. I grew up in a family of people who loved this country even when the country didn't always love it back.

And my entire life has taught me that patriotism does not mean waving a flag around. It doesn't mean telling our neighbors that we're better than them. Patriotism is a boast. It isn't self-righteous. You cannot love your country if you hate half of the people in it. Real patriotism, real patriotism, means bringing people together. It means lifting people up. It means improving each other's lives. Patriotism means knowing that this country is great,

but if we work together, we're going to make it even greater because more people will benefit from that. So, tonight, tonight, because of y'all, a message has been sent. So tonight, we celebrate. But tomorrow, we get to dance! Thank you, Larry! It's my time!

You get what you want! Thank you so much! Thank you! speech there. He is the next governor of Maryland, a certainly bright spot on this night. Lots of red on the scoreboard. That is a huge win. Michael made the point earlier. Democrats gaining that governor's mansion, gaining the governor's mansion in Massachusetts, that is important. Now granted, you're talking about two blue states.

Democrats control the legislature there. But the opportunity is there. It is a flip. It is a huge, huge win there. And keep in mind, when Hogan was governor of Massachusetts, he did not want to sign Maryland. He did not want to sign the settlement with the HBCUs.

In fact, he told them it was a red line. I'm not crossing $200 million. The Black Caucus, nah. They passed a bill. It went through the legislature. It passed. He vetoed the bill. They came back in the next session They passed the bill. It went through the legislature. It passed. He vetoed the bill. They came back in the next session and passed

the bill again. Had it vetoed. Majority approved. And they dared him to veto it. He didn't. That's why they got the $577 million settlement for the four HBCUs in Maryland. And so again, this is what happens when you control politics. And so

Wes Moore, the next governor there. And I hate when, I really hate it when folks do this. And I'm going to allow, I'm going to bring in Greg Carr. Sean, I'm going to give you your final comment here because I do want to ask you a question. Because with Westmore being governor there, becoming governor there, one of the issues Maryland has to fix is cannabis laws. It's because you have not had enough African Americans getting dispensaries there.

I would hope that is one of the initiatives that black folks focus on, having Democrats, now they control the governor's mansion, House and the Senate, fix that, because to have, what, one or two African Americans with a dispensary in Maryland is absolutely idiotic. So right now, we're waiting for the results to see if Maryland is going to legalize.

If the bill passes today, and we think it is with 70%, what will happen is adult use will come into effect in July 2023. So what that means for us is that that bill, when the legislation was written, was to include expungement and to make sure that we can actually have a chance to gain our lives back by having our records cleaned up. But Wes Moore has always supported what the voters said. And Maryland has always been a center point for African-Americans in Prince George's County. We supported him 100 percent for the governor's race. He supported the cannabis community to say that if you select it, I'll back you up. And this is something we continue to look for with state to state. You know, right now, the other big issue is that in the south here, there is Arkansas on the ballot.

And believe me, they don't have policies that support our community. So I'm really, really proud about Maryland today taking the step. People say Wes Moore is going to have such a lovely future in politics, and we're going to continue to support him. Prince George's County is behind him 100 percent. Cannabis is behind him 100 percent. Cannabis is behind him 100 percent. And we just hope that black votes simply continues to push forward equitable policies that keeps our community, one, funded for schools, infrastructures, and just cleaning our records so we can have gainful employment. We can work in the industry

that is the fifth largest crop in the nation. So it's time for these changes to happen, and I'm excited about it. First of all, we thank you for joining us and for contributing on tonight's show. So thanks a bunch. Thank you. I'm going to, right now, I want to bring in Greg Carr. Greg, you are the historian here. And Greg, of course, you know I had to

go ahead and show this photo right here. Y'all, go to my iPad. I'm just saying, Greg Carr, give it up for that alpha man who's the governor of Maryland. I'm just saying. Philip Lewis is frat. He posted this on Twitter, and he

said, Westmore, the new governor of Maryland, is a member of the only real fraternity that exists, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated. Larry? Yes, sir? That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Y'all not worried.

Greg Codd, that's what I'm saying. Come on, come on, brother. That's what I'm saying, Scott. Scott, you can't talk right now. Scott, Scott, you can't, be quiet. Scott, you can't talk right now. Scott, you can't talk right now. Scott, you can't talk. Scott, the national headquarters of Alpha is in Baltimore. Be quiet.

Greg Carr, go ahead and break it down history-wise of what tonight means to see Westmore, governor of Maryland. As I was about to say, as the mayor of Newark, a fairly new member of Alpha Alpha through the graduate chapter, told me about a month ago, Ras Baraka, the oldest and the coldest, brother. So at any rate, I think

what we're seeing with Wes Moore, man, I mean, quite frankly... Actually, we don't have honorary members. No, we don't. But Scott, you're not going to derail this conversation because you represent a less than group. Go right ahead, Greg Carr. Go right ahead, Greg Carr. But, you know, in this fracturing federalism, and you've broken this down many times.

You wrote about it in White Fear. You know, this country, we're never supposed to be anywhere in this country except doing labor. The Civil War changed that. And for about 10 years during Reconstruction, we put in some guardrails that might have given this country a chance to be something else. They fought their way back through the redemption movement, and by the 1920s, they had rewritten out all state constitutions, and a lot of this voter suppression mess that we're seeing now has its echoes in 1890, 1900, 1910. It took us another 50 years, but we fought back with the Civil Rights Movement.

And they've been trying to claw back those gains over the last 50 years. So here we are today with a lot of parallels to that late 19th, early 20th century. Now, what does that have to do with Westmoreland, what we're seeing now? This time, when the thing breaks, you're not going to be able to put it back together. And by the thing, I mean federalism. We saw that puffer fish in Florida, as you said earlier, try to block federal intervention in terms of observers in Florida, clear violation of federal law. Well, guess what? He has those roots go back to the 1950s and 60s,

certainly what led to the Voting Rights Act in 65, because in 64, with the passage of the 1964, we certainly see them have to have a strengthen the federal protections because they couldn't do it unless they passed a big federal bill that protected voting rights because these southern governors were fighting back. Wes Moore is an example. And shout out to Anthony Brown, too, who's going to be the attorney general. And yes, the cannabis measure is going to pass, Proposition 4.

What we're seeing now in Maryland possibly is a laboratory of democracy, as they talk about at the state level, that will be a counterweight to the white nationalists who ain't going to do a damn thing for the people who live in Florida, for the people who live in Arizona, for the people who live in North and South Dakota. By the way, the cannabis initiative is on the ballot and South Dakota is losing. But the expansion of Medicaid is winning on the ballot. Right now, South Dakota is looking like what Kansas looked like when they tried to outlaw a woman's right to choose.

By the way, tonight, Maryland became the first state in, I'm sorry, Vermont became the first state in the country to put a woman's right to choose in their constitution by a referendum. What I'm saying is that the states now are going to battle it out. And as this thing fractures at the federal level, you're going to see states show the rest of the country, this is how you can govern for everyone. And a cat like Wes Moore, who in that little 10 minutes sounded more like Barack Obama than people think they

heard Barack Obama talking, a man who could probably unite Baltimore City with Montgomery County, who will absolutely put a floor under with a Democratic majority in the legislature and with that quartet of black elected officials in the top positions and people of color, including his lieutenant governor in the executive chambers, he will put a floor under, hopefully, the idea that black folk who've been smoking weed and selling weed for a long time will get some of the profits now that it has been legalized, in addition to having their records expunged. And if this plays out right, it might not be 2024, but in 2028, we might be looking at a cat who, if he doesn't run for president of the United States, it won't be because everybody's not asking him to do it. And this country might

have a chance at something that we haven't seen before, which is carrying that state momentum into a federal election cycle that we actually have somebody and some program to actually cheer for and get behind. I'm going to bring in Karen Towns, who's Vice Chair of the NAACP Board of Directors. Karen,

glad to have you here. I think and I hate when folk proclaim somebody to be a rising star and they had never won, Jack. That has always driven me crazy when folk do that. But there is no doubt being elected governor of a state puts Wes Moore in a different category. And look, don't be surprised if you hear people

talking about Wes Moore in 2024. Greg talked about in 2028. You know, the reality is, yes, he just won. But keep in mind, Obama was only a United States senator for a very short time before he decided to run for president, and look what happened. And Wes Moore has an amazing, compelling story.

Not only ran a non-profit, book author, but also military veteran. One hell of a background, and he ran one hell of a race. But let me also say on this night, Karen, also, you gotta give it up to Ben Jealous, who ran for governor in the last cycle.

You got to give it up for the other African-Americans who ran statewide, who made it possible. Those African-Americans who ran for governor before, who could not get over that threshold, but they paved the way for Westmore tonight in Maryland. Yeah. So, Roland, first off, congratulations on six hours of election coverage. This is really, I've been watching all night. We got another three to go, so we ain't got that yet. But we're three and a half hours in.

Three more shirts, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, we changed the shirt by the hour. Matter of fact, hold this past 10 o'clock, I'm supposed to switch shirts. Go ahead, I'm sorry. But I think you said it earlier in the show. It's about us running. And even if we don't win, we set the groundwork. We build the infrastructure. And that is what's important. So certainly, you know, hats off to the governor elect of Maryland. And I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of him and look forward to, you know, great things to come out of the state

of Maryland, for sure. Steve Phillips is the author of How We Win the Civil War, founder of Democracy in Color. Steve, glad to have you here. And when you look at tonight, even though it's not looking good for Sherry Beasley in North Carolina, although it's looking like it's going to be a runoff in Georgia with Senator Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. You also had Charles Booker, who ran in Kentucky against Senator Rand Paul, did not win, Gary Chambers in Louisiana. To the point that Karen just made, I really do believe that, and even Beto O'Rourke. They've called the race in Texas.

And somebody just said, is this Beto's last race? And I said, Beto should actually go from this to becoming the state chair of the Democratic Party in Texas. Because I go back to organization. When I talk to Gary Chambers, Gary's an activist in Baton Rouge. I really think the next thing for Gary, he's run for Congress. He's not for in Baton Rouge. I really think the next thing for Gary, he's run for Congress.

He's not for the United States Senate. I think he should make.. Gary Chambers should assume the Stacey Abrams role in Georgia there in Louisiana and really focusing on leading an effort to get black folks registered but also to get them out to vote. Charles Booker can do the exact same thing in Kentucky. For the folks who lost tonight, Congressman Jim Clyburn reminds me all the time, he lost the first two or three times he

ran before he won. So nobody always wins the first time out, but you have to build the infrastructure, Steve. You talk about that all the time. That's what has to happen for wins to happen down the road. A hundred percent. And that what we don't appreciate is that the closest thing we have to a national referendum around where voters fall is the presidential elections. And the Democrats have actually won the popular vote in every single presidential election since 1992, with the single exception of 2004. And Steve, hold on just real quick. They're calling the race in Louisiana for Senator John Kennedy. So they're calling that particular race there also. Give me one second.

And if you want to talk about what's crazy, Greg Abbott did nothing with the shooting in Uvalde, yet he won Uvalde County by 14 points. That is unbelievable there. Democrats are ecstatic. Hassan has retained her U.S. Senate seat in New Hampshire. And Democrats win the governor's race in Pennsylvania. Shapiro wins that race.

We're still waiting to get information on Fetterman and Oz. Steve, go right ahead. Right. So I think what all this is showing is that a lot of people miss about the midterms. I think what you're laying out here and what a few other folks understand, but many don't, is that these are all about turnout. And so if you have the infrastructure, if you invest in the organizations, if you build up the capacity to get as many people out to vote in the midterms as come out to vote in the organizations, if you build up the capacity to get as many people out to vote in the midterms as come out to vote in the presidential, we should be winning all of these different races, the vast majority of these different races.

I mean, Maryland is what you guys are talking about. It's a classic example. It's been a crime that Maryland has had a Republican governor these past eight years, given us how progressive and how black that Maryland is. But there's just not been the investment in creating the organizations, in creating the leadership, the precinct captain operation, the community-based organizations, faith-based organizations to get people out to the polls. And there's still a lack of belief.

We've talked about this a lot, Roland, in the Democratic Party, the progressive movement, around that's where you should move your money and your resources. But we are seeing it, is where you have large turnout, even within Texas. There's 3 million eligible non-voting people of color in Texas, 2 million eligible non-voting people of color in Florida. And so these are places which really should be, and if we invest now, we will get to the point where we can flip them over the next two years. But there has to be a commitment

and an allocation of resources to do that. Indeed, indeed. Julianne, Representative Al Lawson, loses to Republican in Florida. That means that Democrats are losing, Congressional Black Caucus is losing a seat. And remember, DeSantis obliterated those districts by design. And so, we see what happens there.

Control room, be sure to please check. I want to see what happens in Connecticut with Johanna Hayes. Of course, the former teacher was elected to Congress. She's in a very, very tight race there. And also, let me know about Lauren Underwood in Illinois. Y'all look up those two races as well. As they were running in, you know, very, very tough races. Not a lot of black voters.

You know, this is one of those things where when we talk about protecting black political power, again, we go back to if you're losing power in the states, there's a lot of people who are going to be in the states. And so, I think that's a big thing. And I think that's a big thing. And I think that's a big thing. of those things where when we talk about protecting black political power, again, we go back to if you're losing power in the states, then it makes it even more difficult in places like

Florida where they're going to cement. And Florida wants to do what Wisconsin did. They absolutely want to gerrymander themselves into victories. And so this is what we have to be thinking about and focusing on. And that's why we have to make sure that people look at the entirety of the ballot. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

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And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Cor vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. As we were saying earlier in our conversation, people run to vote for President Obama or Hillary or whomever they were going to run for, but they're not running to go to the governor, to the state legislatures and others, and those are the ones who are going to make decisions. In fact, what Republicans, we said it earlier, Republicans play chess and we play checkers.

Republicans have been on this path for 50 years to take over state houses. It's not that the orange man, he's the outcome, not the input. Right. He's... They were focused on doing Barack Obama's eight years and doing the presidency and stuff. So really, I mean, this is an object lesson. We've got three more hours and we're going to sit here

and nobody's going to cry because we've grown. But some of this is painful to watch. to sit here and nobody's gonna cry, because we've grown. But some of this is painful to watch. But the pain is a pain that black people have been dealing with since we've been in this country. And so one of the things, when you had Jackie on and she was talking about how to manage all this, how to deep breathe and all that stuff, the ya-ya-yo-yo stuff, I don't really do.

I told the Omaha Congo I might come over to his yoga studio, probably not, but I might. Be ready for you. Okay, but the point is this. Black people have lived in pain and joy. Pain and joy all the time that we've been here. And so we have to take this pain and turn it into power. And that means that we have to ensure

that our young people are learning the lessons of politics, which many do not. When are we going to turn it into power? Because I've sat on this show for years, over the last four years or so. I understand voting. And the message is the same, right? But we keep undervoting. That's why we keep losing. Right?

Now, let me say one other thing about Maryland. Let me go real quick. And I'm obliterating in a minute. Go ahead. Maryland is going to be a stake to watch. Not because of Wes Moore. They've got a black attorney general, Anthony Brown, who paved the way for Wes Moore.

But let's remember, Maryland also has a multibillion-dollar surplus. So Wes Moore has money to play with or to invest, whether it's in cannabis or in some of the health care or social programs where he talks about wanting to create employers, not employees. And so he's got a huge opportunity, he and Anthony Brown, to do some incredible stuff in Maryland, which will be the basis for whatever he decides to do in 2024 and 2020 or 2028. But how long are we going to wait to vote our power and get black people to vote? That's a rhetorical question.

No, it isn't. Hold up, hold up. So let me, so let's unpack that. And I'm about to bring in several different people. So Recy Colbert, Black Women's View, she joins us right now. Glad to have Recy. Greg Carr is still with us. Karen Towns, vice chair of the NAACP board.

Steve Phillips is here. We still have Larry, Avis, Monique, and Michael Imhotep, who's with us as well. Give me one second. I'm gonna pull up a name here. I'm leaving somebody out. Let me do this here before I get to that. Lauren Underwood's race is too early to call.

Adrian Irmer is a fellow at the New Leaders Council in Chicago. So that's all the folks who we have here. Adrienne, glad to have you here. And, of course, sitting here, Michael, Brianna, Randy, Julian, Rebecca Omokongo, and Kappa Man. Scott. All right. So let's... So here's what I'm going to do. Here's what I'm going rapper man. Scott. All right. So, let's... So, let's...

So, Resee... So, here's what I'm gonna do. Here's what I'm gonna do. Here's what I'm gonna do. So, I need folks... This is for Aloysius. So, what I need is I need folks to be real tight because I'm about to sit here and bounce back and forth.

And so, Resee, to the point that Scott made there, it really ties into what Steve has been talking about, what I've been talking about, and that is, first of all, we've got to remember, you get this voting rights act in 1965, you begin to see the numbers go up, and then you begin to see the attacks take place. The moment, keep in mind, on this night 12 years ago, when Republicans flipped 16 state houses and governor's mansions, and they won the midterms, leading their way to taking nearly 1,000 seats in the Obama presidency, that's when they began to attack voting laws. Why?

Obama wins North Carolina by 14,100 votes. They saw how well he did in Florida and other states. They saw the future, and that was to attack voting. And so, to Steve's point, Recy, if you have the Democratic infrastructure and progressive organizations and reproductive rights organizations and climate organizations

and all the money that they spend and they literally are not spending that money on the core constituency of the Democratic Party, then you're not going to get that turnout. What have Republicans done, Recy? They have put millions into targeting Latino voters, and they're seeing the dividends in

Florida and Texas. It comes down to where you put your money. So the stranglehold must be broken in the Democrats, where they must choke the hell out of the white strategists who control the money, because they're the ones who are dictating where the money flows in the office years, and that's one of the reasons why you don't see the numbers of Black voter turnout,

because you don't have the resources being put to actually drive them. Recy, first. Yeah, I mean, all those are good points, but we're also missing the part about how much money is put into dissuading Black voters from being engaged. I would reckon to say that Republicans put far more money into dissuading Black voters than they do into courting Latino voters or Black voters. And so that's what we have to reckon with. Democrats rely too much on quote-unquote or so-called organic content,

organic engagement, and that's not how the world works where everything is algorithm to death. Elon Musk admitted that if you pay eight dollars a month, then your stuff will be prioritized, you'll get a blue check, and people will see your stuff. But that's already been happening across all these social media things. And so what Democrats have to realize is, number one, they do have to put more money into courting their base, as you pointed out, but they have to put more money in suppressing the other side. OK, so if this is a multibillion dollar election and hardly any money is put in combating disinformation, hardly any money is put in trying to convince Republicans to stay home, then we're going to lose every time. But the other point I want to make is let's just be honest. White

rich men are supposed to win every single election. Ain't that what people say? It takes a white man to beat a white man. That's what we hear all up and down the ballot. So I will never ever be surprised or give credit for strategy, for fundraising, or anything to a white man who wins a race. You're supposed to. Anytime we

beat them is a W on our corner and it's beating the odds, the fundraising odds, the media odds, the erasure, the marginalization, and the attitudes that our votes don't count and that a black person can't win. So shout out to those who have beat the odds like Wes Moore and the people that did it. Well, they're laying the groundwork for more people to come after them. They're setting up that pipeline and they're getting people accustomed to something they should already know is possible because we have the power.

The math is the math. We just ain't showing up and we ain't doing it ourselves. Brianna. I agree wholeheartedly with Reese. I told you you were next. What the hell? I gave you a two minute warning. You next.

Goddamn millennials. I mean, I two-minute warning. You next. I mean, she said everything. Goddamn millennials. I mean, I ain't even ready. She was on her phone. I snapped my finger and said, you next. Girl gone. Why, you had to snap your finger? Thank you. Exactly, Scott.

I was like, okay, never mind. No, I think she said everything pretty much wonderfully. The structure is for white people. And so in the off season, if you put all the resources, which we've said over and over again today, how do you win these elections? Money. If you don't filter it to us, if you don't care about us,

if we only wait until GOTV, it's going to come up with the same thing. But, Micah, hold on, hold on, hold on. We are blaming the institution versus the individual. Hold on. It's gonna come up with the same thing We are blaming the institution You can blame the institution But what is the responsibility for black people to come out and vote? You had a shirt on earlier today. You said, vote like your ancestors died. And I responded on Twitter and said,

yeah, and they did, right? So when is this black vote that's going to turn these elections going to come out due to personal responsibility, whether they get touched or not? No, no, no. No, no, no. One second. One second. Hold on.

I'm going to go to Adrian after I go to Michael. Hold on. Hold on. Michael, you've been on the finance committee of the DNC. The reality is this here. The DNC that your dad ran, that ain't the same culture we're in now. That used to be the place where all money was funneled into. Now, you've got PACs, you've got DCCC, DSCC, DGA,

all of the different groups. And so really, it's a smaller amount of money going to the DNC, which has to fund its 50 state party. It's really the other millions of dollars that are pouring in that's determining this. And so now this thing has totally changed. And so from an African-American standpoint, it's a matter of going to all those people saying,

y'all going to keep playing the same game because guess what? You're not going to win a majority of the white voters. Republicans are going to win a majority of the white votes. If you don't get black, Latino, Asian, Native American votes, you can't win. The facts are the facts. That's the coalition. Yeah, but those are the rules.

Uh-uh, Mike. Uh-uh, uh-uh. But we've talked a lot about kind of the power, the inside power game. And Scott, you were chair of the D.C. State Party. The inside power game is such a difficult game for folks to understand because they don't see it. Yeah. The reason my father was so successful is because he put all the money on the table,

all those people you mentioned. And for all the folks who are watching, Ron Brown was the first black chair of the Democratic National Committee, Michael's daddy. Go. And so for the first time, an African-American who was chair of the party took all the money and put it on the table

and said, I'm controlling it. And, but the benefit that he had was that he took control when there was no Democrat in the White House. That's correct. Which meant that he ran it. So he had all the juice. It is, and what I was trying to say yesterday, it is very difficult to be the chair of the party

when you're in the White House because that's who, Biden and his aides run the DNC, not Jamie Harris. And I... Right. And I put some of that stuff on Jamie's doorstep. However, he didn't have a lot of that DAP or juice bill to do that. So when you control that money,

you can give it to black pollsters. You can give it to all these community-based organizations. But to Scott's point, which is a good one, and I know you want to abbreviate it, is that black folks, too, we have to also take responsibility for ourselves whether you get

to somebody's door or not. It's difficult. Yes, it would be nice to have the hot dog things and the barbecues and all the things that outreach, what outreach means, but dang. How about just go vote because it's your responsibility? No, no, no, but he's not. Before, before, before.

I'm going to pull in Adrian, and I'm going to pull in Greg. And Greg, I want to get the Stokely Carmichael piece ready because that's going to explain that. So go ahead, finish your point. And the guest that you had on right before us, I think, what was her name? Recy. Recy. I mentioned to some of you about the kind of messaging.

Real quick on the messaging. What I was disappointed about on the kind of the, obviously, the inflation issues, why not put some of that stuff on the doorstep of the former president? Exactly. Because if he didn't call COVID a hoax, we got up to such a bad start dealing with COVID.

Yes, millions of deaths, or a million deaths. Plus, the economy was diving before Biden came in. And we never put that message out there to convert folks that thought it was all Biden's fault, which it wasn't. Greg, I'm going to agree with you on Adrian. Greg, here's a piece. And later, explain to the folks what Stokely Carmichael said about

organization and the individuals. Because that, to me, I hear what Scott is saying, but you can't, you have to have an organization. The black woman and her daughter we had on earlier, that was a part of a collective group in Ohio that helped do that. The point is, it requires organization, not just thinking individual. Greg, explain. You mute.

My bad. Sorry. Yeah, I agree. That is the whole life and testament, political testament of Stokely Carmichael, or Kwame Turek. I mean, here's a young man who spent his young adulthood in Mississippi, in Alabama, with the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, going door to door, organizing for political power. And when he made transition at age 57 in West Africa,

he always said, I don't care what kind of organization you're in, join an organization. He understood political power. Now, he also was very critical of the duopoly, the Democrats and Republicans, which he said are both the party of capital one way or the other. Earlier in the evening, someone talked about the fact that one of the reasonsopoly, the Democrats and Republicans, which he said are both the party of capital one way or the other. Earlier in the evening, someone talked about the fact that one of the reasons Democrats won't go hard in the paint is because they're getting corporate dollars, too. It's just a softer form. But I think what we can

learn from Brother Stokely, from Kwame Ture, is that we cannot leave any tool in the drawer. We have to use all of our tools, including the vote. And as Stody Carmichael would say, it's not a privilege to vote, it is my right. And Scott, you raised something that's very critical,

brother, when you asked the question, when will we kind of exert this propelling power that we keep talking about? Well, we can look at Stody Carmichael finally and understand that we don't feel the same type of common oppression that we did with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and SEC and other people out there. And, in fact, what we're seeing, and, Roland, you made this point in Georgia with the voter that you talked about who was voting their economic interests, class has fractured that coalition in a way so that people can literally vote their economic interests over the collective interests of our community, and that could

sound the death knell. The only way you fight that is what you said, Mr. Lee Carmichael, in The Life of Pomp and Prey, which is you've got to go door-to-door, you've got to organize, you've got to educate, and then get out of the people's way, and you trust that the people will make the right decision once they have been organized. And Adrian, the point there is what that requires

when you talk about the organization, you got to fund that. That can't be done by volunteers. And so young people are saying the exact same thing. People are like, oh, go do this here. Those are jobs. If people study history, when SNCC was going into those places, those were jobs.

Core, those were jobs. I have literally said to Democratic funders, y'all have got to set aside $10, $20, $30, $50 million. Steve, you've been talking about this as well for quite some time. And actually pay people. Those are jobs, full-time jobs, not volunteer jobs. Adrienne, go. Yeah, no, there's been a lot of really great nuggets thrown out here today. I just want to hold a little bit

of space to celebrate all this melanin in the room and on the Zoom. Oh, look, this is the blackest show. I'm looking. That's how I'm like, it ain't called the Black Star Network, but just for a reason. Yeah. For sure.

One of the things that have been talked about, but also to elevate into this space, that there are institutional barriers in place that keep people from going to the polls. Not everybody knows they get two hours by law to go vote. If you're a working class person working your first job of the day and have to go to a second job for the day to make ends meet, getting away to vote on election day is problematic.

It's hard. And it's also hard to stand up to a manager and tell them that you have this right when they're telling you, no, but you have these orders to fill or you have these packages to label. It's not, it's more than a notion. So, you know, I'm of the mind that we need an election day holiday nationally. Right. So that folks can vote on election day without any problems.

And then we also need to do a better job of making it easier to vote. Unfortunately, in Chicago, we rolled back the number of precincts we have in each ward. We cut the number in half. So now folks have to travel further. There isn't a good enough job notifying folks of the relocation of their polls. So even in a blue city like Chicago, we're experiencing these sorts of like just problematic procedural logistical nightmares that make it more difficult for folks and souls to get to the polls. And now on the organized piece, you know, Chicago's home of Harold Washington, where Jonathan, sorry, Jesse Jackson Jr. organized a quarter million new registered voters to go to the polls to support Harold Washington.

And Harold Washington is a, a bit of a unicorn candidate in that, like everyone loves him, whether you're rich, you're poor, you know, the Latinx contingency of Chicago got behind him and elevated him to the mayorship here in the city. And it had been another, what, 87, 13, 20, another 30, 40 years before we had another black mayor in the city of Chicago. So there's the organizational piece needs to not just be in the six months before Election Day. It has to be a continual year round effort. To your point, Roland, there needs to be these kinds of investments from the party. But the party also needs to fix their fix their face and stop with this notion of automatically back incumbents. A lot of our incumbents are problematic. A lot of our incumbents are problematic.

A lot of our incumbents are inspiring people to the polls. So when the incumbent is smashing the grassroots organizer who wants to throw their hat in the race and speaks the language of the people and motivates the people, but they don't have the money to reach the rest of the people, you know, this incumbency protection and this impulse to constantly protect incumbents is problematic too. Michael, you also don't have the same old school machines you had before. And what I keep trying to explain to people, your older black voters self-identify as Democrat. As you go down, 55, 45, 35, 25, 18, they less

identify, which means you can't try to reach them the same way you reach their grandparents. True. M. Hotel. Yes. Wake your ass up! I'm... I've talked to you! There are two Michaels. You gotta tell... You have to say which one you like. Wake up ass up! I'm... I'm talking to you! There are two Michaels.

You have to tell... You have to say which one you're talking to. Yes. Wake up at the hotel. No, I'm not paying attention. Oh, by the way, Adrian mentioned Harold Washington in Chicago. He was a Sigma man, by the way. I just want to throw that out there.

Oh, no, I didn't. Harold, Harold! It's only five years. So, Michael, if you want to start going to history and trash, you don't want to go there, bro. Just go ahead and make your damn point. Don't be throwing your little sigmas in there. Come on.

Michael knows he's one of the few sigmas under 55. Michael, make your point. Don't get me started, Michael. There's a lot of us under 55. Michael, finish your point. So what you me started, Michael. Go. There's a lot of us under 55. Michael, finish your point. So what you're dealing with is you're dealing with the way that Democrats relate to different generations, okay? So I'm neither Democrat nor Republican,

but I'm definitely not stupid. And I can see whose policies are more beneficial for African Americans and whose policies are detrimental for African Americans. So there has to be, you know, we talked about this before, Roland, and last Friday I mentioned this. When you look at the Republican Party,

they set up these information centers in Latino communities, these brick-and-mortar information centers. They did outreach, okay, like in Arizona, like in Florida, they did outreach to the community. And they had continuous... They also had citizenship classes as well, okay?

MSNBC did a story on this. So you have to have constant contact. You have to have constant... You have to build that relationship, okay? Not two or three months before the election, but you have to build that relationship, okay? Not two or three months before the election, but you have to do the investment. And also, you have to hire African American organizations and agencies that have experience

in making those relationships with the African American community and turning out the African American vote. So, and lastly, you've got to speak to, you've got to speak to the issues and explain to them how your policies are better for African-Americans than Republican

policies. And you have to drive home that message. The thing here, Rebecca, I'm going to go Rebecca, Randy, Julian, and then, trust me, I'm getting everybody. The thing here.. And then, I got you, Karen. Rebecca, the thing here is when we talk about how to move forward, it has to be a multi-dimensional strategy based

upon regions of the country, based upon states, and based upon cities. It can't be sort of this blanket assumption that, oh, this is going to work. It can't be, oh, this is going to work. based upon regions of the country, based upon states, and based upon cities. It can't be sort of this blanket assumption that, oh, this is going to work everywhere. It's simply not going to be the case. When you start looking at numbers,

again, more black voters in Texas than anywhere else. Well, how do you turn those folks out? 900,000 in Louisiana, only 10% voting early. Okay, you've got to have a strategy to actually deal with that. You've got to have the 38% of black folks to make up the state of Mississippi. Okay, how do you reach those rural black folks there? And when we start breaking down, look, Beasley is down in North

Carolina. What happens there? Also, you look at the race out of.. Look at the race out of.. First of all, right now, 74% of the votes in.. This is, again, Hershel Walker is at 49.2, Raphael Warnock is at 48.8 in that particular race there. How many percentages? 86% of the votes in.

That's according to Associated Press. And it's understanding, again, how are you reaching people? It has to be a multi-pronged strategy. And what you have is an apparatus that really just stuck on the 30-year-old, again, let's talk in October, let's visit black churches, let's get some endorsements. And the black electorate has changed. So there's a couple of things. So one of the big things and one of the big questions that I have. I don't know if this is a member of Congress calling me.

You go ahead and keep talking. What are the big things? I'm going to take this phone call. Yes, this is a black show. Get it off the show right now. Hey, Scott, this is my shit. Go ahead and talk about that. Let me talk about the big thing. The big question that I have is, what would have happened?

Look at Scott. He think he in charge of something. That's what you get. Yeah, exactly. I knew it was something. Scott, let me get my point out. I'm sorry. Go right ahead.

Because normally we said no call ID. That's Maxine Waters. Go right ahead. That's all back. Go ahead. So here's my point. What would have happened if the White House would have used this bully puppet to actually pass meaningful voting rights legislation? Instead of the infrastructure bill?

What would have happened? When Fulton County, where you had early voting sites that got closed or got moved, would that have happened? In Georgia, where it's now illegal to give someone a drink of water when they stand in an hours-long line, would that have happened? In Beaumont, Texas, where black voters face some intimidation and it required the Beaumont End-of-Way CP to go have an emergency hearing with a judge to make sure that voter intimidation wasn't happening at polling sites, would all of those things have happened

if we actually had meaningful voting rights legislation that passed? And so if we're looking at a multi-pronged approach, it starts with the White House. The White House has a bully pulpit like none other. The White House really should have pressed Congress to make sure that we actually had meaningful legislation that passed.

That did not happen. And then we could talk about organizing and what candidates did and what candidates didn't do. How there were a lot of political, a lot of politicians who decided that they wanted to choose their voters instead of voters choosing their elected official. So there's many things that happened

that could have been avoided. And it's not just black folks just didn't show up. And folks, we were saying that and was kind of like, all right, but the White House kept, oh no, no, no. If that all gets behind the infrastructure bill, build back better. Because again,

they were trying to appeal to the folks who Tim Ryan was trying to reach in Ohio and Tim Ryan lost. And here's the whole deal. I can reach in Ohio, and Tim Ryan lost. And here's the whole deal. I can't wait to break down the Ryan race. They've already called their race for J.D. Vance. And I can't wait to break that down because I really want to go through

and see how he performed because I'm going to tell you right now, I know for a fact, Tim Ryan did not work for the black vote. And when I say, no, no, no, I got receipts. I was texting him directly. I tried to get Tim Ryan to come on this show 15 months ago. I offered to go do town halls in Ohio.

He never even called Alicia Reese, who was the biggest vote getter in Hamilton County in Cincinnati. Can't say nobody told him because I text him directly. And so he was out trying to get those white vote, those blue-collar white dumb Trump folks voting for Trump. And then I got a call today. He was calling around looking for the black vote. Say, player.

Yeah. It's election day. That's an example of them taking us for granted. What your ass been for the last eight, nine goddamn months? Randy, go ahead. No, I mean, you know, when you say about why aren't black people voting, When your ass been for the last eight, nine goddamn months. Randy, go ahead. No, I mean, you know, when you say about why aren't black people voting, you ask why aren't black people exercising their power. I mean, one thing I want to say is that I think that we're forgetting that a lot of black people don't recognize that it is a power.

I mean, I believe we have to go all the way to the beginning. Absolutely. I mean, I believe there are a lot of black Americans that feel powerless. I feel like a lot of black Americans feel country-less. And so when we say it's your responsibility to vote for this country, I don't feel that there's an attachment there. And I feel like we have to start at the beginning. Despite the history of people dying for their right to vote. Hey, dog, listen, listen. The reality is that from a messaging standpoint, we have Terrence Woodbury. That does not work.

It doesn't work. And in fact, Terrence was on, even using voter suppression doesn't work. Say it again, Adrian. Oh, I had a comment to make off of that, that dovetails off of what she just said. You're right, we feel countryless. Many of us feel countryless,

but the other side is actually using that to their advantage to drive wedges even between us and our own communities. Right. Especially in Florida. They're putting black men against black women. And they're supporting these online influencers, not just spouting disinformation and misinformation, but hate. The actual hate and division between black men and black women. This is unconscionable, but I was working the polls today, not those polls. I've got to be careful what I say on this show.

Get in your table dance! Get in your table dance! Go ahead. She volunteered, not those polls. Black men would walk by and they were like, no, no, no, we're not voting. We're not voting again until Trump's back on the ballot. I'm like, what?

Young man. This cannot be like actual whole groups of young men leaving the gym talking about they're not going to vote again until Trump's on the ballot. Their disinformation and misinformation has been very, very strategic, very, very laser focused and effective. That's exactly what I was saying. We talked a lot about education, and education needs to begin there, where people get to understand how important it is for them to vote, and how it affects them.

You know, we have, like, Secretariat of State running this year, and I don't think people understand, this person can affect the vote. They can say, you know what, they can win or lose elections, right? But I don't think that the average person knows that. And we're not learning these things in high school. People have no information.

And so it really does need to begin with just the average blow Joe that has no idea, doesn't recognize the power and says, what's the point? Why? Right. We have to get those people. And Randy, we have to speak to speak in more in plainer language. I think that if the white working class, that everybody keeps running behind, but if they understood how they're being exploited, perhaps they might vote properly. I know that there's

tension between voting for their race and voting for their economic interests. But I see that as well with the black middle class. When you start looking at going up the income ladder, you look at how black people vote. I'm not picking on black men, but I recall when Michael Steele ran for lieutenant governor in

Maryland, now 25% of black men voted Republican because a black man who was talking about minority business development was on the ballot. And that was his cook, minority business development. Why don't Democrats talk more about these economic issues? I hate ballot, and that was his cook, minority business development. Why don't Democrats talk more about these economic issues? I hate it, y'all,

but I will always come back. And being an economist, you probably won't hear that yet. Yeah, well, you know, and you know what's my favorite word, Roland? Predatory capitalism. Right. That's not your favorite word. That's not your favorite word.

What's my favorite word? What's my favorite word? It's a good one. All right. I'm too sorry. It's a poor little word. Right. You ain't gonna hear no two short reference on MSNBC.

I'm just saying. Yeah, let me go on ahead and... Hold on, Recy. Recy, hold on, Recy. Be yourself. What's that? Here's the point. Here's the point is that the economic issues,

as we talk about them, then we have to talk about the frailty of our coalitions. I've heard, I don't know how many times this evening, people say, people of color. Well, let's get real. I'll give it L.A. Black, black, black, black, black, black, black. Yeah, I don't... I say black in everybody else. That's what I do. Because we have to be clear,

especially when you're looking at L.A., Rick Caruso is wooing the Latino vote and paying for it, and guess what? If Karen loses, it will be the Latino swing. But not only that, you know, we have to look at race, class, gender, and the ways they sometimes intersect and somehow are other interests.

If we're all in favor of economic justice, economic justice, if we're all in favor of that, then we can make some coalitions. And what the rich people need to understand is economic justice is in their best interest, too. Right. Yeah. You get a whole bunch of poor folk, mad folk burning your buildings down. Right. That's just a suggestion. So Karen, Karen, Karen, your vice chair of the NAACP.

Look, I got 2000 chapters. Look, you're nonpartisan. But how are y'all looking at how you're going to be taking advantage of that massive infrastructure over the next two years to do what Scott's talking about? Because if we think of in our community, when we think about institutions that have the capacity to do that, it's NAACP. It's also fraternities and sororities. Dr. King talked about in his book,

Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos or Community? He said there are four institutions that are primed to liberate black people. He said the Negro church, the Negro press, Negro fraternities and sororities, and Negro professional and business organizations. And he said neither one of them have ever fully committed themselves

to the liberation of black people. What we're talking about is infrastructure. What Greg was talking about when I mentioned talking to Carmichael, it's organizations. When Scott was saying, hey, when are we gonna do it? I fundamentally believe, Karen, that our black organizations are not fully maximizing

our infrastructure that's vertical and horizontal to actually do this. Your thoughts. Well, first I want to say, I didn't know that my fraternity brother was over there, over there off camera, but hey, hey, Mike. Well, oh, go, go, go, go. Oh, cigarette.

Don't even, go ahead. I don't even know why you opened that door, Karen. Karen, Karen, I don't know why you even opened that door. That's right. Yeah, he lonely over there. Yes, you are. I got Monique. I've got Dr. Avis and Dr. Larry over there. Yeah, you lonely as hell.

And the Sigma within a million miles of us. We got the control room. We got the Sigma. I see you. But your point is a great one. And what I would say is I think that for quite some time, our organizations were busy working individually. They were busy worrying about who was on first. And I think that at least for the NAACP, you know, we realized we needed to be a better partner. We've been around 113 years.

And so it's not about competing with anyone. And I think in recent years, I think we've done a better job in terms of helping to use our infrastructure for not just ourselves, but for others. Today, we had a war room. We, you know, it started at 8. We had calls at 8, 12, 4, and 8 p.m., where we came together, and it was really impressive to see, you know, the other organizations who were part of this collaboration. You had certainly the unions in ASME, SEIU, AFT.

But you had, you know, our partners in the Urban League, Higher Heights. You had Divine Nine there. You had the Black Church Pack. I mean, at one point we probably had up to 59 individuals and 59 organizations sort of represented where we were sharing information in real time, talking about what was going on. And we had our lawyers in 12 of the targeted states and just sharing. This is what we have to do because there's no one organization that is going to help us get out of this. And if we're not working together, we are doomed to continue to see some of the challenges that we continue to face. And we just got to get serious about it. I'm encouraged by the work that's happening. You know, the links were in there. I mean, at the end of the day, everyone's doing something, but we have to do it together.

And the Deloachers out of Ohio are a prime example of you don't have to have no title. It's about really us influencing within the circles that we have within our family and our friends and then our organizations being able. So this midterms, we distributed like $7 million to 55 groups. When did you ever really hear of the NAACP giving its money to organizations outside? I mean, these are the things that we have to now do in which to be able to impact our communities and impact the results of these elections. All right, Karen Towns, vice chair of the NAACP. Speaking of elections, they're calling some key races.

Karen, we certainly appreciate you joining us. Thank you so very much. Recy, I know you have to go. I want you to get your final comment here, but I'm going to set up with a question here. It's also Recy embracing non-traditional voices. And that is not just falling for the same folk. No, you have to understand,

people are listening to different people in different ways, different platforms. Absolutely, and not all those people know what the hell they're talking about, but they can be very persuasive. And so I think, Roland, if you just look at your chat tonight, this is a critical night.

It is 50% trolls. Yes. And that speaks to the deliberate relentlessness of the way that the Republican Party operatives, chaos agents, we have Russia interfering in our elections, Iran, China, other countries, they are all hands on deck every moment to try to suppress and get Black people to convince that their votes don't count or they should be voting the other way.

And so none of this is organic. None of this is happening by happenstance. And until Democrats really grapple with what they're up against, we're going to continue to be outgunned. But the last thing I'll say is, looking ahead, you guys have talked a little bit about how this is going to turn into a state's issue. A state's issue for now, until they get the majority in the House and the Senate and the White House. And so the charge for the next couple of years now is to go to your local school board meetings, to your council meetings, to your, hold your legislature's accountable at the state level, participating in your primaries. Congress is up for election every two years. So we're going to be back here. If you have off your elections, like in Virginia,

your work is not done. There's some runoffs coming up likely. So you have to still keep your foot on the pedal. I hate to say it because I'm tired of begging and pleading for everybody to vote, but that's just the reality that we're in because this is the easiest thing that we can do to vote. But then after that, we have to stay engaged. And then just one more thing I have to say is just like credibility is a cumulative thing. You cannot have Tim Ryan texting you, Roland or whoever, texting on the day of election looking for get out of jail free card. They have to, starting tomorrow,

if you lost today and you ran again, you need to be on black media. If you won, you need to be on black media so that you can win again. These folks that think that they're just going to do an MSNBC interview, a CNN interview, or whoever, you are going to continue to lose ground. The Republicans cultivate their base. They cultivate their media, the Kirk's, the Owens, the crackpots. They're on there every time

and we have to beg and plead to get these folks to come to us. And so this is the evidence. Some of it is the campaign. Some of it is the structure. But the reality is to the extent that the candidates can improve their lot, they have to start by building credibility in our communities, and that starts with Black media. Well, if everybody in the room, y'all can get Resha's standing ovation, because she didn't use the F word one time.

It wasn't no M-L. She didn't use the F word. I mean, I was waiting. I was like, she's not one... Damn, Resha, you must got company over. You must got your mama, your people must be over. You ain't cause your baby's sitting right next to you. I mean,

she's not one time. I'm behaving. Shocking. Oh, my God. You must have took like a Benadryl or something before the show. All right, Reese, we appreciate it. Thanks so much. Adrienne, final comment. Steve, final comment.

And then I'm going to do a... Go to a break, then come back, continue the conversation. Adrienne, go. Yeah, no, I just wanted to let you know that FiveThirtyEight is projecting a few of these races already. Kathy Hochul in New York. Brian Kemp

in Georgia, and Joe Shapiro is going to win in Pennsylvania. I like 538. Their data is really wonky, but they just called it about five or six minutes ago. All right then. Aja, we appreciate it. Thanks a bunch.

Look forward to having you back on the blackest show out here. Oh, we appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Look forward to having you back on the blackest show out here. Oh, one more thing. I just wanted to tell you that Jonathan Jackson told me to tell you hi at his victory party. Tell Jonathan what's up. Look forward to seeing him. Congressman Jackson.

Yes, Congressman-elect Jonathan Jackson. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Steve, look, you've been talking about it. It comes down to the money, Steve. You've got to put it where it's supposed to go. You do, and you also have to fight the issues and inspire people to actually turn out. And then I hadn't seen whether there's a Kemp call or not, but the reporters were already calling me about trying to do Stacey's political obituary, which caused me to go

– this is a black show – to go and look up the statewide election track record of the secretary of transportation, who, when he ran in Indiana, got 37 percent of the vote. And yet people are still talking about Buttigieg to be the next president of the United States. So there is this whole issue. But it comes down to investment, right? The chapter on Georgia in my book is called Georgia, That's Not One We Expected, which is what Joe Biden said on election night, which is a reflection of the fact that they did not invest in or expect to win in Georgia.

So, you know, I'm thinking about the whole Stacey conclusion is that all hail the house that Stacey built, starting with Joe Biden sitting in the White House and Chuck Schumer running the Senate, that infrastructure that she has built. But she had to do it on her own. And I know because I was trying to help her build it. And so this is the real challenge. And you've been on this, you know, for a long time, Roland. And this is what we really need to move forward going forward. There's hundreds of millions of dollars that are being spent by these different Democratic Party committees. And almost all of it goes to television. And whereas we would actually invest in hiring up this infrastructure in the states, that is what we need to do. And we can, over the course of the next few years, continue the progress in Georgia, continue

the progress in Texas and Florida, North Carolina, potentially Arizona, where there may actually be some surprising results. So that's the fundamental point. And then I'll just leave you with the shout out. I'm not in a fraternity, so I'm not going to get into that game. But to let you know that my nephew, Christian Phillips, is a sophomore now at Texas A&M. So I'm going to let you know. All right, then.

Gig him. I appreciate it, Steve. Thanks a bunch. All right, folks, we're going to do a reset. Going to go to a break. Folks, hold tight. Great conversation. We're going to have more.

I'm going to give you an update on some races. They're calling some races. Give you an update on the Senate race in Georgia. Update on the Senate race in North Carolina. We'll check in and see what's happening in Wisconsin. Also, Pennsylvania, they call the governor's race. But we'll give you an update on what's happening in that U.S. Senate race. And so it's still up in the air who's going to control the United States Senate.

We're also watching the Senate race in Nevada and Arizona as well. Those polls closed not long ago. We should start seeing numbers come in there as well. And so, folks, you're watching the blackest election night coverage out there on the Black Star Network. Nobody else is doing it the way we're doing it. And trust me, y'all know, ain't no color on those other networks at all. At all.

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