The Young Turks - Rebellion PAC LIVE Forum with West Virginia Congressional Candidates

Episode Date: October 22, 2020

Cenk Uygur is hosting a discussion with West Virginia Congressional Candidates in partnership with Rebellion PAC and West Virginia Can't Wait. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. So, guys, we're doing something different and interesting today. And thank you to everybody who's watching and who's participating. We're going on an event that is going to feature four candidates that are part of the West Virginia Can't Wait Coalition. But they're federal candidates.

and they're all women, all Democrats, all from West Virginia, all with amazing stories, all not taking any corporate PAC money and clean uncorrupted candidates. So I want you to meet them. I'm excited by this and I'm trying something new and that you get to meet these wonderful people throughout the country that are actually trying to clean up our government. So let me introduce them one by one,

they'll introduce themselves, but I'm familiar with the first one if you've ever watched the Young Turks. Paul Jean Sweringen is one of the original Just Democrats, brand new Congress candidate from back in the last cycle. She's now running for the Senate. She won the primary and is going up against Capito as the Democratic Senate candidate in West Virginia. So Paul Jean, why don't you introduce yourself? Hey, everybody. A lot of you out there know me, Thank you, Jink, and everybody with a rebellion pact that are doing this. I'm a poor coal miner's daughter and granddaughter. This movement is about, and single mother and grandmother,

this movement is about putting integrity back into government, you know, government and putting the government into the hands of the people. And just looking back on how much we've grown since that, you know, we started with Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress, the movement continued here and west, it really shows how people were, really standing up, we had over 93 candidates to run this cycle. And 43 of those candidates won. And I'm excited because it's been 100 years since women have been voting. And every Democratic

nominee for Congress, y'all, is a woman. And we are not taking corporate PAC money. And we're ready to bust the halls of Congress wide open and making sure that not only West Virginians have a seat at the table, but everybody in this country. You know, West Virginians are some of the most united and hospitable people we've been organizing since the labor movements you've seen the teacher strike in 2018 and even now we were just working together and especially women we're a proud democrat i know these women are but this is not about partisan politics we're in the fight for our lives and one thing you do not do is mess with our young because we're going to come out of the belly the beast kicking and screaming and we're going to and i'm so incredibly proud of my

state right now and proud of these women. And I am, I'm honored to being a part of this slate because it really solidifies that we can put the government back into the hands of the people. And people will vote. We're just tired of the lesser two evils. And we are really creating a movement not only here in West Virginia, but across the country. And I'm so incredibly proud everyone. Yeah. Paula Jean was also featured in knock down the house. that's you could catch that on Netflix. It's an amazing movie that has two people who are already going to Congress, Cory Bush and Alexandria Crossier-Cortez.

We'd like to make it at least three. Progressive out there and you support Apologian or anyone else in the primaries against the more establishment Democrats and the corporate Democrats. You really got to support them in the general election so that they could actually get in there, win the seats and make a difference. So before I introduce everybody else, I want you to know, if you're watching live, RebellionDonate.com redirects to their act blue page

that you saw on the first opening video. 100% of the proceeds go to these four great candidates. And so if you're watching later, it's super easy. We'll have the link down below in the description box. And you can just click on it. It helps equally, okay? And again, 100% of the proceeds go to that. So I want to go to Natalie Klein next.

She's running in the first district of West Virginia. Natalie, if you could introduce yourself, that would be great. Hi, thank you. Thanks for having us on tonight. This is fantastic. My name is Natalie Klein, and I'm running for the U.S. House of Representatives to represent West Virginia's first congressional district. I'm here to fight for our health care, fight for our jobs,

and most of all, fight for our kids. In fact, we chose to move back to West Virginia when our son was two years old and it was that move and that coming back here where I started to feel culture shock and I could not get over the fact that the place that made me caused me to feel culture shock and I started looking at how I can get involved how I can change it better for my son's cohort and the more that I dug through it the more I was realizing that our representatives are taking all of this corporate pack money from the pharmacy. industrial industry from the oil and gas industry, and that's what's funding their campaigns,

not people. So I wanted to do something about that. I wanted to be that person to go to Congress and fight for the people, not the bottom line of a CEO. And I think that that's the kind of leadership and vision that we so desperately need right now in this country. All right. I'm looking forward to talking to you guys and asking questions and getting to know you better. But let's keep going with the intros. Next is Kathy Kunkel. She's running in the second district of West Virginia. Kathy, welcome. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for doing this. I'm Kathy Conkull. I'm running for Congress in West Virginia's second district. And I'm along with all of these women running as part of West Virginia can't wait, not taking any corporate money in our campaign because for far too long,

West Virginia has really been run more in the interest of out-of-state corporations than the people who actually live here and our people are suffering with a broken health care system, underfunded public education, infrastructure investment here. I've spent the last decade in West Virginia working as a consumer advocate on energy and safe drinking water issues here. I've taken on our state's major electric utility monopolies as they've demanded hundreds of millions of dollars of our money and corporate bailouts. I led an organizing effort for safe drinking water after a chemical spill in Charleston back in 2014. And I've also fought locally for health care for all and for better services for folks struggling with addiction. And it's time to take those fights to Congress and elect people who are really going to fight for the people of West Virginia and not for lobbyists and big corporations. Would not be amazing. It shouldn't be amazing. That's what democracy should be.

fighting for your voters and your constituents and not for your donor. And we got to get that back. And if any state needs that back, it's West Virginia, probably the most. So we'll talk about that more in a second as well. All right, up next is Hillary Turner. She's running in the third district of West Virginia. Hey, all, thanks for having me on. I'm really happy to be here. My name's Hillary Turner. I'm running for Congress in West Virginia's third district. I worked as a teacher. I've worked in health care and my family in Virginia. I'm also a mother and the reason why I'm running for Congress is to fight for my daughter and for our children. We know that we have to address climate change if we want our future generations to be able to survive. And we're also all tired of seeing the people in our

we're fighting for universal basic income we're fighting for decency for the people of West Virginia and I'm really honored to movement and this slate of women candidates that is not taking corporate money and that is really prioritizing and futures of the people of West Virginia so I love it I love Americans trying to get their government back, and that's exactly what's happening here. So, again, if you're watching live, RebellionDonate.com, it'll take you to their act blue page. The four of them sharing one act blue page, 100% of the proceeds go to them. So it's just easier to remember, rebelliondonate.com.

But if you're watching later, just click the link below. It's super easy to do that. So, Hillary, I'm going to start with you. You don't look like you represent any of the oligarchs. your actions are not that at all so how in the world did you even get into this how did you get into politics and then i you know i don't know whether there was a contested primary or not and you wind up the democratic candidate in the third district how did any of that happen um well it's a long story we did have contested primary i ran against three men who were all more moderate and also a bit

more connected politically. So I was, you know, honored and proud to the Democratic for the third district. I've been active, politically active, since I was in high school as I joined the Young Feminist Alliance. I was out in the streets after school protesting the Iraq War in college. I became the president of the Progressive Student Alliance at my school. And a big community garden on our campus and so I've just it's been a long a long journey I got into teaching I taught English in Brazil I've done I've done a lot of work in sustainability and studying sustainable agriculture and I was really drawn to my roots here in Appalachia and my family's farm and you know I

where our flood. But we were stranded on our farm for three days and a lot of people lost their homes and their lives in that flood. And that to me was a huge impactful moment about how climate change will affect Appalachia and is affecting Appalachia and our farmers and our people here. So that hit me climate change and protecting our

environment is something that I've been passionate about for a long time as well. So there's just so many issues to be solved. But honestly, I in the house with Paula Jean Spurgeon and AOC, and I was really inspired by their stories. And I said, you know, if these women can do this, I can do it too. It's definitely been challenging for me because I have a toddler. So it's been a little bit of an eye-opening experience of how much work goes into running for office. But I got connected with Stephen Smith and the West Virginia Can't Wait Movement. I did a training with him. And the rest is history. I just got so inspired by the movement and all the wonderful grassroots organizations. Yeah. Yeah, these thousands of years, every other year floods. Because the one in Houston was

called a 500-year flood, and I think it was some insane number that if it was snow instead of rain, it would have been like 400 inches. The whole city would have been buried. I mean, yes, previously, that would only happen once every 500 years. It's almost as if we've done something to the climate that is making happen more frequently, and it's not something that's going to happen later. It's wiping out farms in America right now, right now. And so, That's why the actually the name West Virginia Can't Wait is very fitting. And that's both of the state and the federal. I want to but it may be a perfect example is Bob Murray.

And so I want to talk about that first. So I know he fought against workers his whole life and his whole career and trying to make sure that they couldn't get comments. if they got Black Lung, which is a byproduct of the thing that he made money off of, right? But is it really true that he then tried to collect benefits for Black Lung? Yeah. Currently, yeah, he's trying to collect benefits. And that is why we are working on getting some comprehensive legislation proposal on our website

to help folks with Black Lung because it's been really corrupt. And my grandfather had the benefit of getting his black lung benefits. And now a lot of folks are, you know, they, my uncles, I have some really good friends that cannot, you know, they can get their black lung benefits. I think there's like a 30% approval rate. And here's somebody that got rich off our backs, left our, you know, left us break crumbs, didn't take care of coal miners. And now he thinks he deserves the same benefits. And I don't know why he doesn't have any money left that, you know what for on him. Because, you know, there's a lot of folks in this state that deserve.

our black lung and I don't think he's one of them. Yeah, no, a guy who ran a coal company and wanted to make sure that others could not get life-saving treatment now asking the government that he was so opposed to for treatment that's going to because, oh my God, it affected me now. Yeah, you schmuck, it was your workers, probably buying off politicians all across West Virginia because honestly, that's what happens. So Natalie, I feel like in West Virginia, somehow the Republicans have convinced everybody to vote for Boss Hogg.

And I don't mean anyone in particular, you know, you can say Bob Murray, you can see what he doesn't have. How did that happen? You know, and how can you reverse it? what it looks like the most populous in the country is voting for the most elite, powerful business interests in the country. So one of the reasons that I like to propose a lot, it just kind of comes from my career backgrounds.

I'm a trained linguist, graduate degrees in linguistics, and I work as a computational linguist now. And I'm going to try not to nerd out too much here. and bore people with this answer. But one of the things that I do for the software company where I work is we program what we call sentiment analysis into it. And it's basically, you know, words have scores. And those scores translate to, you know, the likelihood to incite a certain type of reaction out of the reader.

You know, is your combination of words going to incite someone to react to. someone to be persuaded to your opinions. You know, and things like that. And quite honestly, I feel like the GOP in the last 20 years got really good at this. They got really good at focusing on a couple singular issues that they knew would be, you know, polarizing in places like West Virginia. And, you know, maybe it's because we're not a swing state that the, you know, DNC hasn't, you know, come and this type of marketing here.

I don't know. But, you know, there is no response other than from individual candidates. We're here to tell the people of our districts what's actually happening. We're here to fight for the best interests of the people. We're here for them, not that our current representatives are taking hundreds of thousands of dollars of corporate pact money from ask voters who do you think our current representatives are going to side with when legislation hits their desk you who maybe has donated $20 if anything at all to them or corporate PACs who are essentially funding their campaigns and that's on us as

candidates to get that message across. And we just don't have loud enough national voices combating this type of marketing. And it was a, you know, a slow role. They built it up for the past 20 years. And here we are today. We are the state that overwhelmingly vote by 40-some points. Yeah. That's what happens. Yeah. Look, my pet peeve is the media, because the media is supposed to call balls and strikes. And they're supposed to tell you what's actually happening. But they don't. They just go, I can't tell. Obviously, we do things a little differently. So I need people to understand what the Republican Party did to good religious folks in this country. Back in the 1970s, the Chamber of Commerce wrote a memo basically saying, let's just use religion

to get people to vote for tax cuts for us, the richest people in the country. And it's really a sick, six strategy. And so they co-opted the Republican Party and pretended to care so that you'll vote for them and they'll do tax cuts. And tax cuts that go primarily to the rich and definitely not primarily to the average West Virginia. So that's how they played this. They just never share it with you. And because they don't want to offend Republicans. If someone's robbing a friend of mind. I don't mind offending them. And I hope the voters are our friends and the constituents are. So, Kathy, and by the way, the way that folks are fighting back here is small dollar donors. You've seen across the country, it's worked. Cory Bush is.

Whether you agree exactly with their point of view or not, at least they're not taking corporate PAC money. And, and, you know, and even a Republican, who doesn't take corporate PAC money, I would trust more and I would respect more, even if I disagree. So that's why it's up to you guys to put people in office that are honest and uncorrupted.

So again, if you're watching live, Rebelliondonate.com goes to the act blue page of these four candidates and 100% of the proceeds go to them. But if you're watching later, the link down below is really easy to click. Whatever you can afford, it makes a giant difference,

especially in a place like West Virginia that does not get a lot of national attention, but you've got some great candidates here who should get the attention that they deserve. So Natalie mentioned Republicans do these singular issues where they drive a wedge between people. The Democrats or progressives could do singular issues that actually help people.

So what are some of the singular issues you think are most relevant in your district? I mean, at the top of the list has got to be Medicare for all. I mean, you know, when Bernie Sanders ran for Congress back in 2016, that was his issue in the Democratic primary in West Virginia. And I hear it time and again on the campaign trail of health care horror stories, you know, a woman who spends hours every week fighting with private insurance companies to try to get them to cover the treatments that her child needs and who, you know, is foregoing her own medical

needs to try to afford Medicare with cancer. So, I mean, that just, that shouldn't be the case. And it's an issue that touches every single family in West Virginia, regardless of party lines and where, you know, moving to a Medicare for all single payer system would truly benefit so many and save so many families from bankruptcy and unnecessary financial hardships. So I would absolutely go with Medicare for all is a key issue on that. And the second one, at least in West Virginia, would be universal broadband, but one of the issues I hear the most about on the campaign trail is lack of reliable internet. And that was true before the pandemic. And now it's the case that you have an hour to try to get to a parking lot where they can download their school assignments. So

we desperately need reliable internet to move into a 21st century economy here. in Miami, which is definitely not West Virginia. Back in 2016, I think a lot of people know that. But I was doing a video that was not flattering of Donald Trump. And a guy walked by and yelled at me. And I'm super used to that. And I said, hey, brother, out of curiosity,

would you have voted for him for Bernie? Oh, of course. What people get at that the elites don't understand and the mainstream media doesn't understand to find a politician that isn't full of crap and that isn't part of the power system and the elites and the establishment and all of that. And so they see that in Trump right or wrong,

but they certainly saw it in Bernie. And they're like, well, I don't know if I agree with the guy, but he looks like he really means it. He's not playing a game. And so I think there's a lot to be said for that and how we could win people over if we just stop with the fake Democratic politicians. And a lot of you have gotten past those people in your primaries. So now you're in the time. So now, Lam, let me go back to you for a second. So how do you talk to folks?

because you, you know, you mentioned your background in linguistics. And how do you talk to folks in a way that resonates in West Virginia, where they go, oh, oh, it turns out you're looking out for me. Okay, yeah, I'm on board for that. How do you break through like that? I feel like I just don't change how I talk very much. I might not cuss as much, but I feel like I am myself. You know, on our website, we have a little widget where people can pick a time slot where I'll call them.

And it's a one-on-one conversation and they can talk to me about anything. And, you know, I had one of those calls tonight and with the woman I was speaking with. And I, you know, I'm at the point where I'm saying, you know what, I don't have a perfect answer for you on this issue. But I welcome any ideas that you might have. I've been trying to find somebody who can help give me some insight into, you know, how much things like this would cost and what would help, you know, these kids the most. But I don't know what that is. And I think if you're just real with people and honest with them and transparent with them, they see that immediately. And it's about this communication.

You know, when we started this campaign, COVID wasn't a reality. We were traveling around and we were creating our own town hall. We were doing on the road, and we were creating events, and we were inviting people to come and talk to me, come and talk to each other, and present ideas. And that's something that my opponent hasn't done in every 10 years. He likes to post pictures after the event and say it was a great event, but nobody ever got invited other than the other politicians who were there, or do these teletown halls where, you know, he knows exactly who's going to be on the side. So that really resonated with people very, very quickly. And I think it's what we did primary. You know, we got 70 primary. And I think people just realized that I want to represent them. And communication is key.

And we've kept it up the best that we can in an all virtual environment, you know, with our individual phone calls and doing every possible Zoom. event that we can do. Yeah. I guarantee you the other people that are inviting to those events are donors. So some people, probably the wealthiest in West Virginia, get to go to those events, but not if you're the average person. What you said about broadband.

So for a lot of the rest of the country, especially if they're watching here because we're doing this online, they're probably in disbelief, really that people are having trouble getting the internet at all in West Virginia. And for folks who are completely in their own, they probably think, well, what on God's Green North would you do if you didn't have the internet? So how bad a problem is it and how can you fix it? Yeah, I mean, it is a major problem. I mean, there are many counties, especially my county, my district has about 15 rural counties. And some of them have very, very little broadband coverage. People have people have to drive to the nearest town to a Facebook live call with a guy.

We were doing a Facebook live town hall about a broadband analyst who's working to get broadband in his county, had to, you know, drive and sit in the Wendy's parking lot to participate in the Facebook live town hall on broadband access. So, you know, one of the, and one of the big problems that we've had essentially is that the state of West Virginia has monopoly telecommunications. company to build out broadband in the state over the last decade. And they simply haven't done it. It's not profitable for them. So we need to be looking at something along the lines of rural electrification back in the 30s when it wasn't profitable for private electric companies to

build out electrical infrastructure into rural areas. And so the federal government stepped in and rural electric cooperatives got federal grants to build out that infrastructure. And the one broadband success rural broadband success story in my district is in fact a telephone cooperative that got federal funding eight years built out broadband infrastructure to cover almost their entire county. And so that's what we need to be looking at is having this infrastructure owned by local government initiatives who actually control where the infrastructure goes instead of letting that be up to a private monopoly that obviously doesn't really care about serving the people here. become so money obsessed and profit obsessed that they lost track of what the government's supposed to do.

So, look, government's not always the right answer. I don't think the government was the right answer when we evaded Iraq. I don't think that that was the right way to go. I was definitely against big government then. But the government is supposed to do certain things like protect you, cops, firefighters, and every once in a lot, build infrastructure. If Eisenhower waited around for the highways to become profitable, the government's supposed to get your broadband,

but they don't do that because they think, well, none of my donors are making money off of it. So why would I ever help my voters if my donors aren't going to make a buck off them? So that's the kind of sick situation we're in now. Again, having these uncorrupted candidates on, I love introducing them to you guys, to the whole country, just so you could know that there are brave people fighting back in every hill, valley, holler in the country and saying, you know what? Fight, fight, fight, no matter what. And when I think of that, I think of Paul Jean Swern.

So Paul Jean, you talk about a little bit more. What do you mean by that for folks who are not for the oligarchy and why is it basically ruining our government? Well, we have people that are funded for our top donors, the pharmaceutical industry. So she allowed addiction and addiction crises in the country.

We lead in drug overdose deaths. And how can we trust her to take care of a problem that she helped create? And these movements are about putting the government back into the hands of the people. Way too long, for far too long, especially here in West Virginia. You know, we were talking about how to get people out to the polls. Well, if you have to vote between the less or the lesser two evils, people are not going to go out to the polls.

And this is about us not agreeing on everything, but we need people that are going to be actual public servants that are going to set down and make decisions for the big club and we're not allowed in it and they're into you know they're in you know politics for profit and self-interest she doesn't know what it's our communities we see so many people across our state because a lot of our incumbents have not even you know been in our communities to serve vested in my opponent's office. And it's it's desperation that we're in these races, but it's because people are literally starving here.

We are feeding our children. Was the first to the United States Senate to represent the state of West Virginia. She's a mother and grandmother, and she turns a blind eye to the children dying. The fight for our lives, and that's while we're here. none of these candidates would be sitting on this panel right now if these people were doing their jobs and they are corporate servants, they serve special interests, and they're not in this to serve the people that they're supposed to serve. And this is a whole movement, like I said, of putting the government back into the hands of the people. You know, this country was founded

of the people by the people for not special interest corporations. So this actually. The Purdue Pharma pled guilty to criminal charges of open a $8 billion settlement with the Justice Department. The Sackler family is going to pay $225 million of civil penalties just themselves, and they'll still have plenty left over. They bought a lot of our politicians, including people like your opponent, capital. The industry was her third top donor. So we know that some of these drug companies that sold the opioids were literally the biggest drug dealers in the country. If Kavanaugh had taken money from the Cali cartel or from some of the drug cartels in Mexico now, it would be a from drug dealers that dress in suits and give her campaign donation.

I'm going to go back to the media here, Paul Jean. Isn't the media responsible to say, hey, wait a minute, that's not normal. That's supposed to be. But it feels like whenever you guys bring it up, any of the candidates, any progressives, any Democrats, the media goes, oh, yeah, those are, I bet the pharmaceutical companies had the voters of West Virginia's best interest in mind. Divide and conquer. It's an age-old strategy. And that's why right now, you look at what's going with all of our races too. None of our opponents, you know, and we were on Mark Curtis, local news the other day,

and my opponent was asked, well, you know, I go to church and these, you know, my individual donors are from out of state. For one, a lot of people had to leave the state and they donate to these campaigns and time because they want to come back home. But this is one of the sickest and poor states in the nation. How many of our opponents are funded by, you know, special interests that are not from this state?

And they do not want to be center stage and be held accountable for the destruction of this state. And they literally have to lie like my opponent did. Less than 6% of her donations come from individuals. And since my campaign alone, we've raised a million dollars. The average donation is $26.30. Thank God, I've had a big enough mouth. And I've set hours and hours and hours being a telemarketer to get this campaign funded

so we could be viable to win this campaign. while she sits on her golden throne and she has she has nothing care of the people of West Virginia and it's a disgrace if you're a Republican Democrat independent no matter what you're if you're running for office and you do not give voters and you do not face the people that you are supposed to serve and these people right now are showing how cowardly they are We're their constituents. They haven't done their jobs. We've stood up.

You suck us. It's a disgrace. Yeah. I hate to keep coming back to it, but it's the media. Because when I had a brief congressional run, both the corporate Democrat and the corporate Republican in the race, oh, my God, he's got people from all across the country. giving um you six percent of your donors are from west virginia because 94 percent of them are Delaware and if you don't know that's because Delaware is where all the major

corporations are incorporated so they can cheat on taxes uh I'm sorry new tax avoidance as they would call it uh so how come the media never asked them wait why is almost all of your donors from the state of Delaware. Oh, maddening. Anyways, all right, Hillary, let's go back to values. So when you talk to the folks in your district in West Virginia, how can you talk to them about and connect with them on their values? Why are progressors or Democrats better at representing their values than Republicans?

Well, I think that's a great question. you know, West Virginia is historically a democratic state. And the labor movement here with the coal miners, with union. Labor has been a huge part of West Virginia's political history. And a lot of people are supposed to be about helping people. And I think a lot of people have, I guess disillusioned, with what they've gotten from the Democratic Party. And so people in West Virginia started supporting Trump

and the Republican Party. You know, I've been out canvassing all day to day. I've talked to several people. I talked to one young man who loved Bernie, but he said he voted for Trump because he is just tired of the corruption. So I try to just like listen to people, listen to what they care about and talk about those issues. I talk to a man today and getting back to Medicare for all, health care is such an important issue.

I talked to this man who said that he takes $3 a month, $1,000 a month. And, you know, he looked like, you know, he was just. in a little house with nothing and probably i you know i don't know what his retirement was like but i was like how is how is how is he alive how is he for this um and so that um um to relate to people as much as i can by listening to them uh you know that i care about what they're going through and and that there are common sense ways to improve it like passing Medicare for all you know there's there's solutions and they just keep getting blocks by people who don't want them passed but you know when I go out and just listen to people they can see that I'm a real

person that I'm, you know, not just going to try to buy the election. Yeah, I talked to this woman who was in her 60s when I was canvassing once. She said, well, I'm just, it was early 60s, so she hadn't gotten Medicare yet. And so she said, if I get sick between now and Medicare, I lose this house. It's over. And then I don't know where I go. And, and, And we for Gostom is not supposed to be that brutal. And by the way, the rest of the development world is not that brutal. They have universal health care. So no, when you get sick, you don't get bankrupt and you don't die.

They actually take care of you. In America, that seems like, whoa, really? They're not going to steal all of my money when I get sick. That's weird. It's not supposed to be weird. So it's running to get you guys actual health care. And so RebellionDonate.com redirects to the Act Blue page of these four candidates. They get 100% of the proceeds, Rebelliondonate.com.

If you're watching later on Facebook, YouTube, or anywhere else, we'll have the link down below. You just click on it and they need your help to try to get. They can help the people of West Virginia. So I'm going to open this one. to everybody. Cannabis is a big issue throughout the country, also relates to health care, and it's a big issue. So for anyone, why has that, I remember when Obama laughed about this issue, when he was asked about it, you know, eight years ago or so. Like, what a silly thing.

I can't believe you asked me. It was kind of the impression he left. But it's not at all silly. It's very important. So for whoever wants to have such a big issue in West Virginia. Can I start? Yes, go ahead, Natalie.

I think that you have to realize cannabis has, you know, health benefits. It's non-addictive. And when you look at states like West Virginia where we have been living in a public health crisis for years, you know, this nation hasn't experienced one for 100 years, but West Virginia has been living it. And cannabis has been proven to be reducing addiction rates and communities that have opioid abuse issues. So in West Virginia, it would be

huge to be able to help with rehabilitation of help to bring in $193 million a year to the state and tax revenue that we can put back into our infrastructure, that we can put back into our public schools that we can put back into medical clinics, rehabilitation centers, and mental health programs, invest in our kids and districts for medical facilities closed in the last six months. So it does more than just help with medical need. It helps addict helps them not relapse

and it brings money back into the state not to use of it where it is the fastest growing plant you can produce biodegradable plastics you can produce additional textiles and lumber from it as well so there are you know it can also help bolster our economy here

yeah I remember when when people talked about hemp and how they're going to make pants out of it, I was like, yeah, sure, dude. Yeah, you're going to make pants out of it. No, you're going to get high. And George Washington was a hemp farmer. So do our founding fathers proud and get rational about this issue. But seriously, health effects, but the pharmaceutical companies don't want to. have all those health effects at a cheap price in a way that's natural or an organic and cuts out them as the dealer of drugs that are actually dangerous. And don't get me wrong, guys. Drug companies sometimes have great drugs that save your lives. And sometimes they have drugs that get you addicted

and they know it, right? And so that's part of cannabis. And I think it's a big deal to like we have to talk about all the health benefits we're talking about all that stuff but you can't say it's also enjoyable god forbid that something should be enjoyable like light but don't you dare have you know a joint that could also give you a similar effect so um so uh i tell you guys a quick story and then get your reactions it was um um this guy that we interviewed in western virginia not west virginia but Western Virginia in the 2016 election. It was Nick Smith and he was trying to get $15 minimum wage. The country, including Western Virginia and West Virginia,

the minimum wage is still $7.25. And if it had kept him up with inflation, it would be $20, over $20. So now the Democrats win the House, the Senate, and the White House, and obviously these four women could help make that happen with the House and the Senate, we probably have $15 minimum wage overnight. And Nick, in talking to us, said at the time, look, we know that Trump, but at least he had the decency to lie to us to give us hope. And in that election, Hillary Clinton just kept saying, no, the jobs are gone.

They're not coming back, and she was fighting higher wages at that point, which is not what Democrats are supposed to do. You could throw this to anyone, but, Kathy, let me, let me start with you. How important do you think is the issue of higher wages? How much does it resonate? You actually will raise their wages. So how do we get an issue is that? No, it's a huge issue. I mean, we're definitely a relatively low.

low-wage state. The minimum wage actually did get bumped up slightly to 875 an hour now in West Virginia as a few years ago, which is obviously still well below a living wage. And, you know, it just shouldn't be able to be able to afford, you know, a middle-class lifestyle. And it's certainly an issue that resonates with voters in the district. And about, you know, creating jobs in West Virginia, too. You know, when people talk about the decline of the coal industry, which has been happening here for the last decade, we need to be talking about investing in infrastructure, in broadband, like I was talking about before, safe drinking water infrastructure, environmental reclamation work that could generate thousands of jobs here, putting our abandoned mine sites back to use

and cleaning up the damage that's been done to the water in southern West Virginia. you know then those are all you know good paying structure jobs that we need to demand that they that they be union jobs as well so there there are opportunities to put people back to work here in West Virginia in good paying jobs but we need to fight for that and that's you know what I and all these other candidates on the call are doing yeah I just did the math on it so $8.75 if you work full-time for 50 out of the 52 weeks of the year so cross your fingers you don't get sick, $17,500. Raise a family on that.

How does anybody live on a $17,500? How do you live in a person? I know, because that's how much I used to make as a struggling talk shows. And I did it with mac and cheese and life cereal and rotate. But I didn't have kids. I mean, how are you supposed to raise a family? So Democrats nationally are fighting for $15 minimum wage using the same calculation. That's only $30,000 a year.

But at least you got a fighter's chance. And if both, you know, the husband and the wife are working, maybe you can, you know, get to a point where you could live. So why not give yourself a chance, right? So that leads me to your opponents. Natalie, like, again, the media makes it seem like it's all even. I don't know about your particular opponent. I know Republicans overall say, no, we don't want to hire minimum wage.

You take the $17,000 a year and you'll like it and, you know, just work harder, you bum. If you had four of those jobs, you might make a quarter of what I make, they say. What's their standard? And are, you know, are they doing anything to help? No, the straight answer is no, he's not doing anything to help to average West Virginia. He doesn't raise them. His party in general is better off if we don't.

I would also mention that he historically votes against women and against workers. So he has voted against improving corporate governance through diversity and inclusion. He's voted against corporate transparency. And that corporate transparency bill was quite literally just saying that if you were going to incorporate a business or have an LLC, that you'd have to list your name and your address and your social security. But it was too much of a leap for him. You know, he has voted against condemning unwanted medical procedures on detainees, you know, that were unwanted and unwarranted. He's voted against the enforcement of equality of equality and against voting rights amendments. And the biggest one that irritates me beyond belief is the fact that he literally voted

and gave this nation unions. But there he is. He's going to sit there with all of his corporate PAC money, put some real pretty commercials out there and some nice radio buys. And pretend to be for the average man as he takes his rights away. unreal. So before we run out of time, I want to give all of you an opportunity contrast yourself with your opponents. Who knows, maybe what some of these guys are a bowl of peaches and they don't take corporate pack money and they've just been working around the clock

to help the average guy. So you tell me, Hillary, let's go to you. How about your opponent and what's the contrast between you and? So there's a huge contrast between Carol Miller, my opponent and I, she is 90s. percent funded by out of state corporations. She was born wealthy. Her dad was a congressman. She's out of touch with the needs of working class West Virginians. And she doesn't ever talk about poverty. Our district is one of the poorest districts in the country, but she doesn't act like it's an issue. she never talks about poverty or how we're going to address it. You know, she just keeps the coal and the gas and acting like that's going to magically

provide for everyone's needs again and it's not. You know, coal's not going to be able to come back the way that it was. But those people are paying her. So she keeps acting like it does. I think the biggest difference between us is just who's funding us. I'm funded by people, and she's funded by corporations. Well, I have two things to say about that. First of all, Carol Miller, how dare she?

We're familiar with your district because of the last race. And it's amazing to me that they get funded 96%. by these giant big business interests and then pretend to be populist in West Virginia. It's just gross. If you had a functioning media, they'd get called. Everyone in West Virginia and everyone in your district would know that they're purely backed by big business. But the media doesn't want to. Other than folks watching this, second thing I have to say is Rebelliondonate.com.

Okay. It redirects that. For all four of these women, 100% of the proceeds are going to them. So, and if you're watching later, the link is down below. Just click on it. So, Kathy, let me go to you. Contrast between you and your opponent. Similar to Carol Miller, my opponent.

He gets 90% of his funding out of state, a large amount of that from corporate PACs, to be a state senator in Maryland, lost his Senate seat and just moved across the river to essentially by this congressional seat in 2014. He's never held a town hall, to my knowledge, since he's been elected in person in the district. He's never debated his challenger since 2014. And, you know, I mean, talk about not caring about West Virginians. I mean, he doesn't even come here to find out what people's concerns might be, much less advocate for them in Congress. And, you know, it shows in his voting record. He voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He's voted against health care for people with preexisting conditions. He earlier this year was one of only 40 members of Congress who

voted against the first coronavirus relief bill. So that was the bill for free COVID test. From West Virginia supported. So, I mean, he's very much absentee and out of touch. Yeah. It's just so disheartening sometimes to see guys who are obvious frauds don't care of state, don't care about the district, move in, slap the word Republican on their, you know, proceed to rob people blind. And everybody goes, well, he's a Republican. So I guess he's on my side. Again, if we had functioning media, maybe people could actually figure out what they actually stand for and made decision based on that. But I want the audience to know there's no way you're going to fight back against that and win unless you support candidates like this. They're doing the incredibly hard work. And they're fighting no matter what. And they're turning districts that sometimes Democratic Party had given up on into districts that are winnable because they're getting the message out and they're fighting so hard to get that message out can help people.

And so I want people to understand that. So Paul Jean, let me go to you. I'm not sure there's a bigger contrast in the country between you and your opponent. So, you know, like I said, she is a mother and grandmother. And on the question, how can she sleep at night, knowing that West Virginia is suffering and she turns a blonde eye. She's, you know, she's voted against equal pay for women at least three times. She, you know, this is the heart of labor, just like Natalie's opponent. She's for right to close the doors on union halls. She's a voucher program and in insurance companies. The biggest thing I think she's gotten done in Congress is get legislation passed for commemorative coins. We've heard about Capito Connect for five and a half

years since she's been in the Senate. It's a collection, but she's really not out in our across the state in our communities for almost 20 years trying to bring clean water, clean air, economic diversity. We've, you know, heard about those jobs, jobs, jobs, and, you know, living wage and everything. And it's just not happening. We can walk out our doors and see that it's not happening for us here in West Virginia. Thing is I am an ordinary person and people do not have to get arrested to talk to me and they don't have to go to D.C. You know, over time I got my door to beg for health care.

My phone number is three. If you would have told me 20 years ago that I would be in the Democratic nominee for United States Senate, I would have told you you were crazy. about survival. And this is making sure that West Virginians have a seat at the table in Washington.

Not only if I go to D.C., I want to make sure that West Virginians and people across the country have a seat at the table and legislation that I need, real people's servants.

We need to be part of the decision making. So there's so many things. And it's just like every one of these women, we're not, none of us are doing this to enhance our political careers. We're fighting for normalcy. We're fighting for future generations.

I would cut my leg off for my children and my grandchild. And this is about me fighting for the future of this state and making sure every child in this country has access to basic human doesn't care if we live or die. Yeah, I hope you don't have to, but it is a hell of a political slow. Jean Swergeon, she will cut her leg off. and she and let me that goes perfectly to what i wanted to end on because we're out of time here but guys if you want to know how tough these for you they took over the democratic party in west virginia that's a hell of a thing when i first heard about paul jean swear engine

um she was just the most regular person you ever met in your life and she was just trying to get help for her family. And if you had said, you know, some years later, she is going to be the Democratic for the Senate seat in West Virginia. No one would have believed to. No one. And she did it. And that applies to every woman on this call. They found a way to wrestle the party away from corporate interests and to fight for the average West Virginia. And that is a hell an accomplishment already. Now, if you could put them in a wow. Now, you want to see tough, you want to see how much good they can do, send them to watch, go up their sleeves, and let them go to

work. So if you're watching live, Rebelliondonate.com The proceeds goes to the four candidates that you've seen here. If you're watching later, there's a click, there's a link down below that you just click on. You'll see it's an Act Blue link and click on there and you can make all the difference. You give them hope, you give them strength. And when you do that, anything is possible

as we've seen over again over the last couple of years here. So Paul Jean Swerinjin, Natalie Klein, Kathy, Kerry Turner, you guys are amazing. Thank you for four five joining us and Lenin Rebellion Pack put this together for you guys thank you thanks for having us yes thank you so much thank you all right good night everybody thanks for listening to the full episode of the young turks support our work listen ad free access members only bonus content and more by subscribing to apple podcast at apple dot co slash t yt i'm your host jank yugar

and i'll see you soon