The Keith Edwards Show - It’s Bigger Than We Thought... Dem Leader Leaks Shocking Truth

Episode Date: November 8, 2025

Keith Edwards discusses how the Democratic National Committee — under chair Ken Martin — is riding the wave of Tuesday’s election sweep, and what it means for the future.Become a Member: https://www.youtube.com/@keithedwards/joinSubscribe to my Substack: http://keithedwards.substack.comBuy a Democracy Hat: https://keithsdebateclub.com/products/democracy-hatCall me and ask a question or leave a comment: ‪[phone]‬Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thekeithedwardsshow/Follow me on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/keithedwards.bsky.socialFollow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@keithedwardsFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithedwards/Follow me on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@keithedwardsFollow me on X: http://twitter.com/keithedwards

Democrats overperformed in Tuesday's elections, not only winning New Jersey and Virginia, but winning key down-ballot races in red and purple states that few expected them to compete in. From Georgia to Montana, Democrats flipped local and statewide seats, showing real strength outside of traditional blue strongholds. But the question is, was that because of anti-Trump sentiment or because of Democratic strategy? So to find out, I went straight to the source, DNC headquarters where I had a long-ranging interview with DNC chair, Ken Martin. There we talked about what really drove those results and how Democrats intend to keep on winning. As we look ahead, I also asked what the role the DNC should be.

Should figures like Chuck Schumer be weighing in on primaries? And how can Democrats build the working class support will need to grow our coalition that the party is, still seen as elite and out of touch. His answer may surprise you. It surprised me. For that, and so much more, here's DNC chair, Ken Martin. All right, Ken, thanks for meeting with me. Thank you for this beautiful setup for those who don't know. We are at the DNC offices at your amazing headquarters. And the reason why I think this meeting happened is because I was like, we need to put some respect on Ken Martin's name. I tweeted that a couple days ago. And I don't know which camera is yours. But I'm wondering, do you want to just do like a quick, I told you so. No.

To the doubters and the haters? Not really. No? No, listen, I mean, there's an old saying in politics that Victory has a thousand parents and defeat as an orphan right. And I've known this as long as I've been in politics, and especially as long as I've been a party chair. I was party chair in Minnesota for 14 years before this. And certainly as a party chair, you get none of the credit when you win and all the blame when you lose. and it's the political equivalency of being a fire hydrant, right? You get pissed on by everyone. Actually, during the chair's race, I will tell you,

if it wasn't going to be me, I wanted it to be Ben Wickler, because the two of us as organizers, right, people who actually were operatives, who worked on campaigns, who worked and built organizations, who were state party chairs, we understood that, that there's not a lot of relevancy to be found in this job, that this was a turnaround job, that we would be inheriting a party at its lowest point,

and that you weren't going to get, any credit. And if anyone deserves credit in this building, it's not me. It's the awesome colleagues I get to work with this. We've got an amazing group of people who work here, and that's who deserves a credit, right? But I will just say this. They will get none of the credit they deserve, of course, but they deserve some because of the work that was done, which was tremendous. You know, look, I do this for very personal reasons. I don't treat elections as some sort of sport where you pat yourself on the back and put a check on the board and you know you're proud of yourself right um you know my mom was 15 when she had me she raised four kids by herself um and struggled

mightily as a single mom and you know um i was inspired into politics by paul wellstone in 1990 who really instilled in me a sense that um politics and government can really change and transform people's lives and can um strengthen communities can really make a difference and uh so for me it's just really personal. And I say that because I'm not here for credit. I'm here to actually end this disaster that we see in the White House, try to give people some hope that they can build a better life for themselves. But I appreciate that, truly. So thank you. Well, I want to get into, I would like to get into like what the DNC actually does because I think a lot of people, we can get into that later, but I do want to just put a pin in that because I think a lot of people

don't fully understand what the DNC. I think they think the DNC does a lot that doesn't do. Yeah. And there's a lot that you do here that people don't understand. But I do want to talk about first what do you think happened on Tuesday? What led to such a seismic shift in the electorate? Well, I think we have to actually start before Tuesday, right? What we saw since Donald Trump was inaugurated is a steady swing away from him with key parts of the coalition he built to win last year. And of course that culminated in what we saw on election night on Tuesday. Election after election, all these special elections that were on the ballot, not on Tuesday,

but from his inauguration all the way through Tuesday, we were overperforming at a historic rate. In fact, in the 45 elections that have occurred between Donald Trump's inauguration and Tuesday, we overperformed that in a 16 percentage points, which is an all-time high for Democratic. overperformance. Clearly there was something happening out there. Democrats were winning across the country. Let me give you one example. In Pennsylvania, we flipped a state Senate seat that was a plus 23% Trump district, and it had not elected a Democrat since the 1880s. The 1880s. And we now have Senator James Malone there. That was up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In Iowa, we flip state Senate seats similar,

Caitlin Drey, big Trump district, she flipped it and broke the super majority there. So this is happening all over the country, right? There was wind at our back for sure. But then, you know, we had amazing candidates running on the ballot. You know, Abigail Spanberger

in Virginia, Mikey Sherrill, New Jersey, Zohan Mamdani in New York, candidates at the local levels, right, and the through line between all of them, right, despite how different they are and how different the, you know, the respective communities that they were trying to represent are, was economics. They focused on affordability.

And, you know, I think it was sort of the perfect storm. Donald Trump promised. Well, I kind of would push back on that for a moment. Because I think there's also the sense that we could have ran anyone. No. In Virginia or New Jersey. No. And we would have had this reaction.

Well, it will convince me why not? Because I kind of feel like this was not necessarily. all because of strategy, but it was also just the electorate itself saying, whoa, what's going on with Trump? I think it's both. I agree with you on that. There's no doubt there was a huge anti-Trump sentiment, right? And that's why what I said about big parts of his coalition who left him. You know, he promised them, of course, and this is why he won the election, right, to remember. Last year, many people out there that were, you know, supporting Biden were saying, look, that Biden has this great economic record, you know, high GDP, low unemployment, real wage growth, a booming stock market, all the things at the macro level were true, right? We have one of the best economies in the industrialized world coming out of the pandemic. But for most working people, right, they didn't feel it.

Inflation was high. They couldn't put groceries on the table. They could barely afford their mortgage, you know, their car payment or their child care. They were really frustrated. So I remember saying that to folks last year and people, you know, I come out of the union movement and people saying to me, are you kidding me? What planet do you live on that? Economy is great.

You know, I can barely afford my gas. And so that is one of the reasons Trump won last year, not the only, of course, but a big, big reason was that he was able to get working class people and a huge swing with Latino voters, a huge swing with young people and others is because he promised them that he was going to build a an economy that worked for everyone, and he hasn't focused on that. The thing he's focused on right now is ballrooms and great Gatsby parties and, you know, marble fixtures in the bathroom, where people, literally, last Friday night, I mean, this is how sick and deprave this bastard is.

Last Friday night, he's literally holding a great Gatsby party with hundreds of rich billionaires at his, you know, a place in Mar-a-Lago, on the eve of 42 million Americans losing snap, right? So you are absolutely right. There is no doubt that Tuesday night was about Trump. But the flip side, and this is why I don't think we can take away from the candidates, all three of those candidates ran for something. They didn't just run against Trump, right? And that's why the candidates mattered. You couldn't just replace them. Abigail Spanberger ran for something. Mikey Sheryl ran for something. Zora Mabani ran for something, and they ran on affordability. Now, they'd use different issues, right, to reflect affordability within their respective races.

But the through line is they were focused on people's economic anxiety. And, of course, you know, of course you had to contrast that with the economic pain that has been, you know, further exacerbated by this administration. It was there before Trump, for sure, don't get me wrong. But he's made it a lot worse in these first 10 months of his administration for people. And so I'm not suggesting people didn't talk about. about it, but I am suggesting is they had a positive vision. I think one critique of the party is that Democrats aren't really for much that we, we tend to be against Trump.

We don't really have like a moral north star. And like I wonder, like to me, like I kind of know that Republicans have Christian white nationalism. They have, I think, what is a white supremacist ideology, that they pretty much. much all are homogenous around. I don't know if we know the answer yet, and that's okay. I think we're in a building period. I think we know the answer. But, well, I think then if there is an answer, I think it's hard to know what Democrats are, like what is our moral center? Who are we meant to be, who are we fighting for? Yes. You know, I think it's kind of lost in the

muck because to me, I think a lot of people see the Democratic Party. is a party of the elite protects the status quo, is happy to get comfortable with the rich, you know. Yeah, I agree with you. Last year, you're right on this, which is last year, there was research that came out in the spring of 24. And it should have actually been the canary in the coal mine for the Democratic Party and for our candidates.

What was it? It showed that for the first time ever, in modern history, the perceptions of the two political parties has changed, that the majority of Americans then believed that the Republican Party best represents the interest of the middle class, the working class, and the poor, and the Democratic Party is a party of the wealthy and the elites. And sure enough, the only two groups that we overperformed

within the last presidential race, college-educated voters and wealthy households. Look, I'm the first car carrying union member to be elected DNC chair. I come from a working-class background. My mom was a home cleaner. At the end of the day, here's what our party has always stood for. We have always stood for this.

No matter where you're from, no matter where you live in this country, no matter who you love or who you are, you deserve an opportunity to get ahead, not just get by, but get ahead to climb the economic ladder and build a better life for yourself. I mean, that's what our party has always stood for. That's why I'm a Democrat, right? because I've seen it in my own life. And so at the core of it, right, affordability is a piece of that. There's issues, of course, that reflect that North Star.

But the reality is, is how do we get to this point where Americans feel like they don't know what the hell the Democratic Party is? I agree with you. This is why I ran. Because this Democratic Party, under my leadership, is going to focus on the working class, is going to focus on giving people hope that their better days. are ahead and actually give them a hope that we're going to stand up and fight for it. Do you find that there's like a, do you find yourself caught between a push and a pull?

Because I believe you. No. That we want that, listen, I don't have a college degree and I also come from very working poor conditions. Yes. Like I think most Americans. Yes. But, and that is one of the reasons why I'm a Democrat is because I do believe this is the party that actually does want to help and doesn't just say things to get a vote. Right.

But I feel like there has been this kind of like dance with the devil of cozying with billionaires, corporate interests. And I, on one level, I understand it. You know, you got to fight in front of the fire. If they have money, you got to get money, you know? Yeah. But explain to me, is there a push and a pull between having to answer to donors versus fighting for the best interests of walking people? No. There's none for me. I wasn't supported by the billionaires in this race.

I wasn't supported by the establishment elected officials. But the DNC is. No, no, no. But there's a reason I wasn't supported by the billionaires or the establishment politicians in this party. My opponent was because that's not me. I led the Minnesota DFL, which is probably the most progressive state party in the country, and I didn't lose a single statewide race. Right.

And we did that by building a coalition, by bringing people in, by focusing on the issues and having that guiding star and never losing sight about why this matter works. And so why this works matters, excuse me. And so I say this to you because, you know, look, you know, earlier this year, this summer, I introduced a whole series of reforms at the DNC, one of them including banning dark money in the Democratic primary. Yeah, at the Democratic primary, presidential primary. And, of course, we got little to no attention, but it passed.

So I want to say that. What does that mean? What does that mean? That means that we can't, we don't have any power over Congress or the FEC or, you know, statutes. That's not our role, right? We're not legislators. But the one thing we do have control over is our upcoming presidential nominating party process. We control all the rules for that, right?

And so what we passed is going to basically put together the framework to, require our candidates running for president to not have any dark money or super PACs out there spending against other Democrats. And for those who don't know, dark money is basically money that can go into a fund, then you don't know where it came from. Yeah, it's completely unregulated. And, you know, it's a way for billionaires and corporations and a lot of other folks who don't want to be, who want to be anonymous, to spend unlimited amounts of money, and usually in very negative ways against, you know, their opponents or as a way to influence the election, right? You know, I have been a big supporter of major campaign finance reform in this country, and including

very active in efforts to end Citizens United. We have to get dark money out of politics. Now, what we do here at the DNC is not going to do that, but at least we're living our values, and it's a step in the right direction, right? And hopefully it shows folks in Congress and others that if we can do something little like that at the DNC, they can damn well do something up in Congress with the power they have. And this is why it's not just about what we say

why people have that perception. It's about what we do or don't do when we have power. And so what do I mean by that? We had two years of complete control under Joe Biden. We couldn't even pass the first. Freedom to Vote Act. Voting rights spill. Uniform voting laws around the country. Getting read of all those Jim Crow era voting restriction laws on the books in so many southern states, right? We couldn't even do that. Now, voting rights? We're Democrats. We couldn't even get

that done. It was two U.S. senators, one from Arizona, one from West Virginia. There's a lot that we could have done and we didn't do. This is my point. Why do you think that is? Because this is what I was just about to say. You're not willing to stand up and fight like hell for what you believe in. Do you really believe in it at all? That's why. It's a filibuster, too. Of course, but this is the point.

This is why what I said, and it pissed off some Democrats here, but I truly mean it. When we get into power the next time, we better get rid of the filibuster. We better pack the court, right? We better make Puerto Rico and D.C. states, right? We better pass the Freedom to Vote Act that actually has you. uniform election laws around the country. But the problem is, again, Democrats say you're willing to fight for something, and then you don't. This is the difference.

And as much as I can't stand, the MAGA movement, I give them credit for one thing. They told the American people what they were going to do, with the exception of actually focus on any economic agenda. All of that project 2025, they're going through their list with no compunction. Well, I want to take away a little bit of their success because it's much easier to tear something down than to build it up. They've just been destroying things. They haven't really, I mean, Benny Johnson tweeted yesterday, like, the Golden Era is here. You tried listing the accomplishment.

They haven't done anything. Yeah. Well, I agree with that on that. My point on this is their agenda, though, what they're trying to do, right, at the end of the day. Clearly, it was to destroy government, right? And, you know, it's so interesting because they have an easier argument. to make, which is, government's bad, it's not working for you, we're going to go in and blow it up. And the reality is, is we sometimes take the bait on that, and what do I mean by that?

We say government's good. Our answer is, government's good, don't cut it, it's working fine. I will tell you, actually, that's not the counter. The counter is this. We agree with you. Government's not working, right? But we've got a better plan to make it work for people, because most work people that I know do not believe the status quo is working for them. So we have to present a new

vision, a new idea that gives people a sense that government can make a difference in their life again. And so this is where I think you're absolutely right. They have an easier argument to make. It's easier for them to maybe enact their agenda, to blowing things up than building things. I agree with you on that. But they've been successful already this year. And one of the biggest things that we should be afraid of is the fact that they're ripping our Constitution to shreds in front of our eyes. All the norms of civil society have been completely thrown out. Many of the values that united us as Americans have been completely ignored, right, and thrown into the dust in a history. So there's no doubt they're doing what they want. They are radically transforming government in front of our eyes.

This unitary executive model, which is consolidating power in the president's hands, right? It's a march towards authoritarianism, and if we don't win, we're fucked. So, well, I would I would say authoritarianism is here. I wouldn't say we're marching towards it. I think that we have to actually accept the fact that it is here. I think that's right. I don't, like, I wonder what you think. I don't think that man's leaving office.

I don't think he's leaving office. One, because he did it the first time. You know, he did it the first time. That's right. Kind of feel like, you know, just having a sense of what someone did before can help you predict whether they're going to do the future. That's right. But I wonder, like, what is, what is, like, the Democratic solution for that?

There's Trump 2020. It has, Steve Bannon is, like, get ready because there's going to be a third. I think, I think, I mean, this is just me thinking out loud here, but I think he will likely just run. And he'll just say, like, he does all things. I'll just say, like, well, try to stop me. Stop me, right? Well, here's what I would say. Could he do that?

Like, could he just run? I actually don't. I feel like you know. more in the process than I do, but I don't think he could just, like, put himself on the ballot, right? Or could he now? Well, he can't in the sense that ballot access is controlled by the states. Okay. And each state has different requirements for that, but one thing that guides that is Constitution. And for instance, if you're not 35 years of age, I think it's 35 years of age, right? And a U.S. citizen born in this country, you can't run for president. So, for instance, if someone decided to file

A lawsuit. No, go to a state and put their name on the ballot, and they didn't meet those requirements, the Secretary of State would not allow them to run. Got it. One other constitutional provision says you can't run for a third term. So what will likely happen in that situation is, of course, Republican Secretary of States will ignore the Constitution and put them on the ballot, and Democratic Secretary's estate will honor the Constitution and their obligation to their job and say, no, you're not allowed to actually run again.

And it will create a showdown in the courts. And then the question is, will this Supreme Court? And we'll see. It was interesting yesterday, these arguments on tariffs, but will this Supreme Court actually stand up to Donald Trump on this issue? Right. And, you know, to be honest with you, I don't know any more than you do, to be honest with you.

But that's likely how that would transpire. But let me say this. There are a lot of people who say to me all the time, what are you going to do if Donald Trump cancels the elections? And here's my answer, and it might not satiate you, but it's true, which is I have one job, and that is to win elections and to prepare for those elections. There are people and groups and organizations, many of whom I respect deeply, who are preparing for a potential break the glass moment where all of our democratic institutions,

institutions have failed us. And we are truly in a dictatorship. And at that moment, by the way, if we reach that moment, then party doesn't matter anymore. Then elections don't matter. Then the resistance looks different. Now we're not even talking about elections. You see what I'm saying? We're talking about something else. So where I got to keep my focus, and this is why I say it doesn't probably satiate people. I got to. You have to act as if. Well, I got to prepare and plan for, as if there will be elections and let the other people. people plan for that break the glass moment. Well, let's move on to something more positive. Because we did have elections. They were free and fair. I tweeted, breaking news, we're having

free and fair. I was super excited. Thank God. Thank God. I want to talk about Zora and Mom Donnie just a bit. Of course, please. What I loved was that the DNC rep, just gave him a big old hug the second he won the primary. The second. And that's not something a lot of Democrats did. Did. Was that an intentional, was it just like, of course we're going to support the Democratic nominee? Of course. Yeah, and let me tell you why. And anyone who's followed me in my career knows that I have always believed in the Big Ten party. You know, I'm a labor progressive, right? And so I will tell you at the end of the day, it always frustrated me when I would see the establishment in the party, whether it was donors or elected officials or others trying to put their thumb on the scale, right? I believe that you win elections through addition, not subtraction. You actually win by growing your coalition, not shrinking it and pushing people out, right? In 2016, I saw party leaders put their thumb on the scale for one of our presidential candidates.

And all of those young supporters of another presidential candidate were so pissed off that they left the party for good because they felt like their voice didn't matter. They felt like they didn't have a say. They felt like powerful people in a smoke-filled room were making the decision and that they weren't wanted in the party. Right after that election, I was elected by my peers, state party chairs around the country to lead the ASDC, which is an association of state democratic committees, all of the state parties. I brought forward a resolution to the DNC on neutrality to make sure that all of our officers stayed out of primaries. because, you know, party officers shouldn't be putting their thumbs on the scale. Because at the end of the day, it's up to the Democratic primary voters to make that decision.

So, so. Let's stay on that for a second. Yeah. Because that's not what's happening with the Senate races. Like, we not hear the DNC, but like Chuck Schumer. I can't control them. So this is a... So you're saying you disagree with what they're doing.

Here's what I would say. This is the difference between the DNC and the committees. the DSCC, the D-Triple-C, right? And you said, well, a lot of people have to... But your opinion is that... Our job is to honor the will of primary voters. Once they send us a nominee, we will fight like hell for whoever that nominee is. But when there's a primary contest, the DNC stays out of it, right?

If the D-T-T-TCC, the DSCC, all these other committees, right, want to get involved, that's not my prerogative, right? My job, if we want to... But your opinion is that we shouldn't tip the scales. I should just let voters... Correct. My opinion is this. That when we stay out of these things, right? And let the primary voters make the decision, right? We bring people in.

Now, if you lose and your supporters who supported you lose, their nose isn't bent out of shape, feeling like the party and everyone else was stacking the decks against them and it wasn't fair. So when Zoran won, of course. I brought a neutrality pledge earlier this year under the same thing. I kind of disagree with it, but I understand why you did.

No, I mean, I don't understand why anyone would disagree with it, and I'll tell you why. Well, I'm from the perspective of, like, if there are underperforming Democrats, I just feel like we should get underperforming Democrats. whether it comes from the party or from, but I guess you're... My point is this. I don't...

Primaries are good. Primaries bring new ideas and perspectives in. Primaries hold our elected officials accountable. Pro-primary. Here's what I'd say. Primaries are an important part of holding our elected officials accountable, bringing new ideas and perspectives to the table, bringing new candidates, women, candidates of color,

young candidates, pipeline and creating opportunities. Primaries are not bad, right? I agree. And so, but what I'm saying is the party should stay out of the primaries. If there's a primary, right? It's not a bad thing if there's a primary. But let the voters decide.

It's not up to us to decide. You can't be a referee and the player at the same time, right? Our job is to call balls and strikes. Our job is to create a level playing field so everyone can compete fairly. And then once the voters decide, you support them. You see the difference? So when people say, well, I don't think a neutrality pledge is good because it's basically saying primaries are bad. Well, that's bullshit.

I'm not saying primaries are bad. It's saying I shouldn't be involved in the primary. I shouldn't be the one making a decision and saying, well, the rest of you, your voice doesn't matter. That makes sense. That's the issue for me. And so getting back to Zoran for a second. Of course, I supported him on day one. and then he was in my office two days later

and we had a great conversation about his campaign in the future, right? And I will say this, at the end of the day, I will support any Democratic nominee, whether, you know, they're to the right of me, they're to the left of me, because we're a big tent party. And what do I mean by that?

We have conservative Democrats, we have centrist, we have progressives like me, and we have leftists. And as I said, you only win by addition, not subtraction. You win by growing our party. And by the way, the things between, a leftist and a more moderate, liberal, like the differences in like what, we all kind of are striving for the same thing. Of course. So I truly think, first off, we are in the middle of

authoritarianism. We don't have the luxury of being so worried about policy right now. In my opinion, it's just about winning. It's about winning. And it's about making sure that we can continue to have these free and fair elections. I think that's right. But I don't think we would have won if we didn't have policies that were resonating with people, right? No, for sure. I'm just saying that the policies that we have a disagreement with, intra-party policy differences are a small fraction of, like, what we all truly, generally, all want for the country.

I think the different, I've said this before, it's no one should confuse unity with unanimity within the Democratic Party. We are very unified, despite the differences within our party. I felt unified on Tuesday. I'll say that. Yeah, but we're unified around the goals. Let me just take affordability, right? We're unified around the importance of affordability

and making sure people can afford their lives. There's different ideas on how to get there and how to do that. There's different policies on how to make that happen. This is the difference within a big tent party like ours and a very small tent homogenous party like the Republicans where they don't allow dissent or debate. They don't want new ideas or perspective. They don't want different ways of doing things, right?

That's the beauty of the Democratic Party. We have lots of different ways to get to the same goal. What we're unified around is the same goal. And so let me share a story, and it's a little long, and I'm sorry. Is that okay? Yeah. I know I'm old, but I wasn't born that. 1948 at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia,

a young mayor of Minneapolis brings a, civil rights plank to the party platform committee. The party platform committee of the D&C at their national convention votes it down. This young mayor, undeterred, brings his minority report to the floor of convention. He starts building support for it through the week, and it passes. He gets up on the stage, and he says it's time for the Democratic Party to come out of the shadows of state's rights and march forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights and civil rights. It passes. That young mayor was Hubert Humphrey from Minneapolis, right? I say this because all those Dixiecrats, those racist Democrats from the South, got up,

left our party for good. It cemented us as a party of civil rights. 1972 in Miami, it was women and feminists who stood up and pushed our party on abortion rights and on an equal rights amendment. And in 2012, I was proud to be one of, with many others, the author to push for marriage equality in our party platform. Nothing good in our party happens without new voices. People pushing our party to be better, to evolve on issues to actually reflect our values. So how short-sighted would it be for me

to tell Zoron or whomever, new person X, you're not invited into our party. You have an opinion, don't agree with, so go screw yourself, right? No, we want their ideas, their energy. We want them to push our party on issues. We want them to help make our party better. I have always led that way. In 90, when I started with Wellstone, I was a young radical. We wanted to burn the DFL down. The DFL is a Democratic Farmer Labor Party in Minnesota. The whole establishment was against Paul, and he said something very important to me, that I'll never forget. He said, look, no institution

will ever change solely from the outside. Yes, you need a grassroots movement to push and create that pressure. But if you want to change the party, you've got to get involved and change it. That's what I've been trying to do for 35 years. Before we wrap, I just want to talk about 2028. As you said, and I did kind of want to go through a list of what the DNC does and doesn't do it. But you guys don't control messaging. For instance, the DNC is really here to help with elections to help raise money for

Democrats, and the big thing is the presidential primary, as you said. That's a big part of the DNC's responsibilities. Now, I am wondering, like, is it going to be only MSNBC, CNN? No, in fact. Are you going to do a creator debate? I am I? You are? Yeah. Okay. Well, who's going to be in? Am I in it? I don't know. But what I will say is... But you are going to do a creator debate? Yes. Okay. And I don't know how and the who or any of that yet, because we haven't even started talking about the debate schedule or any of that. But I've already made the decision that we'll do that. That's so smart. Well, it's not.

Well, it's also so necessary. Well, it's sort of just going to say it's very necessary where people are getting their information, their news, entertainment, all those spaces is in the digital. It's a whole other conversation. But let me go back to one thing you said, and I want to continue this conversation, but what is the role of the DNC? we do have a big role in messaging for sure, right? But we're not the only people. Of course the candidates and other committees have a role in that as well. But what is the role of parties, both at the state or the national state and local level?

It's to build infrastructure. It's to build a long-lasting and permanent infrastructure. When candidates come and go, there's something that remains, right? And that is, you know, working with our state parties to make sure that we're doing voter registration, our voter file, right, making sure we're organizing year-round and having conversations with voters. I'll share a story. In 2023, I was down in Mississippi with Brandon Presley.

He was our candidate running for governor. And I asked him, I said, you know, and he's tied with the Republican. And I asked him, what more do you need from the DNC at this moment? And he said, look, years of indifference in southern states and disinvestment from national party committees has resulted in there being no infrastructure on the ground. and I've got to build it all myself.

And so we can never be in that position where candidates are building the infrastructure. The infrastructure should be there so that they can plug into something so they don't have to do everything. That's the role of the DNC. That's the role of parties at every level. Build a long-lasting and durable infrastructure.

There's nothing sexy about building roads and bridges, for instance, right? But that's what our work is to do. So the candidates are like the cars who drive on the roads and bridges, right? They come and go. Some are flashier than others, right? Some look different. But the roads and bridges, right?

That infrastructure is so critical for all of it to work together. And that's the role of the DNC. And the role of the DNC isn't deciding to continue a metaphor, which cars do and do not get on the road. That's exactly right. I'm going to use that. I'm going to use that because I like that. I think a lot of people see the DNC is like puppet masters,

and it's really just, it's not that. It may have been in the past, but it's not going to be under me. And every candidate will have a chance to compete fairly and to be able to compete around their ideas. And, you know, we cannot be a party that pushes people out. We have to keep bringing people in. And yes, that means there's going to be a best debate. And there's going to be dissent. There's going to be sometimes division.

As long as I've always said this, and it's not the best metaphor or analogy, but my job is to get everyone. despite all these disparate parts of our coalition, to get everyone into the same rowboat, rowing in the same direction towards the same goal. That's hard to do for sure. But if we do it the right way, right, and create opportunities for everyone to have an oar, then we can get there altogether.

Well, I appreciate you taking it out. You're very busy man, so thank you for taking the time to talk to me after what I think was this, an incredible shot in the arm that we needed of hope and excitement and thank you for all the work you're doing. Thank you for explaining a little bit of what you're thinking, living forward. And I hope we can do it again. Oh yeah, I'd love to. Thank you, Keith. Appreciate it. Yeah.