 My name is Russ Serencioni. This video is not for the establishment. I'm a progressive Democrat running for Congress. As a working class American, I waited tables to put myself through college. Now I'm a public servant. And as a government housing attorney, I fight for what I believe in. Two years ago, my son was born. My life was changed forever. I promised him that I would do whatever it takes to build a better future. But our future is at stake. By 2035, New Jersey homes will be underwater. We'll lose billions in property value. Heat waves, drought, mass extinctions, tornadoes. The climate crisis is here. The way forward is to invest in our future. We can create millions of high-paying jobs to usher in a modern age of renewable technology, rebuild our infrastructure, and create the greatest middle-class America has ever seen with the Green New Deal. I believe Americans should have the right to breathe clean air, drink pure water, and to enjoy a healthy environment. Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck. We work longer hours, but our wages stay the same. The cost of healthcare keeps rising, but covers less. Millions of people have no health insurance. Every year, people die because they can't afford it. That's why I support Medicare for All, because it will save money and save lives. Running for Congress wasn't in my plan. When our representatives said no to the Green New Deal and no to Medicare for All, that's when I knew now is the time to fight. Politicians that take big money from oil and gas lobbyists will never solve the climate crisis. Politicians that take big money from health insurance and pharma lobbies will never give us Medicare for All. We win when we elect people that reject big money. That's why I've pledged to take no fossil fuel, corporate PAC, or lobbyist money to stay true to working-class Americans. We must eliminate corruption in politics, and we won't stop there. We can have opportunity for All with free public college and student loan debt cancellation, and we can have a federal jobs guarantee with a living wage. We can invest in our families with universal child care and paid family leave. New Jersey deserves a leader who puts our working-class families first. My name is Russ Syrensione, and I'm fighting for justice. Together, we'll create an America that works for all of us. Hello, everyone. I'm here with Russ Syrensione running in New Jersey's sixth congressional district against Frank Palone, an infamous corporate Democrat who is known as the enforcer for Nancy Pelosi, and he's here to tell us why Frank Palone's got to go and why he would actually be a voice of change in the Democratic Party. Russ, thank you so much for coming on the program. It's my pleasure, Mike. Thanks for having me. I love your show, so this is really surreal for me being here. That's awesome. Thank you so much. That means so much. Well, look, I've been following your campaign for a while, and I am thoroughly impressed. You pretty much check all of the boxes. You say Medicare for all, but you specify single-payer Medicare for all. No type of, you know, compromise Medicare choice, Medicare for all who want it. It's Medicare for all single-payer. You're talking about the Green New Deal, student loan debt cancellation, and you are someone who you've kind of been in the trenches fighting for quite some time. You're a government housing attorney, so you're fighting against basically landlords who are taking advantage of tenants, and now you're running for Congress. So what made you want to run? Well, a lot of things, but most importantly in February when the Green New Deal was announced as the House resolution, you know, for most of our generation, we're very concerned with the climate crisis, and the Green New Deal really gives us hope. We can get, we can clean up our environment and transition to renewable energy because that's what we have to do based on the UN reports. And as soon as it came out, my representative said things like it's not politically possible. It's not technologically possible. And in my mind, that is the most absurd statement I've ever heard because we have the technology and also we have the research and development and works that we could fully go 100% renewable by 2030. We could do it as soon as possible. And when he said that, it just became very frustrating for me because I have a two-year-old son, and my son's future is shaped by how we deal with the climate crisis today. His life in 10 years is going to be, is directly related by what we do today. If we can't end the fossil fuel age and switch and clean up our environment, I just don't want him to be faced with dystopia. So at the time, Frank Poulon said no to the Green New Deal. He became one of the biggest threats to my family. And then the final nail in the call for really in June, a fossil fuel company tried to put a pipeline through our township in New Jersey and Old Bridge, a fracked gas, a natural gas pipeline that would cut through Jersey, provide no economic benefit and go to the Raritan Bay, disrupt the wildlife. They tried to put it within a few miles of my house, and that was the final straw. The fossil fuel company came after my family, came after my son's, the air that my son breathes threatened him with asthma, threatened him with lung conditions. And at that very moment, I decided that there's nothing that can stop me from doing everything I can to switch to renewable energy, to fight for the Green New Deal, to fight for my son's future. And that's really the main reason I'm in this, because my son's everything to me and my wife. Also, I'm really upset with how corrupt politics is, how the big money dominates everything in our elections. The billionaires really influence our elections so much that we become an oligarchy, where our Congress only responds to the donors. And a popular opinion has very little effect on what actually it's done in Congress. So that's really upsetting to me, because as you mentioned, I'm a government attorney, so I fight for housing justice. We have ethical rules of loyalty to the state agency that we work for. I want to bring these ethical rules of loyalty to the people in New Jersey's sixth district and in our entire Congress. So that's what I'll be fighting as well, anti-corruption provisions. And we'll be calling out every single politician that does take money from the billionaires and the corporate PACs and the lobbyists. So we take no corporate cash, because we can only control what I do right now. And in the future, hopefully we'll see a corruption-free government. Yeah, well, thankfully, candidates like you, you're really trying to set a new standard for the way that you run campaigns. And even if you disadvantage yourself in a sense by not taking that corporate PAC money, you really demonstrate to the people that you're going to remain principled. You're not going to sell out. You're not going to accept money from fossil fuel industries that have a financial interest in ruining the planet, ruining, you know, your own hometown. So I think it's really important. And one thing that I noticed about you is you really do put this strong emphasis on getting money out of politics, which is something that we need to talk more about. I mean, we're always focused on the issues, but the root cause to pretty much everything, like all the issues is the justification of the electoral process, like money and politics. It's making every other issue that much more difficult to have some type of political solution because everyone takes money from the industry. So they're too afraid to stand up to that industry. And even if you're not necessarily corrupted by an industry in Congress, you know that they can oppose you by being rolling a future opponent. So nobody's brave enough to really stand up. So it's really important that candidates such as yourself run for Congress. And that's what you're doing. So I wanted you to talk a little bit about your experience of fighting for tenant rights because you shared a couple of really interesting anecdotes on your website about what you went through and who you represented. And I found it absolutely not just fascinating, but really wild because it just really goes to show you how important tenant rights are and why we really need to be talking, I think, more clearly about housing fraud. So can you share a couple of personal stories? So I spend a lot of time I spent a lot of time in housing court and you know when tenants homes are on the line it's just a psychologically damaging thing to tenants. And I've seen a lot of tenants being frustrated and like usually when somebody has a problem with their housing it's because of some other economic problem, right? So like they lose their jobs sometimes and then they can't pay rent. So I don't see how I want to see more housing justice in our entire country. I want to see broader tenants protections for even especially people in the Midwest that have very few tenant protections. New York City is actually very good with protecting its tenants and my experience is with enforcing the rent stabilization law that's what our agency does. We try to keep a affordable housing stock there's about one and a half million apartments that are subject to the law and so I guess a couple of personal stories so we deal with harassment issues when a landlord will harass a tenant and the particular story that I talk about on the website is a landlord was allowing a dog to run free in the hallways and the tenant was actually you know attacked by the dog, chased into her apartment and she complained about the situation and instead of fixing you know like keeping the dog in the house or in the apartment the landlord just retaliated against the tenant which makes no sense all he had to do was keep the dog in his home instead of running free in the apartment building and he knocked up, he knocked her door and he showed up right in front of her and he threatened her life he threatened to kill her. He actually shoved a pistol in her face and said how dare you complain about this condition and so what we did the police got involved and we made sure the tenant had the proper protections against this landlord so we remedied the situation by getting help there to get restraining orders and also enforcing the rent law so we reduced her rent for a while as well because she had to deal with these psychological damages but really what the entire goal of a housing program in our country should be protecting affordable housing we need to overturn the draconian rules that are in place now that doesn't allow the federal government to invest in construction of new affordable housing and instead of just repairing this really outdated housing stock we have to start investing in affordable housing actually doing the work and building it so that's what's central to my platform as well if we want to end homelessness we can we really can and we can do it by building affordable housing for everybody I'm really glad that you shared that because you I think better than most people know about that power imbalance between landlords and tenants and you know we need to make sure that we are empowering people and we're talking about housing for all and I'm so glad that so many candidates running in 2020 are actually bringing up this issue elevating it and Bernie Sanders thankfully released a phenomenal plan that is a housing for all plan that could potentially end homelessness so it's really nice to really see this issue take front and center in the election and it's so important but I mean it's not it's not the only issue that you're running on you have a pretty robust platform and what's really remarkable to me is that so many candidates running for congress their platforms are more comprehensive than most presidential candidates which is mind-blowing but it kind of just goes to show that like you guys running for congress you care more about policy than most politicians who are just career minded you know who want to advance their own career so talk about some of the other things that are at the top of your list in terms of what you think you'd be able to accomplish or what you'd fight for in that first year in the event you're elected so we we went over Medicare for all single payer in New Jersey we pay the fifth highest in the country for health insurance it'll see the average New Jersey in around three thousand dollars a year you know the Green New Deal is top part of our platform because we have to beat the climate crisis like we have enemies at our doorsteps trying to invade and destroy our homes and anti-corruption provisions which an American Anti-Corruption Act which could be passed through congress and actually end the stranglehold of lobbyists I want to end hunger we can end hunger by feeding people I want to create thousands of indoor hydroponic or aquaponic vertical farms that will produce organic food we have to really rethink our food bill our farm bill and for New Jersey in particular it's about a billion dollar a year industry where the top producers of different fruits and vegetables here we have almost a million acres of farmland and so to me what we really have to do is invest in sustainable organic farming our current food bill actually subsidizes corn and cotton and I don't know when the last time anybody cotton was but it does not belong in a food bill you know we actually do not subsidize organic farming it counts for less than 1% of our farm bill and our investments there and we have to change that because you know organic farming is pesticide free and to reduce the costs indoor vertical farming essentially allows you to use no pesticides because it's an indoor contained environment and if we construct fees across the country they can be communally owned create thousands of community jobs so we can feed the people who need it the most and we can also provide low cost organic food for everybody so everybody wins so that's another part of our platform there's so many things like we have to spend disability rights we have to fight for digital privacy rights I believe in regulating cryptocurrencies and clarifying tax issues there you know and also free public college of course we need that and canceling student loan debt because if we want to be competitive on a world stage we have to have a well educated workforce and to really in debt like 50 million Americans and tie them to this like sometimes 6 figure student loan debts is unacceptable to me I mean personally I have student loans as well my wife and I have them and you know we're really lucky that we were able to we're able to afford like a lot of things of modern life but I just think that it's a drain on the economy and if we unlock that economic potential by forgiving the student loan debt and canceling it fully then we'll have an insanely an insane economic boost in the next few years which pays for itself over a decade yeah that's really encouraging to hear I totally agree with the student loan thing I have student loan debt that if it were canceled I can guarantee I would stimulate the economy and I think a lot of millennials would agree with that so it's an economic stimulus that we desperately need and just to allow millennials like our generation to have that economic mobility or start at like just less burden even I mean that in and of itself would be remarkable so you are running against someone who I think is a political behemoth Frank Pallone he's really one of the worst I think a lot of people know about Frank Pallone who watch this show but if they don't tell us why you think Frank Pallone needs to be primaried I think that you have a lot of things to go off of but like in your mind what's like the top reasons why you think he should be primaried and I love that in your ad you hit him for all the financial contributions that he takes but what do you think it is about Frank Pallone that makes him unable to represent his constituents adequately so honestly in my opinion our election our primary is probably in the top four or five most important elections in the country and that's because Frank Pallone chairs the energy and commerce committee in the house so he's the chairman and a lot of people don't really understand what powers a chairman of a committee has so anyone can introduce a bill to the house floor but then it's assigned to a specific committee with jurisdiction the energy and commerce committee has jurisdiction of about 60% of all the legislation that passes through the house of representatives so bills like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal they both wind up in his committee and he has been actively blocking those bills he had a hearing on health insurance in June and did not even bring the Medicare for All bill H.R. 1384 you know the Jayapal proposal he did not even bring that to the hearing he did not bring it to the committee and it's essentially going to be stopped there forever he took $1 million from the pharmaceutical industry and the health insurance lobbies last cycle alone and they're still funding his elections he will never ever pass Medicare for All and he will be the person in power that can effectively stop it even if we have Bernie Sanders in the White House he can stop Medicare for All through his committee he could stop the Green New Deal from his committee as well he has actually I think he might have the sole jurisdiction over the Green New Deal bill if we propose one and he actually has proposed his own essentially do nothing plan 100% carbon neutral by 2050 which we know will be about 20 years too late and it will allow for natural gas investments to continue for the next 30 years and that's not something that our planet can take that's not something that we can compromise on we have to end the investments in fossil fuels and he's taking a million dollars over the course of his career from the fossil fuel industry so fundamentally because he takes this money and because of his position he will never ever give any votes for the progressive ideals that we want to fight for and replacing him on the energy and commerce committee would be hugely instrumental to passing a progressive platform in 2020 and beyond and I honestly believe anyone who takes fossil fuel money deserves a primary challenge because they will not regulate the fossil fuel companies the way that we need to in the next few years and you know if we really care about these progressive ideals which we really do we have to replace the corporate democrats that will propose the ground do nothing half ass solutions and so that's really important to our district as well we have many miles like 30 miles of coastline in our district and the climate crisis is going to destroy our homes we literally have houses a few feet from the Atlantic Ocean we have houses a few feet from bay areas rising sea levels is very concerning for the people here and his recent town hall almost every single person asked him one of two questions will you support Medicare for all or will you support the Green New Deal and his answer was no a thousand times blaming it on the Republicans blaming it on his donors that are going to run ads against him he called Medicare for all socialism he is afraid of the very people that have run his campaign he is afraid of their campaign ads calling him a socialist for Medicare for all they called Obamacare socialism that argument doesn't hold any water when we have 45,000 people in our district alone without health insurance so we are fighting for Medicare for all the Green New Deal is the two most important issues for our district and we are going to replace him in June 2020 so I am excited that's great and I wanted to ask you because like anyone who is in that district there is no way that they enjoy putting up with him like this is a fairly blue district like you don't have to put up with someone who is this conservative this right wing quite frankly and everyone in the country they really have a vested interest in seeing you succeed because this is something that doesn't just affect that district that you are living in I mean it certainly affects you the most but I mean if he is a barrier to Medicare for all then absolutely we all have to coalesce around your campaign and get him out of office but what I wanted to ask you was what do you think it would take because you are not taking corporate cash and he is so he is going to have that monetary advantage what do you think it would take to make you viable in 2020 because I know you are knocking on a lot of doors but how much do you think you would have to raise in order to be competitive to be competitive if we raise $150,000 we will definitely be extremely competitive and if we go up to $300,000 then I think that we are going to win the election because we have a district that is pretty wide right so it traces the coastal shoreline very narrowly so it is geographically long but we do have urban areas we have very dense urban areas but we can win with really not much money and this is a safe democratic district the cook rating is like plus nine so there is really no reason for our representative to be taking this corporate cash especially because he wins against the Republicans every single year in like almost in five figures or six figures ahead in votes so yeah basically we don't need that much money but we definitely need a little bit we have campaign staff volunteers right now I am now on part time at my job to dedicate to at least four days a week plus every week night to our campaign so we are hitting the ground running though starting in right after this November 5th election which is just a few days away I kind of feel like every single primary challenger will win hands down if every voter knows about you because I think that the pitch that you are making it makes sense it is going to resonate with people it is just a matter of will people actually know who you are or will they just vote based on name recognition what is the response that you have gotten from constituents because I can't imagine that in a deep blue district like that they are too happy with Frank Pallone no so they are not every single person that I speak to are very excited about the Green New Deal how it is a jobs program how it is going to save our planet and also Medicare for all makes a lot of sense for most people who have dealt with health issues so people are very responsive here I think our district pulls extremely well with all of our progressive ideas and I mean this district deserves to be represented by somebody with bold policy platforms that will stand up to the billionaire class and that is what I am fighting for we have to stand up to those in power and demand equality and justice for everybody in our district there is so many people that work on the minimum wage here almost 100,000 people and that is why I believe in a loving wage raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour plus indexed to inflation because if we want to stimulate the economy that is the best way to do it which is really interesting I think just yesterday there has been a study on the New York City minimum wage increase to $15 an hour in the restaurant industry and they found that it is actually increased employment and increased restaurant spending so it is a boom on the economy if we raise the minimum wage our minimum wage in New Jersey is going up to $15 an hour in 2024 but I think that I don't even think that is enough for that time period and why are we waiting until 2024 which should just be happening now so yeah all of our issues are very popular so challenging incumbent the establishment people know them very well but I still have conversations with them and a lot of people that are even elected officials have shown like respect they are basically like they respect what we are doing because we deserve a primary we deserve options this is a democracy and the more options the better and so people everywhere have been responding well to our campaign so it is very challenging to hear let me ask you this because if you are elected we already know that you will be one of the main targets of Donald Trump of Fox News you will be a member of the squad a new member of the squad round 2 you will be deemed a socialist possibly a communist by Fox News what do you do to basically push through that noise and still fight for an agenda and on top of that how do you basically push back against internal fighting to try to get you to soften your stance on a number of issues so the internal infighting will be very interesting because that is what I am really worried about I think that we are going to win the presidency I think that democrats are going to win the senate and the house but I am really afraid of the centrist corporate democrats being the ones with the range of power and it is going to be another Obama rehash where we don't get much done where we pretty much stall and every single working populist platform is pretty much pretty much catapulted into non-existence really I mean we need to get the anti-corruption reform passed that is a very big priority and I actually intend on being very aggressive against republicans I want to be firing the first shots against them instead of being always on the defense I think that is very powerful with Donald Trump against Donald Trump and republicans because we have to put them on the back foot and really make them defend their positions because we have the popular platforms we are calling for good jobs we are calling for unions we are calling for saving the planet we are calling for healthcare for all what are they arguing for healthcare for less the right to work laws must be abolished I think so I am going to be one of the biggest anti-corruption democrats calling out even people in our own party who take that money especially when they won't vote for working class reforms like a higher minimum wage and I am going to be bringing the fight to republicans too on their doorsteps Bernie Sanders actually recently said that he is going to be holding rallies in other districts against whoever won't vote against the things we want to get done like the Green New Deal and I intend on doing a similar thing I will rally in somebody else's district working people and make sure they feel the public pressure I want to help organizing everywhere I don't want to just this is really about the movement this is not about us this is about our movement here we are building this movement in New Jersey because progressives have been really scattered across the state but we are actually really building coalitions across the board so that is important to do in our state we are going to start here first and then we are going to keep bringing it in empowering other people to organize I think is the most important thing that we can do because I believe in leading from behind I believe in I don't want the spotlight I want this to be people's movement and we have to empower each other and work together everywhere I love that answer because when I ask that question occasionally to candidates I am going to fight them I am going to fight Republicans I am going to fight Democrats I am going to call them out because advocating for policies that is incredibly important in and of itself but we need people who are going to get in there and crack schools so I always try to see if I can get that sense from a candidate and the fact that you affirm that you are winning hands down so I want you to make your pitch because basically this is about name recognition if people know about you in New Jersey 6th congressional district you win I think hands down it is just the matter of getting the name out there and unfortunately the reality is you need money to do that so tell us what we can do to help you where we can donate and how we can get involved with your campaign because I think anyone who is watching this will be convinced and they are going to want to help you out there is a really good website with all of our policies there it is Russ for us 2020.com R-U-S-S-F-O-R-U-S 2020.com there is a volunteer form there where we are looking for volunteers across the country we need help online organizing and also giving the message out more so definitely sign up there there is a donate link there we definitely appreciate any contributions because we are grassroots where people funded and so about me I have the experience as a legislator as well so we need a legislator we also need a public advocate so being like a public interest attorney fighting for the common good I have drafted laws in New York that have passed that protect tenants from manufactured homes so I have experience as a legislator and we definitely need more good guy attorneys in Congress good guy lawyers that have the back of the people I was a waiter for almost a decade through college and through law school working 40 hours a week so I have been there on the working struggle and the working class struggle I have worked alongside immigrants and other college students and moms and people of all types so that is really why I have a fundamental belief the fundamental beliefs that I have here where we need a working class movement we need unions, we need higher minimum wages and you know our movement is about continuing the work of the people here we are continuing the work that Bernie Sanders is doing we are linking up with everyone we are building power here and we appreciate any contribution of course but this moment in time is the most important ever because right now our future selves are watching us and we are going to ask ourselves when the Amazon was on fire when California was on fire when there were massive hurricanes everywhere what were we doing to stop it to fight it to bring a new movement to clean up our environment and now is the time to be involved it doesn't have to be very very dedicated if you can spare a few hours a week every campaign locally you can definitely use the help thank you so much for having me here and our campaign is super important nationally and we need all the help we can get because we are a small team right now we have raised about $15,000 but we are only about 10% of the way where we have to be so we are going to win Bernie Sanders is going to win progressive movements are going to win and it might as well be you right now in the next election you are watching this nose it's not even a debate you are hands down better than Frank Palone and I'm confident with all of these people I was telling Russ before we started that for the first time I actually feel a little bit optimistic just because there are so many great candidates running for congress so my cynical heart is starting to grow a little bit not too much but a little bit just seeing everyone get involved so let's help Russ help us let's get him elected and hopefully change the country Russ, thank you so much for coming on you're welcome Mike, thank you for having me and good night everybody