 This is District 24. This is District 24. This is District 24. Frederica Wilson has normalized all that you have seen for the past 22 years. A recent study named District 24 as one of the top 30 portly represented districts in the entire United States. My name is Christine Alexandria Olivo, and I am running for Congress because we deserve better than this. I grew up in El Portal with a big family and big dreams. My grandfather used to stuff envelopes to make extra money. My grandma would cook enough food to feed the kids in the entire neighborhood so that no one ever went without. We struggled, but we always got by. My grandmother used to say, Christine, one day you will get us out of this. As a child, I did not understand what she meant. I thought it was normal to work three jobs to live. I thought it was normal for medical bill collectors to call the house. I thought it was normal to have three families living under one roof. I thought it was normal to get pulled over with my brothers in the car. I thought it was normal to bury your friends at a young age. My grandmother died in October of 2018. When I went to the cemetery to make her arrangements, I passed a picture of a young boy with a big smile. I was shocked, but the funeral director said, we get kids all the time. As a mother of two beautiful boys and a former youth educator and youth advocate, I want you to know that it should not be normal to bury your friends at a young age. It should not be normal to be racially profiled. It should not be normal to be unable to afford a home for your family. It should not be normal to not afford health care. It should not be normal to work 18 hours a day and never enjoy your life while our congresswoman is absent from work and still gets paid with our taxpayer dollars. My opponent hides her mediocrity behind the 5,000 role models program and yet 77% of District 24 does not have a college degree. I am running for congress because it's time for a new normal. It's time for this district to have a representative that will show up. It's time for a representative that will listen. It's time for a representative that will fight. I will fight for common sense gun reform. I will fight for a $15 minimum wage. I will fight for Medicare for all. And on November 3rd, when you elect me, Christine Alexander Olivo. As your next congresswoman, I will fight to make you proud every single day. My name is Christine Olivo and I approve this message. Hello everyone, I am here with a phenomenal candidate running in Florida's 24th congressional district. Her name is Christine Olivo and she's here to talk about her campaign. Christine, welcome to the program. Hi Mike, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. I'm excited to talk to you. All of the viewers who are tuning in just saw your ad. That's one of the best ads I've ever seen and I've seen a lot of political ads and I like that you talk about the district, you show a little bit of the problems. We see some images of people sleeping on the streets, people needing things that aren't being delivered to them right now and you propose real solutions and I think that this is something that we see with up and comers who are going to congress. They actually have a clear policy agenda and I know that shouldn't be revolutionary if you're running for congress but honestly it doesn't feel like it's the norm and I think that candidates like you are bringing it back. So tell us about your campaign and who you are and why you decided to run for congress. Thank you and thank you for showing the video. Actually, a very interesting thing about the day that we were shooting the video we were on our way to an abandoned apartment building when we saw the hostage situation happening. That clearly was not planned. We were driving by and we said forget the abandoned apartment building. We need to cover this. We need to cover the cops and the streets shut down because this is what happens on a day-to-day basis. This is normal activity in District 24 and that's why I'm running. That is the very reason why I'm running. In the video I talked about the moment that I decided to run was when my grandmother had passed and I go to the cemetery and there I see Trayvon Martin's grave and I'm thinking my grandmother lived to be just a few weeks shy for 93rd birthday and she's buried in a grave with children and that's when I said enough is enough. I looked at my own two kids and I said if not now then when. So I decided to jump in. I tell everyone I'm not a politician. I'm a mom with a purpose. I'm fighting for my children. I'm fighting for your children. I'm fighting for a future for all of us. I've lived in this district born and raised. I have seen what we can be and I've seen what we have become. Unfortunately this is not the future that was promised to us and the incumbent has been in office for such a long time even in Florida state legislation. For such a long time there is no excuse for there to be that many homeless people on the streets in this district. There is no excuse for people to not have healthcare. A quarter of the district before COVID did not have healthcare. Now that we have hundreds and thousands of unemployed constituents imagine the percentage it is now because their healthcare was tied to their employment. So now we are facing, you think we're living in poverty now? If we don't get a hold of this right now with someone that's bold, that's ready, that's going to actually show up to do the job then I can't even imagine what the future holds. Yeah it's honestly scary. The future really looks bleak and it's never seemed as if things were going well but I think that this pandemic has really put everything into perspective and it exposed the plethora of flaws in our system and I think that you put it so perfectly in your video where we've normalized so much and we've kind of just like subconsciously accepted things that are terrible. I mean it's not normal to not have healthcare. It's not normal to work 18-hour days and still struggle to pay rent. These are things that we've accepted as normal and finally we're starting to wake up and really push back and say this isn't acceptable. No you kind of touched on this but your opponent, her name is I believe Fredrica Wilson. She has been in Congress for quite some time not as long as some other individuals. Can you talk a little bit about her because I mean there's a lot of lawmakers who kind of fly under the radar and to me she's one of them like nationally she's not well known but why do you think she's not you know meeting this moment? So Fredrica Wilson is everyone knows her as the hot lady. She wears her extravagant cowboy hats but no one knows her by any legislation that she's passed. They don't know her by I mean she advocates for you know women. There were young girls in Africa that were that were kidnapped and she advocates for them. She does have a program here locally called the 5,000 role models program that that helps boys black and brown boys get through high school go to college. It's a great program unfortunately only 19% of our district has a college degree. So there's so many missed opportunities there. And the issue is because she doesn't show up. You can Google it. She has the worst attendance. She does not show up. She didn't show up to vote for the heroes act. She's not showing up now. She's voting by proxy like she's not showing up for the people. She's not using her voice. She's not using her platform. She's collecting a paycheck and she's honestly being funded by big corporations. So who do we expect her to be indebted to the people or to Carnival Cruisans? Yeah, I mean it's really that simple. All you have to do is follow the money and you will see where a politician's loyalty lies, which is it's really refreshing to see you know now dozens of politicians step up and actually get elected not taking any money from large multinational corporations and just like purely funding their campaigns through the people. I think this is revolutionary. And what's interesting to me is that the response that you see from the corporate Democrats who don't like this is they try to say oh well you know you don't represent this district because you're taking money from people all around you know the country. They're out of state donations. But I mean if you take money from a corporation is that corporations headquarters in your state aren't those technically worse out of state donations? So it's just it's hilarious to me that they find some way to do these mental gymnastics. And speaking of corporate Democrats so if you go to Congress you would be another member of basically the squad you'd be part of this growing block of people in Congress who are openly progressive and unapologetically left-leaning which we absolutely need. So my question to you, you know it's tough because you're not in Congress yet so the dynamic is difficult to imagine what it would be like but let's assume Joe Biden is elected and Democrats have a really short period of time two years where they actually take back the Senate. They have the House and the White House. So there's going to be a rift. There's going to be fighting between a lot of you know corporate Democrats and individuals such as yourself who are pushing Medicare for All. How do you and I don't think there's any perfect answer to this question because I don't know myself. How do you as someone who's advocating for Medicare for All try to push the envelope more towards that direction instead of a more incrementalist approach because currently in the House it seems as if people in the Democratic Party at least support Medicare for All. I don't know how much of that is just like to appease their base or if they have a primary challenger but in the Senate it's a lot more difficult. So what do you do to push the Democratic Party in that direction because you're going to butt heads with them. Do you have a strategy going in because I personally have no idea how it would proceed other than to just be loud and obnoxious. I mean I was thinking about being loud and obnoxious. Honestly that question has been like the forefront of my mind. How can I make this difference. How can I do it. I think the first step is getting more allies right. So if we can expand the amount of people it's got to be one person at a time and when you're talking about Medicare for All you have to break down all the excuses that people can give. Okay so everything even during this race everything that I do now it's all about strategy what is going to be our strategy. If we can explain in numbers how it would make sense and expose those numbers to the American people anyone that can go against the proof that's in the pudding if they can go against it then they're going against the people. So if we can actually sit down and say okay let's calculate what exactly is it going to cause what is it going to save and we're talking taxes everything we need to lay it all out there no more hypotheticals put everything down and see what it can be right. Take the corporations out if we can show the people not even I'm not even talking about the senators and the representatives show the people expose the numbers to the people then they would have no choice but help on board. You have to show proof everything that I do now everything that I say it's like Christine you've got to show proof talking about Medicare for All and saying oh it's not going to raise your taxes show me let's show them. If we believe that that's what our country needs if we believe that it's possible let's show them. And I think that's a really important point that you raised in terms of like talking about polling numbers and what the American people want because there's this underlying assumption if you watch any mainstream media segment on Medicare for All or healthcare there's this assumption that oh well the people don't want this they wouldn't want to lose their private insurance but that's not true like public opinion polls show that a majority of Americans want Medicare for All and a plurality of Republicans even wanted and in some polls these are outliers but a majority of Republicans wanted so the problem is that we've been lied to and we've been taught to be afraid of what other countries take for granted and wouldn't want to live without so I think that if you actually bring the American people into the conversation not only could that help to shame politicians and really get them to show their cards and where their loyalties lie that is what the American people are corporations but it also could galvanize the public because I think that if politicians in a larger block including yourself say look polls show Americans want Medicare for All prove it, show up to Congress, protest, help us get this passed I think that can really make a difference because the problem is that people in Congress aren't necessarily organizers and this is one of the benefits of getting people like you elected is you all have a background of activism and advocacy and this would make a world of difference because the people that we've seen in DC it's like these politicians who follow this like perfect career path, they go to Ivy League schools they get elected and it's like we don't need people who are playing a role I want people who are on the ground and that's a really important role that I think you would serve I do want to ask you another question because this is something that is becoming a little bit more of an issue it's ranked choice voting and there's a specific bill in Congress it's HR 4000 and what this bill would do is it would permanently end gerrymandering it would make it ranked choice voting nationwide and on top of that it would make America have multi-member districts so rather than us just electing one representative per district there'd be maybe two or three so that way the vote is more proportional meaning that like we don't have this majoritarian system where okay this one person got 60% of the vote but the 40% aren't represented so it's a lot better I think and it could open the door to a multi-party system where we don't just need Democrats and Republicans would you be open to sponsoring this legislative or co-sponsoring this legislation it sounds great I think that we need to I mean I love the founding fathers but I think it's time for us to abolish the electoral college there's a lot that we need to do to change the way that we vote to change the way that we're represented and that sounds fantastic I would definitely be interested in learning more about it it's actually the first time that I'm hearing about the bill yeah a lot of people don't know about it when I showed up to a town hall in I think 2018 with Suzanne Bonamici my representative and she never heard of it as well because it's one of those things that kind of flies under the radar because it's tough right like how do you sell this to members of Congress when you're basically asking them will you make your party not have as much power by supporting this bill so I think that people who are more principled like progressive such as yourself you know it's an easier sell which is why we have to get more people like you elected to Congress I'm running as a non-party so it's really for me I think that it's time for us to start balancing our districts yeah yeah I mean it's having a multi-party system wouldn't be the end all be all in my opinion because you still have you know the influences of capitalism but I think that it would it would make us a lot better off I think you know so I want to ask you about COVID-19 and in the event you're elected realistically speaking what do you think Congress can do to actually mitigate the spread of the virus because we're seeing I don't know if you want to call it like an extension of the first wave or the second wave but we're seeing cases spike again we can do legislatively to actually stop the virus from spreading because I think that this really is the number one issue to a lot of Americans right now because it's affecting people when it comes to their health it's affecting them economically what can you do as a lawmaker so the first thing that we need to do is realize that this has been mishandled from the beginning so we're going into chaos it's sad to say that another shutdown would have to occur because a lot of places have shut down but they haven't reopened properly so then you see the extension of the first wave or the second wave whatever we want to call it I think we need to do a real shutdown I think that we need to make sure that we're doing our due diligence to get everybody the health care that they need a lot of people are getting sick because they didn't have preventative care for other issues so really taking charge with health care would make a huge difference and also we need to be able so the anxiety that people get from the shutdown is how are they going to pay their bills who's going to teach their child if we had a stimulus package and I'm not talking just $1,200 once I'm talking about $2,000 a month until we can get through this crisis understanding that this was not a quick fix and the way this was handled as if it was a quick fix taking the time giving the people the money they need the health care that they need and then taking charge and really listening to the scientists listening to the doctors and doing what we have to do to stop the spread we can't stop we can't stop COVID it's already out there but we can stop the spread getting a mass mandate I mean I can make you a list of things that we can do unfortunately because we have a president that thinks this is a joke our country we have lost thousands hundreds and thousands of loved ones because it has been mishandled so the first thing that I want to do is take it seriously and from there we can go down the line and take care of the people give them what they need to stay home stay safe and let's get through this yeah I think it really is that simple just believing in science number one is a giant step I have a segment on the program where this graphic designer basically took all the data from the New York Times and he tracked the rise of COVID cases by state and all of the red states have spiked where the blue states are starting to get it under control it's not like they're going to go up at the same time it's not like they're going to completely eliminate it but you can see simple things that blue states have implemented that really make a difference mask mandates for example in my state of Oregon we didn't have a mask mandate and whenever I would go out I'd see 30-40% of people wearing masks as soon as the mask mandate is implemented 99% of people wearing masks and all BL of course these are really complicated things but it helps and the fact that republicans won't even do the bare minimum in just listening to scientists and their own CDC which they control because they're in charge of the White House it's astonishing to me so overall I think that anyone who's watching the show and they hear about your policies they know you support Medicare for all, UBI, living wage worker rights they're already going to be sold just by definition because you check all of the boxes basically but the election is coming up super fast what can we do to get you across that finish line because it's difficult you are at a disadvantage because you don't take corporate money having said that though a lot of candidates who don't take corporate money have won, Jamal Bowman, AOC, Cory Bush so it's not impossible anymore so what do you need from us to make this a reality? well like you said I'm funded by the people donations, donations, donations volunteers would be great I need people at the precincts, a lot of people the way I tell everyone in Miami if I invite you to my little kids party in about giving you a month or two in advance notice two days before the party you will be there last minute people we do things on the fly I need people at the precincts to help me get those last minute voters in people that haven't heard about me, haven't heard about the mission the message, fighting for the people I need people there, if you want to donate go to www.ChristineForCongress.org if you just want to learn about me go to www.ChristineForCongress.org at the end of the day the underdog can win what I need is a vote I need the votes so most importantly if you live in the district please consider voting for me I would love to fight for you in DC I think that's perfectly said it's so nice to see so many candidates run for Congress I say this all the time but in 2016 I could count the number of progressive congressional candidates on a single hand in 2018 there were more, I couldn't count them on one hand but we weren't winning as much now I can't even keep track, there's so many things to be optimistic about after progressives lost the primary after everything seems to be going horribly we see a lot of people stepping up across the country and that in and of itself is cost for celebration thank you, because individuals like you doing this tremendous deed of self sacrifice to run for Congress, I would never want to do it the fact that you are stepping up and dedicating your time it's really remarkable and I hope that my viewers will consider sending you even if you have a buck to spare I think that really can make a difference because if a hundred people send a dollar each that's a hundred bucks, that's a lot of money that's more mailers that can go out if you still have time to sit down mailers who knows how much time thank you so much for coming on the program we will be rooting for you, Christine thank you so much, I just want to let everyone know it's not easy to do this I'm a regular person fighting for everyday people I want you to know that you can do it too you can do it so if you have that desire in your heart if you feel like you can run, you can represent your community I dare you to put your name on that ballot thank you so much for having me Mike, I hope I can come on again after I win absolutely, as a member of Congress how awesome would that be to bring you on the show yes take care, Christine