#RolandMartinUnfiltered - SCOTUS Shields USPS in Mail-In Ballot Case. White South Africans Fast-Tracked. Lacks Settlement

Episode Date: February 28, 2026

2.27.2026 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: SCOTUS Shields USPS in Mail-In Ballot Case. White South Africans Fast-Tracked. Lacks Settlement The attack on votes continues, specifically mail-in-ballots. The Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of Americans losing their rights to sue the U.S Postal Service, even if employess intentionally refuse to deliver your mail. As refugee admissions remain largely shut down, and Trump's so-called immigration crackdown is in effect, Trump and his racist administration are moving to dramatically expand entry for one specific group........white South Africans. More on that ahead. More than 70 years after her cells were taken without consent, the fight for justice continues for Henrietta Lacks. Another major pharmaceutical company has now reached a settlement agreement with her estate. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to Bleep with Anna Navarro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Phenomenal. See, this is between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. It's time to be smart. You dig? In 2006, coming up on Rollo Bark on Filters, streaming live on the Black Star Network, Supreme Court recently ruled that you can intentionally not deliver your mail. Five to four ruling was a case involving a black woman who sued.

What are the implications if you decide to mailing your ballot and they just decide that, you know what, we're not going to deliver the mail from certain zip codes. We'll talk with Cliff Albright co-founder. of black voters matter. Also, as refugee admissions remain largely restricted, Donald Trump is more than welcoming white South Africans. Folks, more than 70 years after him yet a lax sales were taken without her consent. The fight for justice continues. Her family has reached a big settlement with a pharmaceutical company. Also, he helped lead North Carolina as governor. Now, Roy Cooper wants to be their United States Senator, my interview with him. And also, day two of the memorial services for

Ribbon Jesse Jackson, Senior, are underway. And so we'll show you what's happening live, a live look in Chicago. It is time to bring the funk. I'm rolling Martin on Filcher. On the Black Star Network, let's go. Next Monday, our 2026 IHeart Podcast Awards are happening live at South by Southwest. This is the biggest night in podcasting. We'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year

and celebrate the most innovative talent and creators in the industry. And the winner is creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. Thank you so much. IHeartRadio. Thank you to all the other nominees. You guys are awesome. Watch live next Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific free at Veeps.com or the Veeps app. I'm Clayton Eckerd, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan.

He became the first Bachelor to ever have his final rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would. But what happened to Clayton after the first. the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal. The media is here.

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The Justice Department through, I think we counted four presidential administrations, failed these victims. Listen to Bleep with Anna Navarro as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHeartMedia. and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while

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Listen to math and magic, stories from the frontiers in marketing starting March 19th on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Folks, Supreme Court ruled a couple of days ago in a case, five to four decision that the post office cannot be sued if they intentionally choose not to deliver your mail. The case is a result of a black woman who sued in Texas. Okay, she was a Texas landlord, Labine cut on, and she said her mail was deliberately withheld for a couple of years.

She alleges that racial prejudice influenced the actions of the postal employees. Well, one of the folks of that five to four decision, Justice Clarence Thomas, no shock, writing for the majority, said the federal law protects the postal service from lawsuits regarding missing, loss, and undelivered mail. That it also applies to intentional mail non-delivery. Now, you may say, okay, I don't understand what's the big deal. That's the post service.

So what then happens if the post office, if postal employees, decide, you know what, we've got these mail-in ballots from certain zip codes, from predominantly black zip codes, from predominantly Latino zip codes, or these are known as Democratic strongholds. And so, you know what? We're just not going to deliver the mail to the voter office. Y'all, they're saying that's all possible. Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, join us right now. And Cliff, we have been sounding the alarm.

on what MAGA is trying to do. And someone can say, well, this is not MAGA. This is not MAGA decision. But what it says, though, is that they have given the green light to the post office that there are no repercussions if they purposely do not deliver the mail. In this case, this was a black woman who said postal employees absolutely refused to deliver her mail. It was racial discrimination.

And the Supreme Court says, they're going to be. good. Yeah, and you got to, you know, as always, you got to look at like the fullness of what Maga and this regime and their supporters are trying to do. Because keep in mind that this is happening at the same time that they are arguing in several states and not just arguing in several states, but, you know, the state legislatures in some states are taking actions to say that you can't count ballots that are received after election. night, right? You know, they're always, they complained all throughout 2020. Oh, why are they still counting ballots? Why are they still counting ballots? Like, these were magic balance versus these are just ballots that were mailed in legally by the deadline and were being received and were being counted as they as they came in. And so you've got all these states that are saying, well, no,

you know, you have to, um, it has to be in and counted by election night. So, so combine that with this case that you're talking about. that Uncle Clarence wrote the deciding majority opinion on, combine these two things where all you need is some postal workers or a postmaster general that will say, oh, let's hold on to these, as you said, and he's targeted. Trump has already said he's already let us know that there's 15 states where he wants to nationalize elections.

He's already let us know through all his frivolous lawsuits what cities it is that he's trying to disenfranchise. So all you need to do is to target those cities with the combination of holding onto the mail, slowing down the mail, and then having these decisions around you can't count the ballots after they come in after a certain time. And you've just basically found a way to not count votes coming for majority black voters in majority black cities. And I'm quite sure that there are people who will say, listen, you y'all are being conspiracy theorist by saying these things. But here's what we know. When you look at how did Republicans win the House?

Well, in the critical races where they crossed the 218 threshold, it was a total of 7,000 votes. Let me say it again, 7,000 votes. What people have to recognize is that our elections are coming down to extremely small margins. Literally, 2, 3, 4, 500, 1,000, 2,000. 3,000, 5,000 races ballots are making the difference between winning and losing. And not just winning a race, but literally deciding who controls a chamber of the legislature in the state level, who controls the House or the Senate on the federal level.

Yeah, you know, it doesn't, I say it all the time. You don't have to suppress every vote, right? You don't have to suppress the entire county of Fulton County or the entire city of Atlanta. You don't have to suppress every vote in Philadelphia. All you need to do is suppress a critical mass, right, a certain margin because all of these elections, you know, the statewide elections and even some of these congressional districts are going to be close. And so, you know, the point that you're making that even something like this, again, you don't need every postal worker, you know, or every post office in the country to agree to this.

All you need is a critical number, critical mass in order to take away just enough. votes in order to swing these elections. And I know, look, I know that there are people that get tired of listening to this. You know, I come on here, you talk about these issues. And to a certain point, you know, people, sometimes people just tune out. Like you said, they think it's a conspiracy theory. But just think about all these issues that we're talking about, right? We're talking about delaying vote by mail.

We're talking about the Save Fascism Act, which forces people to show their past. court or their birth certificate. We're talking about the threats to send ICE agents to polling places. We're talking about this executive order that has come out in the news that now he's considering where he could say that the election had international fraud, that China or some other country was trying to interfere with the election, and therefore he's going to nationalize, federalize the election. So we're talking about that. We're talking about the Fulton County ballots being stolen. Any one of these stories

in another country would be an indication that that country is not having free and fair elections, that there's fascism, authoritarianism, right? Any one of those. I just went through about five or six different things, and there's a couple of more that I even get to. And so

it's not conspiracy theory if it's true, right? I mean, we're not making it. These are all facts. Like, every single thing that you just went through that I just went through. These are all known facts. And more importantly, he has told us what it is that he's trying to do. He has told us that he wants to nationalize these elections.

He has told us that certain cities cheat and that we can't let those cities have a full vote. And so there's nothing conspiracy about this. The challenge, though, is that as we want people to take this seriously and to be very vigilant and cautious, right, and if you start doing things like checking our registration status, What we don't want is that people become so fearful or so frustrated that we just tune out. And that's actually a part of the strategy. It's always been a part of the voters' pressure strategy. They didn't just make people count jelly beans, so like the person counting the jelly beans couldn't vote.

They did it as a warning and as a message to make anybody else not even want to try to do it. So we have to listen to this news, be aware of this news, we need to prepare ourselves off to these strategies that they're doing. but we can't let it paralyzes. Well, absolutely. And I just need our folks to understand that this is where we have to be vigilant. I say it again, where we have to overwhelm this system. We have to leave no doubt because it is clear what they want to do. Donald Trump is scared to death of losing.

He is scared to death. He still can't get over the fact that Joe Biden kicked his ass in 2020. He's scared to death that Democrats will control the House and or the Senate. And that's what's freaking him out. And that's why we can't trust these Republicans in any way whatsoever when it comes to voting because, again, they are still following the edict of Paul Weirich, who said in 1991, we don't want everyone to vote. That is literally the strategy of the Republican Party. Yeah, and that's the critical point. I'm so glad that you raised that.

Because at the end of the day, all of these things that they're doing is they're doing because they're scared. They're doing because they know they don't have the votes. they know that they're not popular, right? And so we have to remember that. I say it all the time. People don't cheat when they're winning, right? You don't start reneging in spades if you're winning, right? You don't have to renege when you know you got all the spades

and a high joker and a little joker and all that. You ain't got to cheat. And so in this situation, he knows he ain't got the hand, right? He knows that he's not popular. He knows that he and his people, his regime, are going to lose. And so as crazy as it sounds, even as we keep hearing all of these bad stories, we just have to remember that what it's a sign of

is that we've got power. And at the end of the day, if we lean into that, if we use our power, if not just, I go vote, but if I go tell five other people to vote and then they tell five other people to vote, if we tell the folks who don't believe that their vote matters, that we can show them and we can connect the dots that whether or not they vote in this election is connected to the high rents

that they're paying and the high prices they're paying in the grocery store. and why it is that their Medicaid has got cut in the premiums are going up. When we connect these dots and get people to understand that we've got the power to correct this, then that's when we'll be able to finally send this full home or send them to prison or wherever is that he's going to go, but get him up out of that White House. Yeah, and listen, he's not going to be out of the White House until January, 2009, but you can't limit the power and the authority by who controls the House and

Senate. And so that's in November. But obviously right now, we've got midterm elections that are going on. These things are happening. And so coming up on Tuesday, North Carolina, as well as Texas there as well. Cliff, let folks know also how can they support Black voters matter? I keep telling our people that we can't wait on campaigns. We cannot wait on parties to fund what's happening on the ground. We've got to be providing our resources to get out the vote, touch the people, and to make them aware of the issues. They can, hey, folks can connect with us. Find us on all social media platforms

that's Black Voters, MTR, Black Voters, MTR. Find our website, Black Voters Matter Fund, with a D like money, Black Voters Matterfund.org, get connected. And especially to the point that you just made, look, all the states where we do our work is in court, and we touch like 25 different states one way or another to different degrees.

But in this year, there's some critical states They're all important, right? Every state's important. Every election is important. But look, there is no path to getting back, like to point you made about getting some accountability in Congress, right, and some checks and balances. There's no path to get in control of a Congress that will actually do something. And that's a whole other story because we've got to make sure that they do something. But there's no path towards that that doesn't involve the Georgia Senate race, North Carolina Senate race,

Ohio Senate race. There are people listening out there right now from Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Akron. Look, we want to get with y'all, all right? There's some other states where we can't do nothing about. I can't do too much about Maine, right? I can't do too much about Alaska. But we got some power in at least three, four,

maybe even five critical states where we can shape this election and then we can not only stop this slide into fascism and dictatorship, but we can reverse course and start building towards a different vision. So if you're in those states, or any state connect with us, spread the word.

We got power, and we got to come out in record numbers in the selection. Absolutely, Cliff Albright, Black Votas Matter. I sort of appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Folks, why is there music playing in my ear? Why are we playing music? Let me bring in my panel right now. I want to bring them in.

Michael Imhotep hosts the African History Network show at Detroit, Candace Kelly, legal analyst, and hosts Not All Hood out of South Ballards, New Jersey. Matt Manning, civil rights attorney and the corporate scrutiny, glad to have y'all here. I'll start with you, Matt. First of all, Anthony Clarence Thomas makes no sense to me whatsoever. But the thing here is we should be concerned about these folks and illegal actions that they take.

Because, again, I don't trust Republicans at all when it comes to voting. The fact that they continue, the fact that they continue to push. Donald Trump's lies about a re-election to me is shameful and pathetic. And so I don't trust them at all when it comes to what they will do when it comes to his election. I agree completely. And ironically, Mr. Trump is in Corpus Christi today as we speak.

There's been a clamor all around the city. He's eating at Waterberger from my understanding right now. So it's timely that we're talking about him. But I think this is hugely problematic. I told a lawyer this morning that it seems like the Supreme Court is just, you know, picking a destination and trying to find their reasoning to get there. And what I found was so problematic about this case is not only all the things you and Cliff have discussed, but one of the places where the federal tort claims act actually allows you to bring a lawsuit,

at least against law enforcement officers, is when the act is intentional. So the idea that the Supreme Court essentially, you know, sanctioned intentional acts that divest people of their rights essentially under the law is crazy because one of the carve-outs we usually like to have is that you can't do things intentionally, right? Because you could say, at least under the Federal Tort Claims Act, this is not a discretionary act. We don't need to get into the weeds, but the way that law works is basically any federal employee

is immunized their conduct if it's a discretionary act. I think there's a pretty good argument that if you intentionally refuse to do the very basis of your job, it's not discretionary. So, you know, the idea that the Supreme Court is saying, it's okay, you can choose not to deliver mail is problematic. And I think one of the things that, from this that y'all have already spoken to is the Republicans are kind of always looking at something to chip away our rights. And here, you know, you're talking about 7,000 votes. In the aggregate of the United States, 7,000 votes is absolutely nothing, right? I mean, it's nothing for you to kill a whole election or steal a whole election by allowing people who are postal workers to just not deliver mail and ballots. So this could reverberate. And this is the kind of thing that we're seeing the Supreme Court do that is just disappointing. And, and

Clarence Thomas, particularly of all people, because, you know, he should know the impact this will have on black communities or could have, but it's part for the course with him. Absolutely. And Candace, these folks, when you listen to the likes of Steve Bannon, when you look at how they have these election deniers, they are leading various efforts, these people cannot be trusted. I do not. Is it like all benefit of the doubt? Absolutely not. they've already shown the lies they will go to when it came to 2020 election. So when they show you, believe them, and I believe they are crooks.

And, you know, one of the things that's key to mention is that we've already heard from the Trump administration saying that, hey, we support this decision. Well, of course they do because of everything that we've been talking about on this show. And we know that there are postal workers who in the past have not only been caught with hiding ballot elections, not on a huge scale. but just not doing their job and dumping mail in the back of their car and not doing anything about it because they don't want to do their jobs. I think the other point about this is the original plaintiff in this case.

She's not going to get any justice. She had tenants that for two years did not get their mail, did not get their social security checks, did not get, you know, correspondence in terms of their bills, and there's nothing that she can do. And then, of course, the biggest level that we're, we're talking about now is voting and what are people going to do and what oversight can we take in order to say to our local post office, listen, I need my ballot to get there. I mean, it seems

like people are going to be forced to go in person in order to make their election votes. We've got what, 30% of the country that votes with mail and ballots. And now you are trying to have me trust the mail, the post office has already said. There's nothing you can do if there's there's a lost ballot. That's basically what they're saying. If your ballot is lost, if your ballot is thrown away, there's absolutely nothing that you can do. We have got to do something about this, more than just talk about it and trying to figure out a way what to do with their mail and ballots. What are we going to do in order to make sure that our ballots actually get to the place that they are supposed to? And finally, and I'll just say this, because I know a number of us got very

close with our postal workers during COVID, for example. We got to know them. You know, they got tips from people that they never got tips from before. You better be nice to your postal worker. Next Monday, our 2026 IHeart podcast awards are happening live in South by Southwest. It's the biggest night in podcasting. We'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative talent and creators in the industry.

And the winner is creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be. on full display. Thank you so much. IHeartRadio. Thank you to all the other nominees. You guys are awesome. Watch live next Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific free at Veeps.com or the Veeps app. I'm Clayton Eckerd, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. He became the first Bachelor to ever have his final Rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would. But what happened to Clayton after the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal.

The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. Please search for it. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. This is love trapped. This season, an epic battle of He Said She Said, and the search for accountability in a sea of lies.

Listen to LoveTrapped on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Heart and TikTok have come together to create something new. I love it. Where the world of TikTok meets your playlist. Three words that will change your life. IHeart TikTok Radio. The biggest hits across IHeartRadio.

What's trending for you? on TikTok. Tell me a sound that's better than this. I heart TikTok radio. Plus TikTok's most influential creators all in one place. Search for IHard TikTok radio. Make it a preset and stay connected all day. I'm Anna Navarro and on my new podcast,

Bleep with Anna Navarro. I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now, we are all cursing and asking what the bleep is going on. I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018.

These victims have been let down time and time again for decades and decades by local law enforcement, by federal law enforcement, by administration after administration. The Justice Department through, I think we counted four presidential administrations, failed these victims. Listen to Bleep with Anna Navarro as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHard Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast,

Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. I'm talking to leaders from the entertainment industry to finance and everywhere in between. This seasonal math and magic, I'm talking to CEO of Liquid Death Mike Cessario, financier and public health advocate, Mike Milken,

take-to-interactive CEO, Strauss-Zalnik. If you're unable to take meaningful creative risk and therefore run the risk of making horrible creative mistakes, then you can't play in this business. Sesame Street CEO, Sherry Weston, and our own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Making consumers see the value of the human voice, and to have that guaranteed human promise behind it really makes it rise to the top.

Listen to math and magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing starting March 19th on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Because if they don't like you, they can withhold your mail and they're not going to get in trouble. Michael. Yeah, Roland, you know, this is another devastating decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that has wide-ranging implications. but at the same time, we have to keep in mind this is a result of the 2016 presidential election and not enough people voted for Hillary Clayton for one reason or another.

And we've talked about how on this show, the lasting legacy of a president are their Supreme Court justice nominations as well as federal judge nominations. So we see the evidence right here with this five-four ruling. and, you know, to when you, I read the article from the Associated Press on this. Supreme Court says U.S. Postal Service can't be sued. And it talked about Labine Conan. You know, it talked about she owns property. She's an African American businesswoman.

She's an insurance agent, things of this nature. And she alleged that there were people at the post office who were jealous of her and purposely withholding mail because, and they were just, that she owned property, right? Well, if this, I mean, just think of the ramifications of this, how this can devastate African-American-owned businesses. At the same time, we know that we've had a purging of African-Americans from the federal government, okay? And we know the U.S. Postal Service, 29% of them before Doge, 29% of the employees were African-Americans. So this is another reason why we

really have to organize. I'm glad you had Cliff Albright on from Black Voters Matter, but we have to really organize and strategize for these 2026 midterm elections. Trump and Macca are not going to make it easy for us. This is not a slam dunk, okay?

They are trying to steal this election in broad daylight. Yep, that's what's going on. Folks, when we come back, Vice President Kamala Harris weighs in on the Texas U.S. Senate race. She drops a Robocall supporting Congressman Jasmine Crockett. We'll have that for you next. We'll talk about this particular race. It's amazing how it's been so much discussed. It's about race. It's about

viability. You've got Democrats saying that Tala Rico is the only viable candidate based upon what? And so it's just crazy what's going on there. So we'll talk about that also. Roy Cooper, Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina. He wants to be the next United States Senator replacing Tom Tillis. my interview with him as well. Lots to break down right here. Rolling Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network support the work that we do join our Brena Funk fan club, uh, 20,000 folks. Our goals get 20,000 fans contributing on average 50 plus each a year, which is 4,019 since the month 13 since today. That'll support supports the work that we do. Uh, if you want to contribute via cash app, use a Stripe QR code. You see it right here as for credit cards as well.

Check some money order, make it payable to Roland unfiltered P.O. Fox 57196, Washington, D.C. 203-003-196. PayPal's R Martin unfiltered. Benmost rM-unfiltered. Zell at Roland Smartin.com. Rolling at Roland's martinthorunfiltre. We'll be right back. With medicine and science under attack, I want to keep you and your family informed and healthy. I'm Dr. Ebony Hilton, and I knew at the age of eight that I wanted to be a doctor. So I studied hard and became the first African-American female anesthesiologist, higher at the Medical University of South Carolina since its opening in 1824. And I always say I was made into a doctor, but I was born to be a mom.

And as a new mom, wife, sister, daughter, and friend, I understand how frightening and medical crisis can be. I care for individuals on some of the worst days of their lives. And it's my mission to provide you with a safe space to gain clarity on issues affecting your mind, body, and soul. I recognize that there are health disparities, particularly as it contains your race. And I want to help bridge the gap between you and your health care providers.

Join me every Thursday for second opinion on the Black Star Network, where each week I'll invite experts from various medical fields to share the latest health events. We'll discuss topics such as a vaccine debate, mental and central health, medical bias, infertility, menopause, andropause, nutrition and aging. Together with my medical colleagues, we aim to provide you with a second opinion. Don't miss it. Thursdays only on the Black Star Network. My name is Bill Duke, and you're watching.

Roland Hart unfiltered. Folks, primaries in Texas and North Carolina take place on Tuesday, March 3rd. Early voting is today in Texas at 7 p.m. Central. And earlier today, former Vice President Kamala Harris dropped a robocall in support of Congresswoman Jasmine. Crockett, who is running against Texas State Representative James Telerico for the Democratic nomination for United States Senate. Here it is. To please go vote for my friend Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary today, Friday, February 27th, or on Election Day, Tuesday, March 3rd.

Texas has the chance to send a fighter like Jasmine Crockett to the United States Senate. Jasmine has the experience and record to hold Donald Trump and his president. billionaire cronies accountable. But Jasmine can only do it if people like you vote early. Today, Friday, February 27th, or on Election Day, Tuesday, March 3rd. It's time to turn Texas blue. And I thank you. Please take care.

Bye-bye. Paid for it by Jasmine for Texas. All right, folks. So this is one of the few races that Vice President Harris is actually weighed in on the national level. There have been some local races where she's given endorsements. and already people have been talking back and forth, will this help, with this hurt? Candace, my position is very simple on this.

And that is, when you're trying to win the primary, you throw everything at it. You don't sit here and say, oh, I'm not quite sure. Bob Lott is you're trying to win. This is a tight race. People need to understand in Texas, you can pick which primary you want to vote in.

So it's not like you are either a registered Democrat or a registered Republican. When you go to the polls, I voted last Friday. When I went to the polls, it was very simple. Got to the polls and they said, which primary do you want to vote in? You want to vote in the Republican primary? You want to vote in Democratic primary? In the past, I remember there have been a few elections where I did vote in the Republican primary

because they were black candidates. They were black judges who were on the ballot. See, what people don't, what folk don't understand about politics, I'll give an example. Dallas County. First of all, the state of Texas used to be bluse. They called him a yellow dog Democrats. It was a blue state. Then, of course, George W. Bush beats Ann Richards. Then he runs again for re-election. And since 1988, Democrats have been losing all statewide office. So that was a point where Dallas County was a blue county.

Then Dallas County became red. I remember John Crusoe, longtime Democratic judge, who's down the district attorney running for re-election. I remember when John Cruzo actually rant as a Republican in order to stay on the bench because the county had flipped. And so in Texas, you get to decide which one you want to vote in. So when people are talking right now about, oh, how Democrats are pacing Republicans, well, we don't know if the Republican voters are actually voting in the Democratic primary. It was interesting. I saw this one tweet today.

This thing is all over the place. all over the place, Candace, where, oh, the Republicans were urging, claiming they were urging Crockett to get into the race. And then now we're hearing all Republicans are really scared to death of James Telerico. And so now a Deputy White House person put a tweet out, oh, no, they fear Crockett. I mean, it's all this sort of stuff. And my whole deal is like, y'all, none of that stuff matters. It's Tala Rico is Crockett.

One of them is going to win. And Obama, that's what's going to case. And so again, when you're at this point, you throw everything. So I'm crock and hell, yeah, I'm pushing Harris's endorsement. If that could pick me up votes, so be it. Yeah, you know, so be it. And like you said earlier, you know, you're dealing with a situation where people have choice. They have choice as to whether or not to go to this primary.

And as you said, the whole purpose sometimes of the Republican Party was to get people to stay home. So the first thing that we have is a takeaway that you always talk about. about you have to get out and go and vote. That's number one. Number two, this is the first kind of major person that Kamala has really stepped out to go ahead and endorse. So this is obviously very major, and it's something that she firmly believes in,

and she knows that it matters. And Jasmine Kroket knows that it matters, whether people thought that, you know, Kamala Harris did a good job or not, or who was she during that 100 days, and I can't tell who she was, and she didn't really stand on her ground. You know, it doesn't matter.

You pull out all the punches now, and you go for what you know. And what you know right now is that Kamala, she could have made America a lot better than Trump. This is what we know. And I think that that's a lot to count on in terms of Jasmine Crockett making sure that she gets that support.

And let's be clear. It was vice versa, too. Jasmine Crockett certainly firmly agreed that Kamala should have been the next president of the United States, and she showed that support, and that's what we're seeing now. You know, what was tripping me out back?

I'm looking at all of these stories. Sima 4 has a story up. A Democrat, U.S. senators say a lot of us are pulling for Tala Rico. He's the viable candidate. There was a video that went around. There was a white woman who was in tears saying, I really love Jasmine Crockett, her fight and her energy. But I really think he's electable.

And you've had race thrown in this. You had gender thrown in this and all of this. And when I keep hearing that, again, as a native Texan, as somebody I see registered in Texas, registered in Texas, I'm trying to understand why it's, oh, he is a viable candidate and she's not. When I've seen multiple polls that show if the corrupt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton beats incumbent Senator John Corny that it's going to be a tight race whether there's Telarico or Crockett. So how is he more viable than she is? I think he's more viable than she is because he's a white man, and they think that confers upon him a greater ability to win this state. I mean, I'm going to go vote on Tuesday.

I vote religiously on Election Day. And I've always thought that this, one, this is a failing of the Texas Democratic Party to not iron this out and have two very quality candidates, two candidates who are driving engagement in a way some other candidates have not in recent history running for the same office. I mean, it just seems to me they should have figured this out. I don't know all the backdoor stuff.

But I think we can speak to a question. He's a white man. He's a man. Matt, hold tight one second. Matt hold that one second where your signal is breaking up. We need to fix that. I'm going to go to Michael. Michael.

again, I'm real clear, Michael, Texas, there are 254 counties in Texas. No Democrat has won statewide since 1988. Beto Roark came within 2.5 points of beating Ted Cruz. Colin Allred lost between about 10 points. When you look at the other races, it was blowout races that were taking place. And so, again, I've seen polling. and polling shows that it's Crockett, almost tied or up one or two against Paxton.

Tala Rico tied or up one or two against Paxton. So again, it's amazing how none of these people have actually said what makes Tala RICO more viable. And I'm just like, okay, explain. it. Well, he can appeal to voters across the aisle. Okay. That's it. And Ruby Red, Texas? Okay. Well, a few points here. And I just did a video

earlier this week dealing with Jasmine Crocket talking about one of her constituents named Ms. Gladys, who's an African-American woman, 769 years old, and Ms. Gladys went to the polls in Texas to vote for Jasmine Crocket and was given a Republican ballot. And just as you were talking about Roland, Jasmine Crockett is warning people, make sure you ask for a Democratic ballot because her constituent was given a Republican ballot. But Matt just hit on it, okay? And I'm going to take a step further.

It's not that just Tala Rico is a white man. What it is is when if you think of the previous U.S. senators from Texas, okay? To my knowledge, they were all white men or mostly white men, right? Now, Jasmine Crockett, I love Jasmine Crockett, I hope she wins. She is eminently qualified. But when they say that Tala Rico is more viable, they are operating based upon their conception of what a U.S. senator from Texas looks like. I'm not saying it's right.

I'm saying understanding how white people think and some African Americans as well. That's what they're saying. This is the same problem that Kamala Harris ran into. Kamala Harris was overqualified. Kamala Harris should have won. But if you go back, when you had people who thought Donald Trump was more presidential, that's a damn lie, but they're operating based upon white supremacy. When they thought Donald Trump was more presidential, when you look at all the previous pictures of past presidents except for Obama, when you look at all of the movies and TV, TV shows that depict presidents, probably 95% of them is an older white male.

So Kamala Harris totally broke that mold. And in a lot of people's minds, when you talk about president of the United States, they picture somebody who looks more like Donald Trump than Kamala Harris. This is what we're dealing with. I'm not saying it's right. I'm saying this is what we're dealing with. And also, Cardi B came out and endorsed. Jasmine Crockett as well in the U.S. Senate race in Texas also.

So Kamala Harris and Cardi B. Cardi B. I have disagreements with Cardi B, but hey, this is a good thing. I'd rather for her to endorse Jasmine Crockett than Donald Trump like Nikki Minaj is doing. You know, so as you said, Rowling, in the primary, you throw everything out the wall. I'm going back to Matt. I've got a signal straight, Matt. Again, here's my whole deal. if you're going to say that James Telerico

who I've met who I've met who I've talked to so Matt's signal still not straight okay fine let me know one straight and I'll go to Candace with this one. Here's my whole deal. Just say it. Just say it.

Don't dance around it. Just say hey James Telerico is white. and we think a white man in Texas is going to be more viable than a black woman. Just say it. But don't sit here and keep trying to, you know, fool me with this.

When you say who's more electable, again, say it. Yeah. Roland, I would say this. They are saying it. and they've always said it, and there have always been signifiers about what's being said. No, no, no, no.

They are, no, they are in, they're implying it, they're dancing around it. No, no, no, no. I don't want to incur anything. No, I'm saying, I'm saying in terms of the history of a black woman. I want them to say it. And I'm saying that black women recognize the signs.

Black women recognize the signs anyway. And I'm at my job on another black women. It ain't just black women. It's just black women. Right, but we're talking about. I'm a black man. I'm a black man. I hear too. Okay.

But I want us to force them. I want us, see, I want us to force them to say, no, no, no, no. I want you to say it. Say it. They're not going to say it. We got to force them to say it. But this is what we deal with every day in our jobs,

in our regular lives. They don't say it, but we know it. We know the nudges. We know the microaggressions. We know the wording. We know that you're not quite right. for this part. We know what that translates into. That's just kind of part for the course. So I'm not sure if saying it would lead me to any other position than what I already know. I already know what they think. I'm not sure of saying that it would make it any more poignant, any more effective or any more directed to me, especially for someone who is a black woman

and those other black women and men who get those same signals on their regular jobs, let alone running for president. I'm just saying, I don't know if I need to hear them say it. why we know what they're saying move accordingly listen um bomb line for me uh what with these folk michael is i know the games they're playing and what what i'm not going to do what i'm not going to do is play these games and let them skirt and dance around um what next monday our The 26 IHeart Podcast Awards are happening live at South by Southwest. It's the biggest night in podcasting. We'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative

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I'm Clayton Eckerd, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. He became the first Bachelor to ever have his final Rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would. But what happened to Clayton after the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom, with Clayton at the center of a very strange,

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It's going on. Not going to do it. Not going to do it. Yeah. Not going to do it. And so we got Matt back. So let me go to Matt on this. We got Matt back.

Matt, you were making a point here. I'm just not interested in playing games with these people because here's the deal. They could say, well, look what happened to Kamala Harris. So therefore, what? You don't support a black woman. You got two black women who are part of the race to be the United States Senator in Illinois. You got a black woman and a black man who are running for, United States Senate in Kentucky.

So I'm not going to let these people play this game of, oh, no, if you're black and you're a woman, you can't be, you can't be the senator. So therefore, we're going to need y'all to stand down and we're going to support the white candidate. My whole point is let the voters decide.

If the voters decide in the Democratic primary on Tuesday that Telarico is the guy, great. If the voters decide on Tuesday that Jasmine Crocker's nominee, great. What the party should be doing is sending us these racially coded messages that are driven by race and gender.

That's exactly right, especially when you consider the fact that Jasmine Crockett, her ascension has one been extraordinary, but she's actually in the United States Congress. I really like James Talleyico. I don't have a disparaging thing to say about him. I think he's a great candidate. I think he's a candidate that is very competitive

for the Democrats here in Texas, and I think I got cut off. But I was saying that, you know, I think the Democratic Party should have had a lot more strategic planning than allowing this to happen. Notwithstanding all of that, I think you're exactly right. I think she's a black woman, and there is a per se fear that a black woman is just not going to carry the state of Texas, and more so that she's not qualified or inherently as qualified as James Salarico, which is wild, because if you look at the United States Congress right now, there is no person in the United States Congress who has a

bigger bullhorn than Jasmine Crockett, who's been more effective at countering the Republican Republicans rhetoric. So to me, just looking at qualifications, there's no question in my mind. She is more qualified, you know, if you look apples to apples. I think Tala Rico is great. I think, you know, we'll be in a good stead if we have him. But that's the issue. It's racially based. It's racially coded. And, you know, the polling numbers, especially with Ken Paxton, who for some reason just does not seem to go away, despite what he does, he's just always has a fighting chance. If she's polling better than him and he's pulling better than Cornyn, and I could be wrong on that last part, then it makes sense that, you know, people should really be looking at who has the actual

chance to win, and it's most certainly her. And I'll tell you, she came here a couple months ago. I had the pleasure of introducing her. And if you look at social media, there were all of these people who are diehard, blue folks here in Corpus Christi, who were saying, I'm supporting Tala Rico. That's why I didn't come out to her a bit. He's got a better chance of winning. and it's only based on how he looks. It's only based on the fact that they think he's striking the right tone with his nod to Christianity and his affect and all of that. But looking at qualification, she's the more qualified candidate in my eyes.

And a lot of Democrats are overlooking that because they don't think she's got the right phenotype despite having the right fight. All right, folks. Hold tight one second. I've got to go to Brett. We come back. We'll hear from former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who's now trying to become the Democratic nominee

for the United States Senate and the Tar Hill State. We'll have you next. You're watching Rolla Martin Unfiltered on the Black Stud Network live here in Los Angeles. We'll attend to the NAACP Image Awards. Back at a moment. I'm Brittany Noble, Midwest-born HBCU educated

with experience in newsrooms across the country. I've teamed up with Roland Martin to bring to you the breakdown. This isn't just news. It's our stories, our voice, our community. Join me for the breakdown, Monday, Thursday. at midday only on the Black Star Network.

I'm Mark Morial, President, CEO of the National Urban League, and I'm watching the Black Star Network. Roy Cooper just finished two terms being the governor of North Carolina. Now he wants to be the next United States Senator, Senator Republican Senator Tom Tillis, announced he was retiring. Democrats are really looking at this state as a huge, huge pickup for them to put them on the path to be able to regain control of the United States Senate.

Last week, he and I had a conversation, and here it is. Before we get into it, we're recording this. It has been a very difficult morning for us at this show with the passing of Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., an iconic figure who, of course, went to college in your state, North Carolina, A&T from South Carolina. Before we talk about your race, just want to just allow you to share your thoughts about one of the most consequential figures of American history. I'm so grateful for Reverend Jackson's life in North Carolina. We are proud of him because he was a graduate of North Carolina, A&T State University, the largest HBCU in the country, and often came back to North Carolina to

see how we were doing and to help us out. I've had many conversations with him over the years. I think my last conversation with him was at the 2024 Democratic National Convention before, shortly before I gave my speech there. And still, at that time, even though he had gotten sicker, his message was full of hope and optimism about where we were. could go. His life was difficult in that he had to be the battering ram to break down racial prejudices and he fought them every day. Yet he was amazing at making people feel a sense of confidence, a sense of self-worth. His I am somebody's speeches that he would give particularly to young people. You could see it in their eyes. And he was an inspiration to me, to many people here

in North Carolina, who loved and revered him not only because he was such a great civil rights figure, but because he was one of us, a North Carolina, and at least we claimed him, but we know what he meant not only to this country, but to the world. And today is a day of morning, but it's also a day to celebrate his life, because his life was worth celebrating. He made a difference in this world, no question. Not only that, one of the things that people don't realize, when he ran in 1984 and 88, and I have had the opportunity to meet many of these people,

he had long coattails. people don't realize is that were African Americans and non-African Americans who supported him who were elected to city councils, commissioners court, shares, school board, state reps, state senate because of his run in 84 and 88, the 2 million plus people putting on the voting rolls. Listen, Richard Shelby is not a United States senator in Alabama

without Reverend Jackson run. Now he rewarded Democrats by flipping the Republican Party, But the bottom line is he's not, the United States Center. And so I remember I was on CNN and Bill Bennett make this comment on the night of the South Carolina primary. He said, well, he said, Reverend Jackson winning and winning this was black history. Obama winning was American history. And I tore into him. And I said, you have no idea what the hell you're talking about in laying out of the role that he played.

And when it came to this issue of voting, which we're still dealing with. And he really understood the power of the ballot. No, no question. The fact that he inspired confidence and motivated so many people to run for office and to be involved in politics, he knew that governmental policy was a key to not only success in the black community, but success for everyone, particularly people who were being left behind by the system, that the power rested with the people. And today we are still fighting the voting battles. But Reverend Jackson taught us how to engage and taught us how to meet the moment.

And I think it's time for all of us to come together and meet the moment right now just as he would want. us to do. I was with him in November and sitting by his bedside when many of us believe he was going to be passing in a few days. His orders were shutting down. We were sitting there talking about public policy. And he asked his son, Youself, for a warm of a soup of Coke. And as we were talking, we're just all around him, you can see he was getting revived. And he was talking about organizing pastors and about feeding the poor. And so we talk about public policy today. you're running for the United States Senate. Bishop William Barberus always talks about this here,

how you have the poor and the working class in this country, who rarely gets talked about in campaigns. Politicians always say the middle class, the middle class, the middle class, the middle class built America. But you've got poor and working folk. You've got rural folks there in North Carolina. You've got folks not living in major cities. And so as I think about, obviously,

the issue the Reverend Jackson raised in 84 and 88, here we are in 2006 still dealing with those issues. How does that inform you of what you want to accomplish if you are elected to the United States Senate from North Carolina?

Look, I see that there are so many people looking up at the middle class, wanting to get in and feeling right now that they don't have an opportunity to do that. And you have to

look at what somebody's done, to tell what they're going to do. And as governor, I fought for those people who are looking up at the middle class and trying to get in. I recognize that so many people are struggling with rent and utility bills and juggling child care and paying more for groceries and having to look after parents and grandparents. And for so many families, there's just too much month at the end of the money. And what I want is to cut back the tax breaks that the very wealthiest and the corporations are getting and invest in the people who are really making this country go.

One of the big battles that we fought here in North Carolina was expanding Medicaid. We know that when Obamacare was passed, that they gave the states an individual option to make a choice. Are you going to fill in that gap between people who are made? making too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to qualify for the subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. We worked and worked and fought and put together coalitions of people, and there's still 10 other states in the South that haven't done it that are leaving people behind. But in North Carolina, we did it. Now we have more than 700,000 people who have health insurance who didn't have it before. And I will never forget handing Penny her very first

health insurance card, there were tears in her eyes and admittedly tears in mind, but I kept thinking about the fact that we are the richest country in the world, we ought to be able to find a way to make sure that everybody has affordable quality health care. And people tell me, I haven't been to Washington yet. I've spent my time serving in North Carolina, and they say, health care is the bear. You need to watch out for the bear in Washington. I am ready to wrestle the bear. We wrestled it in North Carolina, got more people health insurance, but now we see this big, beautiful bill that's trying to take it all away that's reduced the number of people who are getting health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, that's making people buy policies that have

deductibles that are so high that they can't afford them, that their premiums they can't afford. It is time for this country to step up and recognize that for a better workforce and just for the fact that it's, I believe it's, it's morality, it's, it's, it's a morals for us to step up and make sure that people have health care. And I look forward to doing that when I get into the United States Senate is wrestling that bear and getting more people in this country, the health insurance that they deserve. Health insurance, obviously, is a critical issue. Also, it's happening economically. Folks are talking about housing affordability, food prices, and things along those floods. And no state is immune from that. And so when it comes to those issues, people always

asking, well, no, what can a U.S. Senator do about food prices? What can they do about houses, building more housing stock? And so let's talk about those priorities. Well, first, we can, as a Congress, take back the constitutional authority on trade and tariffs, that this president has hijacked and that my opponent in this race, Michael Watley, supports. Those tariffs are raising prices on small business and consumers and farmers. I was meeting with a group of black farmers the other day telling me how difficult it was and how these tariffs are hurting them. So taking back that authority and wiping those tariffs off the books to help lower the price for food and other items that people pay.

Secondly, making sure that we put more energy on the grid, the big, beautiful bill took away clean energy that was going to help lower utility bills because it was going to provide more power. And now you're seeing utility bills go up, partly because of this administration pushing power companies to fossil fuels and even back to coal.

that is so expensive that is going to end up costing everyday consumers. And clearly, affordable housing is an issue that has plagued us for decades, and many cities have tackled it. I firmly believe that we need to try to narrow and streamline permitting processes, to get more people to invest in affordable housing across this country. We need to work closely, not only with state and local government, but with nonprofits. It's critical.

It's part of the American dream, is making sure that people have the opportunity for affordable housing, and it will certainly be high on my agenda, because all in all, stuff just costs too much in this country right now. Wages are not keeping up with it. And as a Senate, I want to go up there. I know I'll be one of 100, but I do have experience serving as a government, governor and solving problems at that level, I'm going to work as hard as I can to make sure those

things become a reality for people. When we think about help from the federal government, I get a kick out of Republicans who love to talk about, we don't want the federal government's help, yet with the natural disasters, it's amazing how they want help. When it comes to roads, it's more they help. But also, there are taxpayers. You've had to deal with Donald Trump penalizing North Carolina after the devastating hurricane there, penalizing the state, and literally saying no, and not just North Carolina, but also there were in Missouri and Arkansas, other places along those lines. And so what also has to happen, I think, people need to understand the role that U.S. senators play when it comes to things along those lines.

And so how will you make that case to the voters that it is much better to have you as a Democrat representing them than to have a MAGA Republican representing them who sides with Donald Trump? Well, first, my opponent, Michael Watley, was appointed by the president as the federal recovery czar for Western North Carolina. He's been a complete failure. This was the biggest natural disaster that North Carolina has ever faced. Western North Carolina devastated. $60 billion-plus dollars needed for them to recover. So far, only 12% of those needs have been provided by the federal government, when in other major storms across the country,

country. We've seen 60, 70 or higher percent coverage by the federal government. We need, you know, they talk a big game about how they're going to help, and then they disappear when it's time to govern. And that's why D.C. is broken. It's run by Washington, D.C. Insiders. My opponent, Michael Watley, has worked for Republicans on the Hill. He's been a big oil lobbyist and made money off of being on the inside in Washington, we need to break up this chaos in Washington and make it more effective and responsive to the people. And as a senator from North Carolina,

I'm going to be listening to those everyday people, hearing from them as I go about my work and working for them and those challenges, not the big corporations, not the billionaires who are continuing to try and get their own tax breaks while cutting help for everybody else. That is wrong. And I'm going to work to put a stop to it. One of things that I have said in the time that I spent North Carolina covering elections is that so much time energy is focused on the western portion of the state. In many ways, East North Carolina, doesn't get the same level of attention.

That's called the Black Belt. And so what is your campaign focus on voters there? Voters in Rocky Mound in Fayetteville, Elizabeth City, those places that again often don't get the same level of attention from campaigns as the Western State. Where's the portion of the state? Next Monday, our 2026 IHeart Podcast Awards are happening live in South by Southwest. It's the biggest night in podcasting. honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative talent and

creators in the industry. And the winner is, creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. Thank you so much. IHeartRadio. Thank you to all the other nominees. You guys are awesome. Watch live next Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific free at veeps.com or the Veeps app. I'm Clayton Eckerd, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. He became the first bachelor to ever have his final rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it all, I would.

But what happened to Clayton after the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom, with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. Please search more. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before.

I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. This season, an epic battle of He Said, she said, and the search for accountability in a sea of lies. Listen to Love Trapped on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hayheart and TikTok have come together to create something new. I love it. Where the world of TikTok meets your playlist. Three words that will change your life.

I heart TikTok radio. The biggest hits across Iheart Radio. What's trending for you on TikTok? Tell me a sound that's better than this. I heart TikTok's most influential creators all in one place. Search for IHard TikTok Radio. Make it a preset and stay connected all day. I'm Anna Navarro and on my new podcast, Bleep with Anna Navarro.

I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now, we are all cursing and asking what the bleep is going on. I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018. These victims have been let down time and time again for decades and decades by local law enforcement, by federal law enforcement, by administration after administration. The Justice Department through, I think we counted four presidential administrations, failed these victims. Listen to Bleep with Anna Navarro as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHard Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the Frontiers of Marketing.

Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. I'm talking to leaders from the entertainment industry to finance and everywhere in between. This seasonal math and magic, I'm talking to CEO of Liquid Death Mike Sassario, financier and public health advocate, Mike Milken. Take-2 interactive CEO Strauss-Zalnik. If you're unable to take meaningful creative risk and therefore run the risk of making horrible creative mistakes, then you can't play in this business. Sesame Street CEO Sherry Weston and our own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Making consumers see the value of the human voice and to have that guaranteed human promise behind it really makes it rise to the top.

Listen to math and magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing starting March 19th on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Well, first I grew up in eastern North Carolina. went to public schools in Eastern North Carolina. My children went to public schools in Eastern North Carolina. I practiced law there and represented everyday people and small businesses. When I was governor, we worked to make sure that Medicaid was expanded and rural North Carolina benefited probably more than any other demographic

because they needed insurance, and particularly they needed insurance to keep rural hospital doors open. We also work to recruit businesses to rural North Carolina and put significant, specific performance-based incentives into luring companies to come to our rural parts of the state because we knew that it would be less expensive for them, but it would be good paying jobs for the people who work there. But we know that people across eastern North Carolina are struggling. My campaign is going to be paying attention to them and listening to their strife right now.

I think that the affordability crisis is hitting them as hard as anybody else. And look, I think you talk about the black belt in eastern North Carolina. It's critical that government look like the people that it serves and protects. And it's one of the reasons why my governorship, We had the most diverse cabinet and the most diverse administration in the history of North Carolina. I believe it was the very best. It was the most responsive. If you look at corporations and companies that are out there and trying to sell products,

they want their employees to look like the customers they serve because they're more successful. And the bottom line is better. I think it's important for us to celebrate our diversity and to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to succeed in North Carolina. I will put that at the top of my agenda, is making sure that we are remembering people who are out there. what's happening in North Carolina that the Republican legislature has done and Congress, this, I can't say it's a do-nothing Congress because when you're eliminating the Department of Education and you're reducing the federal funding, the education that comes to the states and the local schools, you're really hurting the future of these young children's lives.

And with public education, that's where real opportunity comes. And I will fight for education, just as I, did as governor, I will fight for education in Washington. Last question for you on this, and this won't be our last conversation. But trust in the system. I have heard from so many African Americans who say, my boat doesn't count. It doesn't matter. I've never seen anything in my community change.

And the couch is an option. The number of African Americans who did not vote in the 2024 presidential election, North Carolina significant. Huge numbers in Georgia. There was a few, there was a drop in turnout for Vice President Harris in 2024 than was for Biden in 2020.

And so to that young person, to that middle-aged person, the older African-American voter who is saying, I simply do not believe that these folks care about me. My life will not change. What does Roy Cooper say to that person who's watching and listening right down when it comes to the upcoming primary and then the general election? That I get it.

I understand why you feel that way. I understand why you are frustrated. because I've heard it myself. I have been out amongst our churches and community centers and have heard that very thing that I'm struggling in my life and nothing seems to make it better. And why should I go and vote? There has never been a bigger difference

between candidates than in this election. You have an administration in Washington that not only is neglecting people who are struggling, people who are trying to get ahead, but they are actively working to make it harder for them. And then on top of that, they're making it harder for them to vote if they even do decide to vote. So if there ever was a chance to do something and to make a difference, it is now because clearly the people in power now do not want people who are behind and who are struggling to vote because they're afraid that those people would vote them out as they should. We're going to be listening to our communities. There will be trusted members of communities across North Carolina who will be talking with you and listening to you about your challenges and bringing them to me in my campaign. I want to make a difference. I want to make sure that government is responsive to people who need the help because often you are the back.

of America, you are the ones working two or three jobs. You are the ones doing what needs to be done to keep our economy going. And I'm grateful for that. And I'm going to be fighting for you every single day when I get to Washington. Governor I'm corporate. I appreciate you joining us. Thank you so very much. Look forward to our next conversation.

Thank you, Roland. Appreciate the opportunity. And thanks, everybody. All right, folks. going to a break. We come back. I'll chat about this race and some of the races with my panel. Also, our Black Star Network headlines with Brittany Noble. Lots more to cover right here on Rolla Mutt, Unpiltered on the Black Star Network. With medicine and science under attack, I want to keep you and your family informed and healthy. I'm Dr. Ebony Hilton, and I knew at the age of eight that I

wanted to be a doctor. So I studied hard and became the first African American female anesthesiologist, higher at Medical University of San Bernardana since its opening in 1824. And I always say I was made into a doctorate, but I was born to be a mom. And as a new mom, wife, sister, daughter, and friend, I understand how frightening and medical crisis can be. I care for individuals on some of the worst days of their lives. And it's my mission to provide you with a safe space to gain clarity on issues affecting your mind, body, and soul. I recognize that there are health disparities, particularly as it contains your race. And I want to help bridge the gap between you and your health care providers.

Join me every Thursday for second opinion on the Black Star Network, where each week I'll invite experts from various medical fields to share the latest health events. We'll discuss topics such as the vaccine debate, mental and central health, medical bias, infertility, menopause, andropause, nutrition and aging. Together with my medical colleagues, we aim to provide you with a second opinion. Don't miss it. Thursdays only on the Black Star Network. I'm Mark Morial, President, CEO of the National Urban League,

and I'm watching a Black Star Network. All right, folks, welcome back. Let's go back to my panel, Matt Candice and Michael. Listen. They said the quiet part out loud. Black votes are a threat, so they erased them. After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Republican legislatures moved.

fast. New voter ID laws. Polling place shutdowns. Purges of black voters from the rolls. Trump's Justice Department didn't stop it. They joined in. In 2018, his DOJ backed Ohio's voter purge system, a scheme that disproportionately erased black voters, their goal, erase black votes and political power. Yeah, that happened. These are the kinds of stories that we cover every day on Roland Martin unfiltered. subscribe on YouTube and download the Black Star Network app support fact-based independent journalism that centers African Americans and the issues that matter to our community.

Hi, I'm Swain Cash, Basketball Hall of Famer, and you're watching Black Star Network. All right, folks, slight technical glitch there. All right, so I am back. So let's get right to it. Matt, Candace, Michael. When we look at what is taking place in November, especially on the United States sit-ins.

Republicans right now, they have a 53-47 majority. But the issue that we're looking at right now is that you've got some serious headwinds. Ossov, Republicans have not been able to find a top-tier candidate to run against incumbent center of John Osaf in Georgia. Roy Cooper, top, listen, the poll who shows him up 25 or so points, hugely popular in that state. that could be a pickup for Democrats. Then you've got the main race. Susan Collins, incumbent, basically some serious troubles. She did all depends upon.

Will Maine Governor Janet Mills be the nominee, or will Grant Plantner, who is this upstart of individual grassroots guy, will he be it? You look at Iowa. Farmers really pissed off with Donald Trump's incumbent senator, Joni Ernst, not running for re-election. Then you've got the case in Michigan. where you have incumbent not running, but the question is, will Democrats hold that? Then you've got the Alaska seat where that it could be a potential Democrat pick up there.

So when we look at this map, Candace, we're looking at the possibility. Everybody talks about the House and how Republicans believe they're going to lose the House. But there's a very good chance that Democrats could win the Senate. and that would be a huge, huge deal if they're able to pull that off. Oh, it would be a huge deal. As you know, that's a huge deal in terms of making the laws that affect

everybody across the country. You know, I look at the elections like this. It's like the storm, so I'm in New Jersey, and we heard so many things about this storm, but you really have to pay attention to what the weathercasters are saying, the forecasters are saying, there's a couple of days before the storm.

That's really when you know whether or not 24 inches is coming. And it's the same way with elections. We are getting a lot of information now. We've got some elections coming up on Tuesday, and then certainly there's November. But what's going to be important is that messaging right before, you know, we were talking about Jesse Jackson. And before he said, I am somebody, he said, I am poor. I may be poor, but I am somebody. And I think that that's a lot of the messaging that we have been hearing from people, including, you know, your interview with the candidate in North Carolina. And that is that people are suffering and that the middle class they're being squeezed out, whether it's school loans or health insurance or the cost of housing, this is something that if we are able to keep on brand in terms of the messaging, then people will listen. but we have to knock it in people's heads that the people who you are about to vote for,

you are going to see change. Now, sometimes that's a difficult process because people have voted for politicians before that they believed in and nothing changed. This is a different time. We have never had this storm that we have had before in terms of all of these, the perfect storm, as they call it, in terms of all these factors, the Donald Trump, the health care, the student loans, the cost of grocery. that are going up, the messaging is really important.

I think that people are really paying attention this time, and that's going to make a huge difference and really perhaps be the outcome that you talk about. Also, what is needed, Michael, is energy, energy, energy. Listen, Republicans are in power. Democrats pissed off. We talk about the no-kings rally. I remember people like, oh, these people just,

oh, they're just wasting. their time, but I keep trying to explain to people. Protest are designed to people to show the dissatisfaction, but then is what you do after that. How do you build upon that? How do you connect with people? How do you talk to people? The economy is still a major issue, affordability, housing, food prices, Donald Trump is in Texas and Corpus Christi today. Line his ass off, talking about how gas is below $2.30. That's a lie. In line about everything else. You've got RFK Jr. telling people, oh, stop, ignore food prices or ignore beef prices going up. Y'all should just eat more liver.

Literally, he said that. And those things are happening. And so really, on the Democratic side, if you're able to get candidates that can really fire the base up, now all of a sudden, and they're willing to go after to really be aggressive in targeting their Republican opponent, I mean, again, Democrats stand a chance. Republicans are playing on the defense because they have to defend these policies. They have to defend Donald Trump claiming this is going to be the golden era and things are going to be amazing. And people are kind of like, I'm sorry, I don't see it and I'm not doing it.

Yeah, that's absolutely correct, Roland. And you have to have candidates that can electrify the base. not so much based upon personality, but based upon the issues and connecting the issues to people's pain and showing how your vote is a vote to fight for policies that have beneficial to you. Okay. So, you know, Jasmine Crocky is a perfect example of that. Yes, she's brilliant, but it's more than just having a candidate that can elect

people, it's having a candidate that will motivate people to stand in line for an hour, for two hours, to vote for them, okay? And in some cases, depend upon the district, you know, you may have to stand in line for a while, okay? Somebody like Jasmine Crockett, people feel she's fighting, she's fighting for them, okay? And one of the things that she's really good at is using her five minutes in how representative hearings. But Michael, but Michael,

but Michael, Michael, here's a deal. Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael, here's the deal. I'm not putting the Texas race in this. I'm not. I'm just straight up. I mean, when I look at the map, when I look at the map and the Democrat, when I look at the map and the Democrats' pathway

to regain the Senate, right. The Texas race is not in the next. All these people who keep saying it's in play, I'm not, I'm not sitting in play. When I look at the map, Again, you hold Georgia, you have to hold Michigan. I agree. I see the Democratic pickups.

I see the Democratic pickups really in four places. I see North Carolina very strong. I see Maine, very strong. I see Iowa, Alaska, and the last one, Ohio, where you've got John Hustead, who's running against longtime Senator Ashiret Brown. And so those to me, Those are the five places where the Democrats could actually win. You win four of those, you're 5149.

So if I had to say, frankly, out of those five, I see North Carolina as one. I see Maine as two, Alaska. I see Alaska is three. Ohio is for Iowa five. I don't put Texas, Florida, Mississippi in that mix. I just, not, I see those as other five, not Texas. Yeah, no, I agree with that, okay? And the U.S. Senate is extremely important when it comes to blocking Trump's nominations

for federal judges or any, any cabinet positions if somebody leaves, things like this. I totally agree with that. And on top of that, in my. agreement with you, but also qualities to look for in these candidates for the U.S. Senate, okay, or House Representatives, but especially the Senate, okay? Because it's more than just having somebody in that position is also understanding how they educate people, okay, how they educate their constituents as well. So I totally agree with that, but the Senate is extremely important when it comes to federal judges,

which are lifetime appointments, U.S. Supreme Court nominations, it's suspected that Clans Thomas and Samuel Lito were probably retire in the next two years, you know, because they're the oldest Supreme Court justices. Well, what that means is Donald Trump will get two more nominations. If Democrats are in control of the Senate, they can block those nominations. They can block those confirmations to the Supreme Court.

So I definitely agree with that. That's why I'm saying. But that's what I'm saying from... Well, hold on, Michael. That's what I'm saying from a party standpoint. Again, this is where you have to make critical decisions. This is why I keep telling people, Matt, stop saying Texas is in play. Listen, I'm from Texas, okay?

Next Monday, our 2026 IHeard podcast awards are happening live at South by Southwest. Since the biggest night in podcasting. We'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative talent and creators in the industry. And the winner is creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. Thank you so much. IHeartRadio. Thank you to all the other nominees.

You guys are awesome. Watch live next Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific free at veeps.com or the Veeps app. I'm Clayton Eckerd, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. He became the first bachelor to ever have his final rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would.

But what happened to Clayton after the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom, with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. Please search warrant. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped.

This season, an epic battle of He Said She Said, and the search for accountability in a sea of lies. Listen to Love Trapped on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I heart and TikTok have come together to create something new. I love it. Where the world of TikTok meets your playlist. Three words that will change your life. IHeart TikTok Radio. The biggest hits across IHeart Radio.

What's trending for you on TikTok? me a sound that's better than this. I heart TikTok Radio. Plus TikTok's most influential creators all in one place. Search for IHeard TikTok Radio. Make it a preset and stay connected all day. I'm Anna Navarro and on my

new podcast, Bleep with Anna Navarro. I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now we are all cursing and asking what the bleep is going on. I'm

talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018. These victims have been let down time and time again for decades and decades by local law enforcement, by federal law enforcement, by administration after administration. The Justice Department through, I think we counted four presidential administrations, failed these victims. Listen to Bleep with Anna Navarro as part of the moment. My Cultura Podcast Network, available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of IHard Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my

podcast, Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. I'm talking to leaders from the entertainment industry to finance and everywhere in between. This season of Math and Magic, I'm talking to CEO of... of Liquid Death Mike Cesario, financier and public health advocate, Mike Milken, take-to-interactive CEO Strauss-Zalnik. If you're unable to take meaningful creative risk

and therefore run the risk of making horrible creative mistakes, then you can't play in this business. Sesame Street CEO Sherry Weston and her own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Making consumers see the value of the human voice and to have that guaranteed human promise behind it Millie makes it rise to the top. Listen to math and magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing starting March 19th on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm just being honest about what I see. Sure. All of a sudden, listen, lightning could very well strike, but I have to also look at the data.

I have to examine the data. And again, Beto O'Rourke came the closest in the last 30 years. years and he lost by 2.5 points. He raised $100 million. He visited 254 counties. And so when I look at these progressives, these white progressives, look, oh my God, she's costing us and she's, no, you're, you know, the idea that you have this really, like that Texas is a great pickup, it's not. I don't say, I don't see Texas or Florida or Mississippi as a great pickup opportunity for Democrats. Do I believe you have to run? Yes. Do you believe you run hard? Yes. But if I'm looking at this map, Matt, I have to be realistic to say, where can you actually win? And it's really five other places that are the dominant places that they have a great shot to recapture the Senate.

And Texas and Florida, Mississippi is not one of those states. I get that perspective. And, you know, I'm not a political theorist or political strategist, so maybe I'm not qualified to really opine on this. But I think, you know, maybe this is the election where the data is obviously still very important, but maybe that perspective of yours needs to change a little bit because, you know, this kind of harkens back to a conversation we had about Mom Donnie months ago and whether what happens in New York City reverberates around the rest of the country. I think we're at an inflection point politically where, I mean, it might be more realistic than

it has ever been before for Texas to turn back blue. Maybe not. I don't know. But I'm not sure that the data really shows that because, I mean, we see the polling data. We see what people are saying, but we also see anecdotally that people are seeming to be far more energized this election. So maybe this is the election where that, you know, that tie turns. What I do think is interesting about this election is I don't think they'll use it in their primary necessarily. But in Maine, you know, they have ranked choice voting.

And right now you've got that platinum race against Governor Mills. And it sounds like, for my understanding, he's polling a lot stronger than she is. And I think that could be a harbinger for a sea change in who's actually getting elected, meaning the Roy Cooper's and the Janet Mills and the people who have been in office forever, whether people are wholesale, assuing them and bringing in new blood. I think that this is going to be a good barometer for that and how that might look for the subsequent general election in 2028, or the next elections in 2028. I'm interested in kind of how that shakes out.

But, you know, maybe this is the election where Texas turns the tide. People are far more energized here than I remember them even being for Betta O'Rourke, but you're right about the numbers, and I don't know how that comes out. Okay. So what I do is first and foremost, Candace, I don't get excited about primary turnouts. So let me explain. First of all, a primary is a primary, and typically your voters are going to vote. So I don't get excited by that.

What I look at is I look at a campaign and I look at, most importantly, organization and mobilization. What I saw with Mamdani, and this is why I thought that race was different, I saw a candidate who studied the map and said, how can I achieve victory in the primary? And so look, I remember people were saying, Mamdani is not focused on black voters. And I literally said, why? They're like, what do you mean? Black voters are critical New York City. I said, yes.

But how many black candidates are running? There were like five black candidates. I said, so if I was Mom Donnie and I need to win the primary, I'm studying the map. And I'm saying I'm going to focus my time on this portion of the electorate to get me to victory because if I spend time and energy, it's already five black candidates who were also targeted that same group. That was a smart strategy. What I saw was candidate raising money, messaging, but he was organizing and mobilizing. when you looked at his young numbers,

when he looked at 1829, 1835. So the reason I don't put Texas in that category is because I'm not doing that based upon the primary. What I'm doing it is based upon, okay, I'm going to look at Texas, not in February and go, oh, my goodness, Texas could change. No, I'm going to look at Texas in August. I want to see the organization, 60% of Texas minority.

60% of those that vote in Texas are white. And so when I'm looking at states, I'm looking at pathways to victory. And so when I look at Georgia Hold, North Carolina, hugely popular former governor, he's going to crush the Republicans. That's a Democratic pickup. I think Susan Collins is prime to be upset in Maine. I think that's a Democratic pickup. Okay. Now a sudden Democrats at, if you hold Georgia, you hold Michigan, you're now at 49.

Okay, what's now my 50 and 51? Now you got Mayor Patola in Alaska, all right? But strong, strong candidate. Uh-oh, she could win there. Now the issue comes down to two states, Midwestern states, Iowa and Ohio. So the question is, can the Democratic nominee in Iowa really showcase how Trump has been screwing farmers, running them to bankruptcy, and can they still be so mad? Listen, Joni Ernst didn't chose not to run for a reason. And then you look at Ohio, okay, has gone red.

You got those union workers, Sherrod Brown, has a history of being a strong, had strong union backing, but he also lost to a Republican. And so now he's trying to fill the term of JD-Event. So the question is, can the economy, can he speak to the economy and blame it on Republicans enough to pick it up? That's how we're looking at it. And what people have to understand is this is where you put your time, energy, and money. If somebody said to me, hey, Roland, will you broadcast shows in Kentucky?

Well, if I had to look at finite time, I'm going to say, I'm probably going to broadcast in Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, and Ohio. And I'm not going to be in Kentucky because you have to factory in just finite time, finite money, finite resources. To me, that is the Democrats pathway to winning the center. It is. And this is why civics is so important. So you can understand exactly what are the races that you need to be paying attention to. And more than that, what is the language that they're speaking so that they bring in people like the suffering farmers? They bring in people like, you know, suffering everybody who has been complaining, rightfully

so, about things that have been changing in terms of skyrocketing, skyrocketing prices. I think the reason that so many people have their eyes on Texas, and again, I understand what you're saying, is because there is a template that is being created that people have not seen before in this black woman. number one, and then there's an understanding and a dialogue that these people in the primaries are having. And so that alerts other people who are worrying about November and are worrying about states that are going to be more, you know, they're going to be more wins like a Maine. And they're saying to themselves, this is what I should be hearing for my candidate. And it changes your

perspective about what your relationship with potential candidate or the person that you are going to be voting for is. I think that that's the one thing and that's why people don't necessarily have their eyes on the bigger picture. They're liking what they're seeing at this level and they're hoping for it and looking for a different exchange and dialogue in the candidates that they're going to be making the difference in the Senate to make it perhaps 49-51 in terms of Republicans versus Democrats. And I think that that is worthwhile looking at and understanding Right. What is the expectation of somebody who is running for office in 2026 in this perfect store?

But here's a deal. I don't give a shit. I don't give a shit what they're saying. I'm being very serious. Winning is about numbers. When I look at Texas, it's 254 counties. The reason Democrats lose is because they focus on Harris, Dallas, Bayer, Travis. Tarrant County is a last large red county.

and they get crushed everywhere else in Texas, 65, 35, 35, 70, 30, 80, 20, 000 Republicans. You have to organize the state. I fundamentally, Georgia is a state that is where does it play because they organize the state. And this is what I'm talking about. This is where, this is where, this is why when I talk about why I support black votes matter, black voters matter. It's because you have to literally build that infrastructure.

again, I'm going to go back to Beto O'Rourke. He built an amazing campaign team. He built an amazing infrastructure. They raised $100 million, and he lost. And he lost. And so where we are now is when we talk about and the people who are watching, and I'm saying this for a reason

because I need people to understand the conversation with Roy Cooper. Why I kept saying, why must we as black people organized East North Carolina the Black Belt because that's where black boats are and now all of a sudden

if we work to organize Northeast North Carolina for Cooper in 2008 then Anita Earls the black woman I'm sorry Cooper for 2006 Anita Earls the black woman the lone African American on the North Carolina

State Supreme Court then we champion her she gets reelected now it's five Republicans, two Democrats in North Carolina Supreme Court. Guess what? And now you have created your template for 2008. Why is 2008 going to be important? One, Josh Stein will be back on the ballot as a Democrat running for re-election. The lieutenant governor, Democrat, on the ballot running for reelection. The Attorney General and Secretary of State, those four Democrats, but most important, There are going to be three Republican Supreme Court seats on the ballot in 2028.

But you've built the infrastructure. So the issue, the concern that I have with Texas and Florida is that there has not been sufficient infrastructure built to win those states. Nikki Fried is trying to do her part in Florida to rebuild that party. Why I have no faith in my native state? I don't even know who the Texas party chair is in Texas. Matt, do you know the person's name? Yeah, I don't. I was just thinking that.

I'm not sure. Got no idea. Got no idea. I don't know. I can't do the name. I don't know where they're based. I ain't never had a conversation with them. They even understand what the hell is they're trying to do.

We just have North Carolina states. I mean, that's what's crazy to me. On this show, we've had the Virginia Democratic State Party. chair. You have the North Carolina State Party chair. You have the Florida State Party chair. I ain't never, I only know who the Texas State Party chair is. So I just don't see Texas as being an organized state. And I'm walking through this for the purpose of our viewers and listeners, because what I keep harping on is we have to stop having a macro conversation. That is, oh my God, hey, Texas is in play. No, having a micro conversation. Okay. How? How?

is East Texas being organized? How are folks organizing Latino voters in South Texas? You're dealing with West Texas as well. And the whole point is not, oh, you're going to win those counties. The issue for a Democrat is not losing 6535, 70, 30, 80, 20. The issue is, can you lose 5545? You lose 55, 45, 58, 42. Now you can make up a difference in your large counties. you can't keep losing, again, 254 counties in Texas. You focus on four large counties, 10 counties big rent,

shit, those five, it's still 249 counties left. And so that's, so to me, that's the whole deal. So as we are talking about for black people, how do we organize,

it has to be a micro strategy. What is this precinct and this one and this one and this one, and this one, and this one. So all of a sudden, if we're talking about the top, 25 precincts in the city, all of a sudden it's like, oh, damn, that's the determinant who

wins the election. And so that's where I think where we have to be. So a lot of times that we have these political conversations, people are trying to be pie in the sky, big, broad. And I'm saying if you have not created the infrastructure on the ground, not TV ads, not radio ads, but the get out to vote infrastructure on the ground, if that is nonexistent, There is no candidate who is so charismatic that they can overcome that. Charisma of a candidate will never be able to overcome a lack of infrastructure.

And that applies to Jasmine Crockett, James Telerico, or any other person running. You got to have an infrastructure to win. Yeah, but can I push back on that a little bit, at least with respect to Texas? Go ahead. I think part of the problem is, I mean, what you've identified is several of those counties are by far the major population centers, right? Bayer County of San Antonio, Travis, my hometown, Austin, Harris, where you're from, Houston, even Nuwasis where I am, Dallas, Fort Worth, Lubbock. And then the rest of the state, for the most part, is not nearly as

concentrated. So in talking about organization, I don't think you're wrong with the general premise, but I do think we're not talking about Parker County and we're not talking about Tom Green County. We're not talking about these far-flung places where there's only 30,000 people. I think you absolutely have to focus on those people, but I think to organize in a state like Texas, you've got to your earlier point, use your finite resources where it makes sense. I think the thing that the Democratic Party needs to do, not only organize more so, but is organized and pick up more votes in places like Lubbock. For instance, the Lubbock City Council just voted the other day about,

or, yeah, I think the City Council, about not having a debtor prayer time during school, right? And people are up in arms about it, right? There's this whole, like, this whole rift about whether Lubbock's leaders are really God-fearing and God-focused and all that stuff. But my point is, Lubbock is a place that Democrats just completely write off. But Lubbock is changing. Lubb is a lot more progressive than it was even 12 years ago, 13 years ago when I was in law school. I think you pick up enough votes in little places like that. You buttress it with the votes in Harris County and Travis County, and then the organization pays off for itself.

I don't see how you really make inroads in Orange County where Beaumont is or those kinds of places. I mean, it just, the way Texas is set up, it doesn't make sense in your time and your research. Wait, wait, hold up. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? When you talk about Beaumont, no, no, no,

when you talk about Beaumont, you literally, Beaumont and Lake, Beaumont and Port Arthur, it's a lot of black people there. See, see, his, my whole point. issue. I'm saying comparatively. No, no, no. But the problem Yeah, yeah, but again, though, again, it's not a question of a lot of people,

Matt. This is what I'm talking about. It's a question of if you lose in rural parts of the state, what's the margin in which you lose? What I am saying, this applies to Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan.

Michigan, outside of Detroit, Lansing, and Flint, Michigan is a red state. You showed a map of Michigan. It's a lot of red. Minnesota is called a blue state. It's a lot of red. Trump only lost Minnesota by four points the last election.

Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and the suburbs, they call Pennsylvania, Alabama, outside of those places. And so one of the reasons Democrats lose in Texas, I'm looking at, I'm right here. It says right, I'm looking at how Texas counties voted for Beto O'Rourke in the primary and then four or five months later,

Cruz votes swept across ruled Texas despite losing cities. And that's my whole point. So my point is, what happens is when you look at the map, when you look at the map, and I don't have it here. So I'm just going to.

Our 2026 IHeart Podcast Awards are happening live at South by Southwest. It's the biggest night in podcasting. We'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative talent and creators in the industry. And the winner is... Creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. Thank you so much. IHeart Radio.

Thank you to all the other nominees. You guys are awesome. Watch live next Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific free at vips.com or the Veeps app. I'm Clayton Eckerd, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. He became the first Bachelor to ever have his final Rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would.

But what happened to Clayton after the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom, with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal. is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. Please search for it. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm

Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. This season, an epic battle of He Said and the search for accountability in a sea of lies. Listen to Love Trapped on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I heard in TikTok. have come together to create something new. I love it. Where the world of TikTok meets your playlist. Three words that will change your life. I heart TikTok radio. The biggest hits across IHeart Radio. What's trending for you on TikTok?

Tell me a sound that's better than this. I heart TikTok radio. Plus TikTok's most influential creators all in one place. Search for IHeart TikTok Radio. Make it a preset and stay connected all day. I'm Anna Navarro. And on my new podcast, Bleep with Anna Navarro.

I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now, we are all cursing and asking what the bleep is going on. I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018. These victims have been let down time and time again for decades and decades by local law enforcement, by federal law enforcement, by administration after administration. The Justice Department through, I think we counted four presidential administrations, failed these victims. Listen to Bleep with Anna Navarro as part of the My Cultura podcast network,

available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHard Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. I'm talking to leaders from the entertainment industry to finance and everywhere in between. This seasonal math and magic, I'm talking to CEO of Liquid Death Mike Cesario, financier and

public health advocate Mike Milken. Take-2 interactive CEO, Strauss-Zell-Nich. If you're unable to take meaningful creative risk and therefore run the risk of making horrible creative mistakes, then you can't play in this business. Sesame Street CEO Sherry Weston and our own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Making consumers see the value of the human voice and to have that guaranteed human promise behind it really makes it wise to the top. Listen to math and magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing starting March 19th

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Go to the camera. this right here. That's how Ted Cruz is right there. That's blue and that's red. Now, the issue with all of those red counties, the issue

in those red counties is not you lost the counties. The issue is how much did you lose the county? And historically, Democrats have been getting crushed in these counties

by massive margins because they did not have the organization. They've been losing Florida in the last four cycles because they stopped investing in Florida. They've been getting crushed. Before what Stacey Abrams and Warnock did in Georgia, they were getting crushed in Georgia. They never competed in rural places.

And so this is what I'm saying. That requires organization, but a year-round organization and mobilization, and what I'm saying for black people where we have numbers, we've got to be thinking that way because then we change electoral politics. And this is the thing, and this even goes back to, like I saw, and this is why James Carville should shut the hell up.

James Carville was James Carville at some video, and he was trashed in Ilhan Omar. She needs to leave the party, all this sort of stuff. And I'm like, James Carville, you're a complete dumbass. There are 435 House races in the United States. And you know what? People vote in those congressional districts based upon who they like. Listen, Rashida Tili is representing there in Detroit.

How many black people have she beaten in Detroit in that race in the last four elections? She's been wiping out everybody black in Detroit. Steve Cohen in Memphis, all the top black folks that run against him, he wiped him out. Now, the question is, is he going to be able to beat a judge? Justin Pearson, Representative Justin Pearson in the primary this year. We'll see. And so what the idea of Ticarville is, stop saying stupid stuff like run Ilhan Omar out of the party. Her district votes for her. To Leeds district vote for her. AOC's district vote for her. But how a person runs in a congressional race is totally different than how you have to run in a statewide race.

and so it requires infrastructure. I'm tired of black people saying, hey, man, we got to get out people to vote. How are you going to do it? Where to votes? How are you talking to them? How you're reaching them? Well, what?

It ain't going to happen through osmosis. And that's why I'm saying, when I look at this here, why the infrastructure has to be built and sustained and it can't be, well, Beto ran. Beto ran, he lost in 2018. We are eight years later. So let's look at the map. Beto lost in 2018 in Texas by 223,000 votes, 2.6 points.

All red runs six years later. He loses by 10 points. I'm sorry. If the infrastructure was in place, you don't go from a 2.6 point lead loss to a 10 point loss. And now all of a sudden, the state's going to flip. That's why I can't buy that. You've got to have the infrastructure that stays in place

and you're building upon that. So the next cycle on the next cycle, remember, they started in 2012 election in Georgia. They didn't flip Georgia until 2020. It took them eight years of ground game. And that's what has to happen. And so final comments, Michael Candace, and met on that whole idea. Yeah, that's the infrastructure investment that we've talked about.

We had this conversation rolling a few months ago when I gave the example of Florida and how some election cycles ago I saw a news story where Florida, the Republicans in Florida, talked about how they embedded in the community their campaign offices were reaching out to Latinos, helping them with immigration forms, having movie nights, things like that. They became part of the community, okay? So then when you come to them to vote for you, you're not a foreigner. You've already established that type of relationship.

So, yeah, the investment has to come. And I think African Americans, we have to really focus on organizing these states, you know, outside of a Democratic Party, not relying on the party to do to do that. So, yeah, I totally agree with that. Yeah. I mean, I just, I was just sitting here thinking, I was just sitting there thinking of Canada, Nevada. Do you know why Democrats were winning in Nevada? Harry Reid had strong infrastructure.

What happened the last two elections? Democrats were like, damn. it's going to be tough because Harry Reid died. So that's a perfect example I'm talking about. The infrastructure cannot be tied to a person. This was the, black people love us and Obama. Progressives and the democracy love Obama. But my biggest criticism of Obama is that Obama had an infrastructure that was about him.

It wasn't about the part. And so he didn't give a flip about the party. Obama for America became organizing for America, and they were essentially competing with the DNC. And so what a thousand seats lost, but they had no infrastructure. The black community, again, after Reverend Jackson lost in 88, they put in place a strong black infrastructure in the DNC. DNC. When Obama ran in 2008, he didn't need that infrastructure. Okay, that worked fine for him,

but what about all the candidates below him? Governor, U.S. Senator, U.S. House, State rep, State House, County Commissioner, City Council, Sheriff, D.A., judicial races. That is the whole point of an infrastructure. So to Michael's point, what I'm arguing, for black people, our black infrastructure. We may vote Democrat, but our black infrastructure must be a black infrastructure that's not completely controlled by the party because we have to have the flexibility to be able to, where it is going on 365 and we are looking at our politics in a broad way. That is the mistake. When I look at our community, we're waiting for the candidate to decide how much money he or she's now going to invest

in the black community to turn out the vote when I'm like, yo, we can't wait on them to actually do that. We've got to be funding our own infrastructure to then say, okay, we already got our infrastructure here. Now, what can you supplement? Because when the election is over, we've still got to keep the infrastructure going. If we let it die after the election,

now we're trying to restart it two years later, and then restart it two years later, and then restart it two years later, and you lose. Right, right. You lose the continuity. And I think one of the other takeaways is that in terms of having an infrastructure that works, you have to have consistent people. And that means there's going to be a turnaround of people,

and more people have to either be in line or be involved in order to keep that infrastructure going. So one of the takeaways that I'm getting from what we've been talking about and that people should be reminded of is that you should start making sure, that people understand the civil process and what it takes to run for office and get them ready and prime them to run for office, get them ready to learn how to build infrastructures, because those are the people who we need. I think the other thing, though, that we should also consider is that you might have an infrastructure for black people. As long as you keep the messaging on point

that keep the black people's attention, because let's remember, there are 20% of black men that left and some black women too who did not vote the way that they thought they would. You have to keep all of that up. So the infrastructure I'm saying just has to change and keep up with the times because the times certainly have been changing. Absolutely. Matt, final comment. So my comment is, I don't think you're wrong, but I think we're focusing on different parts of the same idea. I don't disagree with the idea that infrastructure and continuity are important. but I think what you're issuing and that I'm focusing on is the fact that the candidate, I think, is a big part of that, the biggest part of that right now.

And I think we're at a different inflection point in society than we were when Beto O'Rourke ran. Beto O'Rourke didn't run where the president was basically doing something unconstitutional every single day, and everyone's talking about what he's doing at every single moment of every single day. And there's this huge rift in society the way that there is now. I mean, of course, there's, I don't, I don't know that it was like it. How is it like it is now? Trump, Trump was present. Trump was in a White House.

But it wasn't like it is now. In 2018, it wasn't like it is now. Beto ran against a dude Republican's hate. He ran against Ted Cruz. I remember this. I remember the race. But what I'm saying is, I think things are different now. I think the environment is different now.

I think people's expectations are different now. And I think, yes, Texas, are trying to replicate Bethel O'Rourke and actually get over the finish line. But I think the idea of infrastructure, all of those things are important. But I think we would be doing a poor analysis if we didn't consider the extent to which, one, the candidate drives that energy, and two, it becomes a self-perpetuating machine. I mean, right now, people are talking about politics, I think, more than they were in 2018. They're talking about candidates in a different way than they were in 2018.

And I think the things that are coming out of the White House are energizing people more than they were energized in 2018. And infrastructure is important, but I think it's also important to leverage those candidates into your earlier point, leverage those resources in places where it makes sense. I don't think you're wrong about the prospects of losing out in West Texas, but I think to your point, if you narrow those margins with the right candidates and you get behind those candidates in Lubbock, then in the aggregate, those numbers in Lubbock and Jefferson County in these far-flung places coalesce to Texas getting over the finish line. So I don't think it can just be about infrastructure. I think the candidates and the energy behind the candidates is crucially

important, and I think this is a much different time and race than 2018 was. I understand this, and here's the deal. If I had to put my money on it, Texas is not turning blue. It's turning red. I put my money on it. I think Democrats win those four other states, that's their pathway to 51. And again, I'll say, hey, if it's a hell marry, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, but I'm looking at scoring touchdowns and not field goals. And, man, The bottom line is that that's when we look at that. And so we'll see what happens. Again, most importantly, you have primary.

So right now, the polls have closed. The early voting is over. If you're in line, stay in line, but early voting is over in Texas. Republicans, of course, they got rid of sold to the polls. That's what there's no early voting on Sunday. And so we'll see what happens. So again, Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas, primaries of March 3rd, Mississippi is March 10th. Illinois is March 17.

All right, folks, that is it. I appreciate Matt, Candace, and Michael been on today's show. Folks, quick break. We come back and we'll pay tribute to your Vigissa Jackson, and I'll give you details on the caravan taking place from Chicago to South Carolina this weekend. You're watching Rolla Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I'm Brittany Noble, Midwest-born, HBCU, educated with experience in newsrooms across the country. Well, I've teamed up with Roland Martin to bring to you the breakdown.

This isn't just news. It's our stories, our voice, our community. Join me for the breakdown Monday through Friday at midday only on the Black Star Network. How you doing it? I'm Mark Curry and you're watching the Black Star Network. That's why I got these glasses on because that Black Star is bright. Folks, this is a live look of Rainbow Push headquarters in Chicago where since yesterday, repeated lines of people have been coming through paying their respects to Reverend Jesse Jackson,

senior who passed away last week at the age of 84 we have been we have been live streaming these uh you live been live streaming this um since beginning on yesterday uh and so was 10 a m to 10 p.m yesterday 10 a.m. uh lined up down the street uh folks are paying their respects to reverend Jackson tomorrow there's going to be a 13-hour caravan leaving Chicago traveling to South Carolina where his body will lie in state in the capital rotunda in Chicago excuse me in South Carolina on Tuesday a Monday then he would travel they will travel to Washington DC where there will be a funeral taking place it has not have announced where guys that that's that's actually so the note that guys yeah

first of all y'all the graphic is wrong the graphic is wrong the graphic is wrong. Friday is not March 4th. Friday's, no, Friday is March 6, y'all. Take the graphic down, please. So on Monday, March 2nd, Reverend Jackson will lie in state on in South Carolina. Wednesday, March 4th, there will be a funeral service in Washington, D.C. We're still waiting for the location is going to be.

Thursday, March 5th, is by to be flown back to Chicago. He will lie in repose at Rainbow Push. On Friday, March 6th, there will be the funeral at the House of Hope. Doors open at 9 a.m. Funeral service will begin at 11 a.m. That will be the public homegoing celebration. And then on Saturday, March 7th at Rainbow Push, there will be the private funeral taking place there and he'll be laid to rest. On Sunday, it's fast Sunday.

At Savior's Day, Minister Louis Farrakhan. spoke up from the podium and shared his reflections on his longtime friend, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Seen. God sent that man to this planet for the help that our people needed. And to his dying breath. Yes, he did. And he works for them. Near me to help me. That's right.

And I never asked us. And I never asked any of them, except two to help me, but I won't name them. But I want to tell you one more thing. Yes, sir. That's that one more thing. Go ahead. My brother, Reverend Jesse Jackson, who passed away recently, you don't know our relationship. And in a brief moment, I just want to tell you.

God sent that man to this planet for the help that our people needed. And to his dying breath, he worked for us. Jesse did. And he works with him. I guess I can say this that my brother Jesse, may Allah's peace be with Him. be with him and his family and with all of us who benefited from him. Do you remember Judge Mathis? You do?

Yes, sir. He's a heck of a judge. And when his son graduated, my son graduated with his son. That's a son from another mother, but we don't make no distinction here. That's right. That's right. That's right. And that man, Judge Mathis, took me to the side in my apartment in downtown Chicago.

And he said, Farcon, now you know I'm really ashamed, had never given you any money for your labor. I gave my money to push and Reverend Jackson. I said, you did? I said, will you continue to give your money to Reverend Jackson? Listen to this, because he is putting out money to give black children scholarship.

in college and every scholarship that they get that lifts them. Next Monday, our 2026 IHeart podcast awards are happening live at South by Southwest.

Since the biggest night in podcasting. We'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative talent and creators in the industry. And the winner is

creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. Thank you so much. IHeart Radio. Thank you to all the other nominees, you guys are awesome. Watch live next Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific free at Veeps.com or the Veeps app.

I'm Clayton Eckerd, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. He became the first Bachelor to ever have his final rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would. But what happened to Clayton after the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal. The media is here.

This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. Please search for it. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. This is love trapped. This season, an epic battle of He Said She Said, and the search for accountability in a sea of lies.

Listen to Love Trapped on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. TikTok have come together to create something new. I love it. Where the world of TikTok meets your playlist. Three words that will change your life. IHeart TikTok Radio. The biggest hits across IHeartRadio on TikTok. Tell me a sound that's better than this.

Plus TikTok's most influential creators all in one place. Search for IHard TikTok radio. Make it a preset and stay connected. All day. I'm Anna Navarro and on my new podcast, Bleep with Anna Navarro. I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now, we are all cursing and asking what the bleep is going on. I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018.

These victims have been let down time and time again for decades and decades and decades. by local law enforcement, by federal law enforcement, by administration after administration. The Justice Department through, I think we counted four presidential administrations, failed these victims. Listen to Bleep with Anna Navarro as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the IHart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHart Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing.

Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. I'm talking to leaders from the entertainment industry to finance and everywhere in between. This season on math and magic, I'm talking to CEO of Liquid Death Mike Cesario, financier and public health advocate, Mike Milken, take two interactive CEO, Strauss-Zalnik. If you're unable to take meaningful creative risk and therefore run the risk of making horrible creative mistakes, then you can't play in this business. Sesame Street CEO Sherry Weston

and our own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Making consumers see the value of the human voice and to have that guaranteed human promise behind it really makes it rise to the top. Listen to math and magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing starting March 19th on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

So Jesse Kibon Given would treat that man like that. And after me and Reverend Jackson came up in my suite. That's right. And he said to me, Brother Farcon, how much time are you going to give me to speak? I said, oh, Reverend Jackson, I can't give you any time. You get up and say whatever it is you want to say, and when you finish, we'll move on with others. I never told my brother 10 minutes, five minutes. That's my brother.

And I will never be found. dogging his name when he did so much to help our people rise to where they are. So by my side, is the young man of 13 years old that came with me. I'll blow it for him. He's been with me for the whole 40-some years of this ministry. He's been by my side. Can you believe that? And he grew up like a son acted by as a father.

Folks, that was 92-year-old, Minister Louis Farrakhan, speaking at Savior's Day on Sunday regarding the passing Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. And Minister Farrakhan will turn 93 years old in May. So let me go over this again, folks. The tomorrow, first of all, Reverend Jackson will continue to lie in repose. at Rainbow Push for another almost three hours. Then on tomorrow, Saturday, his body will be transported in a caravan from Chicago to the state capital in South Carolina.

It's going to be about a 13-hour drive there. And then he will lie in the state capital in South Carolina beginning on Monday morning, March 2nd. Then they will then caravan from South Carolina to Washington, D.C., where there will be a funeral service taking place in D.C., most likely at Howard University, but we're waiting for the final location. That will take place on Wednesday, March 5th. Reverend Jackson's body was then flown back to Chicago,

where he will lie in repose Thursday at Rainbow Push. Thursday at Rainbow Push at 7 p.m. There's going to be an event taking place, a celebration, if you will, of Rainbow Push staffers and volunteers who've worked the Reverend Jackson there over the last 40 plus years. That will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, March 7th, excuse me, March 6th at the House of Hope. Doors will open at 9 a.m. House of Hope seats 10,000 people. His funeral will be there. Dignitaries from all of the nation and the world will be in attendance. That would be the public celebration.

And then there's going to be a private funeral service on Saturday. March 7th at 9, doors opening at 9 a.m. at Rainbow Push. And so we will have a daily coverage of all of this right here on Rolla Mark and on Filcher on the Black Star Network. Folks, stay tuned to the network. Go to our YouTube channel and our Black Sub Network app. We have been, we have been streaming the lying in repose for the last couple of days. And we'll continue to do that. So even though we are not lost, whether this show, Brittany Noble at noon, we will still have a separate stream of what is taking. taking place as well. And so there's that, folks. Now, I'm here in Los Angeles for the NWACP Image Awards. We are expecting a significant tribute in tomorrow. Tomorrow's show, but that show is going to be at 8 p.m. Eastern. It's going to air on VET and CBS. And we're

certainly expecting a significant tribute to be paid to Reverend Jesse Jackson, Senior, at the NWACP Image Awards tomorrow in Pasadena. And so I will be in the house. We look forward to to that. So folks, that is it for us. I appreciate all of you're watching now. Of course, I'm back, back to D.C. on Sunday, but on Monday, I'll be broadcasted from New York City. Susan Taylor has her National Cares mentoring gala, and I will be participating in that, helping them fundraise as well. So I'll be broadcasting from New York City on Monday, on Monday at 6 p.m. Eastern. And then I'm back in studio in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. So, folks, that's it.

I appreciate everybody for watching today's show. Don't forget, please do me a great favor. If you want to join our Bring the Funk fan club, please do so by supporting us. I say this over and over again. We don't have millionaires and billionaires supporting our show. I didn't leave network television and walk away with, you know, multi-million dollar contracts. That never happened. We built this from ground up and we've got it going with this show.

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rolling at rolling mark on filter.com. Download the Black Star Network app, Apple Phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Not Xbox One of Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Samsung Smart TV. Be sure to, of course, get our rollerbarter unfiltered swag. Go to shop blackstartnetwork.com. Shop blackstart network.com for all of our stuff. And, of course, support the blackowned companies that we have in our marketplace at shop

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In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral.

The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to Love Trapped on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Next Monday, our 2026 IHeart Podcast Awards are happening live at South by Southwest. It's the biggest night in podcasting. We'll honor the very best in podcasting from the past year and celebrate the most innovative

talent and creators in the industry. And the winner is... creativity, knowledge, and passion will all be on full display. Thank you so much. IHeart Radio. Thank you to all the other nominees. You guys are awesome. Watch live next Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific,

free at Veeps.com or the Veeps app. I heart and TikTok have come together to create something new. I love it. Where the world of TikTok meets your playlist. Three words that will change your life. IHeart TikTok Radio. The biggest hits across IHeartRadio. What's trending for you on TikTok?

Tell me a sound that's better than this. I Heart TikTok's most influential creators all in one place. Search for IHard TikTok Radio. Make it a preset and stay connected all day. Saturday, May 2nd. Country's biggest stars will be in Austin, Texas. At our 2026 IHard Country Festival presented by Capital One, C. Kane Brown, Parker McCollum,

Riley Green, Shaboozy, Dylan Scott. Russell Dickerson, Gretchen Wilson, Chase Matthew, Lauren Elena. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. I'm Anna Navarro, and on my new podcast, Bleep with Anna Navarro. I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now, we are all cursing and asking what the bleep is going on. Every week I'm breaking down the biggest issues happening in our communities and around the world. I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018.

The Justice Department threw. We counted four presidential administrations failed these victims. Listen to Bleep with Anna Navarro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.