 Hello, everyone. I am here with Dr. Michael Owens. He is running to represent Georgia's 13th congressional district. He's been endorsed by brand new Congress, and he is the former chairman of Cobb County Democrats. Michael, thank you so much for coming on the program or should I say Dr. Owens, thank you so much for coming on the program. Michael's absolutely fine. And I'm happy to be here today. It's a great opportunity to come on to your show and talk about my district, my candidacy and how we need to have change and how that's resonating across the district, across the state and ultimately across the country. Absolutely. And we can't begin the interview without sending a shout out to my viewer Sam, who highly, highly recommended Dr. Owens, who is going to be voting for you and is very enthusiastic about it. So I looked over your campaign website. Your platform is incredible. It's so robust. And this is really the case for a lot of people running for Congress. And also your resume is just stacked to the core. So tell us a little bit about yourself and why you decided to run for Congress. Yeah. So I mean, I mean, first and foremost, the reason I decided to run for Congress is it's really simple. We need people in Congress that's willing to represent the people. And I mean that in the most earnest of ways. We know, we see where we've gone with corporations coming in, where lobbying is just out of control. And, you know, corporate shareholder value continues to increase, increase while individual, you know, ownership in homes and stocks and just basic day-to-day living is struggling. So, you know, my reason for running is really, you know, you got the capacity and capability to go out there and make change, step up, you know, speak up and go do it. And that's what, you know, that's what my campaign is really about. You know, myself, my background, you mentioned that I was the former chairman of the Democratic Party in Cobb County. And it's true. And I'm proud of that, right? We took over an organization and that was, that was relatively small and and built it through building a wide coalition of people and led on progressive values up front, unapologetic, and really to gather people around the momentum that's been building. And we're able to do that. We're able to build the largest Democratic committee in the state of Georgia. And it says a lot. In fact, that wasn't the that's literally the heart of the GOP in Georgia. You know, it's the home of Johnny Isaacson, Senator Isaacson, and Newt Gingrich, and Tom Price, and, you know, going going back before that. So the fact that we've been able to build something, you know, through this big coalition, leading with progressive values is what also let me know and give me kind of a firsthand idea of really what's going on on the ground. You know, I spent a lot of time working to help in the sixth congressional district to get that district flipped. You remember back with the John Ossoff election, and then ultimately with Lucy Macbeth, now Congresswoman, Lucy Macbeth, and really just doing the work on the ground. I mean, working the grassroots and, you know, having the ability to be an elected member of the party, but at the same time, having someone who's firmly, you know, continue to have a foot in the grassroots and in the community, and seeing how we can truly meld those together and understand, you know, this, you know, the calling that people were really, really clamoring for. So when you look at my platform, that platform is really about me. It's things that I care about. It's things that people in our district that talk about, the things we talk about every single day. And, you know, we have to start it off with a conversation around healthcare, right? And the fact that people are struggling throughout the district, throughout this country. And, you know, I just having a fundamental belief that healthcare is a right. And it's something that, you know, I say from the cradle to the grave, and every single day in between, we have to make sure that we have the basic dignity of having healthcare. But if you look at, you know, the rest of my platform, it really rounds out things that are really core and key to me. And things that are key and really people in our district really talk about a lot. You know, my, I do have a background in cyber security. I work cyber security now and national security, it's kind of, that's my trade. I'm an IT guy by trade that really kind of came up through the ranks and started working in cyber and started doing international policy, mainly through data privacy and cyber security policy. And so, you know, I know that in today's age, we're really missing that in Congress. Look, when I'm elected, I'll say when I'm elected to Congress, I'll be the first person in Congress that actually has a working background in cyber security. And I can't tell you how important that is now with the fact that we're facing threats internally, domestically, internationally, like we've never seen before. And it's important we have people that can talk about those things and at the same time be able to connect issues like national security to climate change, right? And then tie that to environmental justice. And then tie environmental justice to, you know, criminal and social justice and how it's impacting people on the ground every single day. And, you know, my district is fairly unique. It's the southwest portion of Atlanta, Metro Atlanta area, covers six counties. And I know from, again, working on the ground, working in the community, the challenge that they have, you know, and, you know, we're talking to districts where, you know, we have some of the highest rates of uninsured people in the country in some aspects in the state of Georgia. And, you know, we have some pockets within our district where people are doing well. And we have pockets within our district where people aren't doing very well at all. I got some counties to where we just got public transportation just this past year. And, you know, there's arguments and discussions between, you know, those that may lean left and lean right about, you know, the growth and how do we grow? How do we expand within a district? And then the last thing is really around the fact that we have a congressman who is not meeting the needs of our district. And I don't know, you know, how much more straightforward than I can say than that. You know, we're talking about a congressman who's been in office for, I says 2002, and, you know, continues to do the bidding of corporate PACs and lobbyists and has not, you know, been on the side of where we need to be, you know, and someone who doesn't live in our district. So when you don't live in our district and you're not supported by the people, but instead you're supported by the corporate PACs, then I'm not surprised when it comes time to vote that you're not voting in the best interest always of our people. And, you know, I don't want to come on your show and disparage, you know, a sitting congressman. But at the same time, we have to call out the reason when you ask me why I'm running. That is obviously part of why I'm running. If I felt that we were being served and the people of our district and Sam and others were actually being served, I wouldn't be running. You know, there's a, I've got a great career in cyber security and national security. I think I'm doing, you know, I'm providing service to our country, to our, to our environment. So I'm happy, very happy with what I'm doing. But when I look at the work that our congressman is doing, I look at the fact how, you know, he isn't engaging. We haven't had a public town hall in over 10 years. So that kind of starts to tell you just a level of disconnect. As I talk to, you know, state representatives and county commissioners and mayors throughout our district, they don't have any type of relationship with our congressman. And I fundamentally think that's wrong. I think if we're truly, you know, going on to enhance the work that some of our really good local elected officials are doing, we have to amplify that and build those connections between local government or national government so it can truly work for everybody. And that's not happening right now. And so, you know, that's a large part of what I want to do is, is work as that, as that bridge. But at the same time, bring in these new bold, big ideas that, that, and not be afraid to stand on those, you know, or not be encumbered because of corporate checks, right, that will not allow me to stand up and talk about how we need to work and want renewables, right? Or how we need to stand up to big pharma and make sure that, you know, we're getting drug costs under control. It's hard to do that when you're getting thousands and hundreds of thousands, sometimes with dollars, from these corporate entities. So, you know, I haven't accepted a single diamond in corporate PAC money I don't plan to. You know, I know where my support is and it's clearly on the ground. It's with the people and that's the work we're going to do to continue to go out and, you know, and work to win this race. And you're so different because you really understand, and a lot of people who are running, endorsed by Brand New Congress and otherwise, that when you run for Congress, you're serving the people and apathy in and of itself from people who are sitting members of Congress, that is bad. But the problem isn't just that they're apathetic, seemingly, it's that they're moving in the wrong direction and one portion of your platform that I really admire is you have an emphasis on foreign policy. And what I see with Democrats is they're shifting to the right and I find that incredibly terrifying to be frank because I mean with the Iraq war we saw some opposition from Democrats for the most part, but increasingly they've become more militaristic and you say pretty bluntly, you know, no, we're not going to do this. We're going to immediately stop funding Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, which is murdering children. So can you talk a little bit about foreign policy and what someone like you would be able to do to kind of shift the Overton window back to the left, at least with regard to the Democratic Party? Yeah, I think that's very important and the fact that that I have it as one of my one of my key elements in my platform shows you just how committed I am to that, but I also wanted to put it there as a spotlight, right, to talk about some of the atrocities going on and you know, we are now 18 years into this war in Afghanistan. You know, there are going to be voters going to be going to the polls in November who we've been at war their entire life. I'm a third generation Marine Corps veteran and I couldn't be any more proud of it. I'm happy of the service. I still can see to serve in many ways and I think I do think it's important that veterans that are on the left, veterans are our Democrats, they speak up, right? Those of us particularly that work in counterterrorism, international affairs that work in cybersecurity, it's important that we stand up and have a platform to be able to talk on. So, you know, I was I was fortunate enough to go to the Army Work College last year and went through their national security seminar and, you know, I was able to work with with Lieutenant Kernels and Kernels from across the country and we were able to talk about these national security issues, right, and our national policies and, you know, being someone that's firmly from the left to be able to talk about those issues, you know, but still remain firm that I'm a Democrat and but I can, you know, we've had a long time where I think those from the right has led those conversations when it comes to foreign affairs and national security, even to the point to where you have Democrats that somehow wind up echoing those same Republican talking points and we absolutely have to stop that, you know, I make it very clear with people, you know, my military service was a cornerstone of who part of what made me who I am, but I always believe in leading with diplomacy. So, you know, my foreign policy positions is yes, we should have a strong military, we should have a very capable military, I still think the military does a great job at developing technology and having great platforms in which people can learn trades and all the rest, but when it comes to the idea of committing our troops overseas to potentially die, we've got to raise the bar on what that means, you know, so I think about that a lot, so when I talk about, you know, us making sure that we lead with diplomacy as our first stance on foreign engagement, that's what we have to do. Secondly, and which may be even more important, is that we have to understand who our allies are and who our adversaries are and then treat them as such, and I think we've lost it somewhere along the way, I know from the White House, it's a huge problem right now, but you see that going downstream from there, we have to be very clear about our trade and how that impacts different elements in the world. One of the largest things I think that I see and when I talk to people in the district when foreign affairs or national security comes up, a lot of times discussions around interventionalism, that's what it really boils down to, right? When, where, how, and why do we get involved in different conflicts, skirmishes, flat out wars in different parts of the world, and what we've seen for years now is that it's not always on a consistent basis, right? You know, we engage in certain parts of the world where there may be humanitarian issues, in other parts of the world where there's flat out genocide going on, we do absolutely nothing, and the vast majority of the time it usually ends up being, is there a natural resource there that we want, or what's the color of someone's skin? And we absolutely have to get away from that, so when I talk about, you know, immediately ending that funding about the Saudis in the Yemen War, we had an opportunity to do that. We had an opportunity, and we had five Democrats that decided to vote the Republicans to keep that going on, and unfortunately, my opponent, Congressman David Scott, was one of those five, so again, it's one of those, one of those situations where I've got to step up and do something, and I've got to call it out, and I've got to make it kind of a key component to my platform when I'm talking about natural security specifically. And it's great because people like you are shifting the Overton window, which is so necessary, and what really stood out to me was when Ilhan Omar recently denounced US imperialism, like the response that she got, people were so shocked, and they were taking it back like, oh wow, a sitting member of Congress actually said this, and to be at a point where that's shocking shows how much work we have to put in, so it's just step by step, you know, elected member by elected member one at a time, getting them in power and making sure that we really change the way that we think about wars, you know, there's no humanitarian wars and US interventionism, it's not about helping people, it's about, you know, boosting profits, you know, it's a capitalist machine, so I'm really glad that you're running and you're kind of putting that front and center and every kind of candidate so far, and I'm not saying that this is kind of your main issue, that I've talked to, they kind of have like one thing, and they make it the cornerstone of their campaign based on their life experiences, so if you kind of have like one issue that is your top issue, even though there's a number of things that I know you support, what would you say is kind of like your priority just personally? Yeah, you know, that's really hard to answer, because if you put it in the context of my personal life experience and relate that to my platform, you know, it really does have to be centered around, you know, foreign policy and cyber security specifically, because that's the area I work in, and you know, and understanding kind of where we are now, and we have, you know, we have domestic threats, we obviously have China and Iran and Russia, and you know, we're facing threats today like we've never seen before. I throw out a statistic a lot of time around kind of what's going on and that if you add up from a pure monetary transactional perspective, more money is stolen through cyber theft every year than it is through every drug transaction that happens in this country, you know, so when you think about in that context cyber crime is everywhere, right, just rampant nowadays, but people don't react to it the same way, because my next question is usually how many people do you know that's been arrested or indicted or gone to jail for cyber crime? Almost no one's hand goes up, but you turn around and go who do you know that's been indicted, arrested, and gone to jail for a drug charge? Almost everyone's hands go up, so even with that you can see it's not not a monetary thing, it's not a criminal activity driven thing, you know, so I tie the cyber crime back to you know coupling that with you know the the ability that we have to go into a scenario where we have to stop locking everyone up, right, we have to end this field war on drugs, and we have to understand that that is not the largest threat that we face today for 25 years people have been saying that we've got to we've got to do something about this drug problem, we've got to lock these criminals up, we throw away the keys, we've built supermax prisons where we lock people up more than anywhere else in the face of the world, and even within my district, I have a county in my district, that if you just took that county per kappa it would be one of the top five places in the world that people get locked up, not the country but the world, and you know so things like that happen we know there's you know we know there's there's there's an issue around racism that comes with that, we know there's profiling that happens with that, we know there's disproportionate sentencing that occurs that that's going on occurring, and you know so it's another reason why I started off by saying you know what we've got to de-schedule marijuana you know we've got to stop locking up you know kids and throwing away the key that's putting more pressure on on mothers and grandmothers and Tia's and as well as that are out there, right, so we have to make sure that you know we're stopping those things, you know I call for you know to even go into ensuring that we're stopping cash bail, right, we no longer use that because you know when it really boils down to it cash bill as simple as this, it is you know the amount of money you have in the bank determines how long you stay in jail and that's fundamentally wrong, right, so you know what I look to do is I look to weave and tie these things together um so my platform when I look at it it's not you know single pillars when I really look at it is things that weave, truly weave together to make this you know the the fabric of our country a better place and that's that's really how I formulated my platform I really sat down and said Michael what are the things that are most important to you, what are the things that you could change, where to you know in a what heels are you willing to go die on, you know, how what are those things that are truly truly passionate to you and and that's you know that's really where it came from so you know if it was really personal to me it's just where I feel I can help, you know it would have to be starting with getting people to understand the actual threats that we have that are facing us today in cyber security and understanding that it's not just you know some kid in their grandmother's basement right trying to hack into their school we're talking about we now have nation states um that are funding full blown cyber operations that are looking at you know attacking our electrical grid our water treatment facilities um you know that are that are starting to become invasive in in the healthcare field where ransomware now is taken off to where they're they're literally locking you know health practitioners out of all their medical records so now you have people in hospital beds that you know you got between two and four hours and people may start dying because of a cyber hack you know you have things like pacemakers and insulin pumps because on one hand it's great that we're putting you know we're having IP addresses and we're basically putting everything online for microwaves and TVs but we're also putting those pacemakers and we're also putting those insulin pumps on wi-fi so once you do that it becomes hackable you know um so you know think about think about the fact you combine ransomware with you know wi-fi enabled pacemakers that's that's a pretty scary thought right you get an email and they go hey i just hacked your pacemaker you know send me you know x amount of dollars or i'm going to shut it off um so you know i try to have too many doom and gloom around it but what i try to do is emphasize the fact of where we really are today in the day society and the threats that we're facing and the fact that congress isn't prepared for it we have members of congress who you know who are still using flip phones they you know they uh they don't understand the challenges that that are there today so you know if it was it was really me talking about you know somewhere where i could immediately have impact and where i could take on some of the challenge today and really really help we've all seen you know those segments where you know someone comes into to congress for a hearing you have congress people that are trying to ask questions about the internet and about you know the cloud and about you know cyber security and they just can't get the questions right because they fundamentally don't understand the technology or the threats that are facing us so you know that's one area where obviously because of my background you know like i was i was in Ukraine a year and a half ago i think uh working with the Ukrainian government working with people from the state department talking about the challenges and issues that Ukraine was facing then when Russia was shutting down their electrical grid and you know so i also i got to meet the our our ambassador to Ukraine at the time and it was a great opportunity to go over there but to truly understand how much of global epidemic it is and then to see threats that come out of Eastern Europe and how they make their way across the country right so those are automatically things we have to talk about and then i dovetail that can straight into election security election integrity right and how you know it's part of our democracy and uh and we're still not prepared for it you know um we still need federal level oversight i think and i would propose when it comes to election security as a whole is that you know federal government really got to get together lay out some guidelines lay out some mandates about how our elections should be handled and it's not simply about election machines we get a lot of talk about you know hackable election machines and go into paper ballots which is great from a from a from a stop gap perspective but i really look at the entire election ecosystem right from the because going back to paper ballots if anyone goes back and once you remember back to 2000s you know you'll find paper ballots in in the back of semi trucks two weeks two months after the elections occur right so um we know that can't be the solution we've got to continue to push past that and so that means we've really got to take election security really seriously i think we can get there but i also want to push forward you know part of things i would like to see is you know as as as those of us that are left they're talking about disenfranchisement or talking about voter suppression uh tactics i really want to push the other way and i want to go i want to make you know election i want to make voting more more accessible to everyone and not just through more polling locations you know or more or more weeks that you have early voting i literally want to get to where every single person is able to vote from their phone right so we can get we can get voting voting participation rates up to you know 80 90 percent 95 percent because when it's there and we can actually do that um that's the that's the opportunities we're going to have and we know already is that when more people have an opportunity to go out and vote you're bringing you're bringing more people into the electorate right more people are having their say so what's most more important to democracy than having more people actually able to vote i think we can get there i know we have the technology in place their security parameters that need to be put in place but we can do that um so i want to challenge us i want to challenge our congress i want to challenge this country to truly become more democratic by making sure we're getting more people involved and we're utilizing technology we can do look we're doing today with you know nanosecond transactions on wall street you know we're doing it with everybody that uses um a credit card or or debit card every single day um you know so we have the capability to do it we just need people again that's going to be pretty courageous about it and willing to step up and and make those changes and who know what they're talking about because when you um brought up the example of members of congress questioning you know um tech CEOs it's just it's so hilariously sad that they don't know what they're talking about and when i hear all this conversation about like election interference in the mainstream media how is the conversation not about increasing cyber security like it doesn't make any sense to me so there needs to be people like you who understand you know technology and are really aware of these things and i think that really you know widening the scope of this conversation because i hadn't considered the thought of you know interfering with someone's pacemaker and hacking that that's that's horrifying you know my dad has a pacemaker so that is a horrifying thought so absolutely we should be talking about that so you are bringing something so fresh so unique to the table and i know the people who are watching are going to be on board with you so tell us what we can do to help you get elected if we're in your state what can we do to volunteer if we're out of state how can we help you yeah you know so um so you know the first thing is raising awareness right i mean you know you and i talked about the fact that you know i've been endorsed by brand new congress i'm super i'm still really excited about that because what we're able to do is you know it is it is a measure where you know expression for those that are fighting you know entrenched incumbents uh to raise that awareness about what's going on and let people know that there are people with fresh ideas with bold ideas that are in this race that are passionate to make a difference so first and foremost is raising that awareness get online you know go to my website www.owensforcongress.com uh go to my twitter you know twitter handle at um owensforga13 and and first of all just amplify it just put it out there i mentioned the fact that we're not taking any uh corporate pack money i think that's just absolutely wrong i've told people time and time again i can't talk about being a change agent if i'm willing to do the same things that that's propping my my opponent then come it up right now so fundamentally we have to do things different i mentioned before i know where our strength is our strength is out there with the people and that's ultimately how we're going to win this race so you know donations of five dollars you know 20 dollars 100 dollars whatever that is helps i know you know at through running this race and looking at at at where the money is coming from where donors are coming from it's unfortunate we'd love all love to get this money out of politics i'd love nothing more you know then then have a public public option when it comes to um campaigning i think that would level the playing field a lot uh you know in a race such as mine where you know the incumbent literally had 11 individual donors you know at the time i think i had over 500 600 individual donors at the time he had 11 individual donors and not a single one of those donors from what was within the district think about that he's been in he's been in congress since 2002 and he has not had a single person donate not a single human from within this district donate that is problematic and it's it's it's it speaks loudly and clearly about where we are if someone like me can be considered an underdog who's been twice elected as a county party chairman who's worked on the ground that helped you know flip seats in in red districts you know someone who's worked to flip seats at at um at state house state senate city council but i'm considered an underdog by someone who doesn't live in their district and don't receive a single dime of funding from within their district something is inherently wrong with that system so what i would do is i would ask everyone that's watching everyone that's out there um you know help be a part of this change help be a part of team owens and you know go out there and make a donation uh follow us on on twitter instagram you know share a post uh donate what you can become a reoccurring donor you know a little bit every single month helps and then uh for those of you all there in the district sure drop us drop us a few coins but you know then get out there with us on the weekends you know tell your families your friends your neighbors you know people to go to church with about the campaign um i'm accessible you know people call me on my cell phone all the time uh speak with a member of the team go to our website and sign up the volunteer you know we've got a lot of things going on we're going to be knocking on on thousands and thousands of doors between now and may 19th so we're going to you know we're going to need that energy on the ground i know what it's like i've worked to flip six before um i know how to do it i know what it takes to to make it happen and i know that we can win this race this is not you know this race is not a protest against the party um you know i i'm a member of the party and i'm proud of it i just i have a different view you know and those core tenets around around healthcare believing you know proudly standing up for Medicare for all and and having no doubt that's the way and no one that we have to do standing up for a minute for a living wage and making sure that we absolutely have to have it i can stand on these things you know where as my opponent is is mainly known for having a a health fair once a year it's a one-time event and i say you know a health fair is great but we don't need health fair we need health care you know public option is not the answer we need Medicare for all he's also known for having again an annual job fair where once a year you you bring in a lot of people and you know you host a job fair you have people bringing in resumes and and that to me is even that in itself is kind of archaic because you know have this thing today called the internet you can just email in a resume you don't have to take off your work or you don't have to get on a bus or drive down to another part of the district to turn in a resume to someone who doesn't even have any job openings available you know so I don't want to I don't want to get endated with having health I mean health fairs or job fairs you know I want to make sure that every single person in my district has health care and I want to make sure that we're bringing actual jobs into the district not that we're having a health fair you know around jobs that don't even exist I want to make sure we're bringing in high paying good quality jobs and also make sure that we're raising the born educational opportunities within our district you know we want to make sure that I you know I'm a proud graduate of of an HBCU I also went to Georgia Tech which is which is right here in the area and I want to make sure that you know schools like that have an opportunity to reach students in my district and I think it would I would be remiss if I didn't talk a little bit about the fact of where we are with student loans and the debt crisis that's going on around that and the fact that you know we've got to have a way out of that I want to see more students be able to stay in our district and go to a quality college and not be saddled in debt when they come out and you know and make sure that you know these these credit card companies stay away from our students you know in college to make sure that you know we're not saddling debt forever because it becomes an intergenerational thing you know when you saddle with debt coming out of college you know when about five years out when you should be buying your house instead you're dealing with a ballooning you know interest rate and ballooning payments that comes with that with those student loans so instead of buying that house you know five years out of school sometimes it's 10 it's 15 years you know and you still have student debt but you know what happens is that that 10 years that goes by where you could be building solid equity within your home which we know is one of the largest determinants of asset management asset wealth right we aren't doing that you know and that's directly hurting our districts primarily in minority majority districts like ours where you know the vast majority of people are still renting we've got to find a way for people to have home ownership this has gone back you know all the way back to the 60s with redlining and everything else and we've got to break down those barriers right and people ask me like hey you know what's the difference between being a being just a democrat and being a progressive and you know I say I view myself as both and I don't I don't see contradiction between the two but I do see a difference because you know as democrats for a long time we've said you know give us affirmative action give us quotas give us give us the ability that if we work really hard you know and as and as black people or as Latinos if we work twice as hard if we save twice as much if we do those things to stay out of trouble we will have a shot and you know I'm here to say that's not where we are anymore we've passed that you know we have to work as as progressives to say we have to tear down these institutional barriers that stand in our way right home ownership is one of those you know ensuring that you know we tear down these these institutions or instruction instrumental biases that are there within the court system that they're within a judicial system you know these biases are going we've got to tear those down so we're no longer asking for quotas we're no longer asking for to just give us a shot we're saying tear down those boundaries level the playing field we've got to talk about equality and equity so we can all start off from the same foot and then we move forward and that's where we have to push you so we talk about bold ideas you know we're not going to fault anybody for having a silver spoon in their mouth we realize that that's the case but but give us a fair shot as we go through and that silver spoon shouldn't determine you know my outlook on life so you know that's really the big thing and where I look at it is we've got to start tearing we've have to tear down those boundaries we have to invest in our schools we have to invest in our teachers you know I fully support making sure that our teachers you know not only earn a decent wage but we actually restore the dignity that our teachers you know the the the professors right that those folks that are literally training our next generation we've got to restore their place in society and you know far too often we've got to go back to the trades you know to apprenticeships supporting our unions and making sure that you know just because someone doesn't go to a four-year university they're not seen as a failure right we're making sure that we have opportunities for those kids who either never went off off to a four-year school or that for whatever reason didn't finish but we've got to make sure that there's room for them as well you know it falls right into our jobs or economic or economic platform total economic reform around that so there's so many things to get into because I think we've just marginalized our working class so much and we see this disparity growing more and more and more you know back back to the you know the quintessential cliche of the haves and the have-nots and we fundamentally have to do something about that so you know I can tell you at a core level that's what my campaign is about so many members that are that are on the 2020 slate with me with with brand new congress and congressmen to cause their Cortez you know to you know Albert Lee out in out in Oregon you know there's so many of us across the country that are really fundamentally have this belief that we've got to do this you know we've got to stop this school to prison pipeline there's so many things that we know we have to work on and that's really what it's about and that's why I'm proud to be running I'm proud to have tons of support on the ground already I'm you know we're picking up you know donations and people that are willing to help from all over the country and that's huge to us because we know that's what we need because this race you know is undoubtedly about the constituents within the 13th congressional district it's where I live it's where my children go to school but I also realize it's larger than just a 13th district you know it's also about trying to turn this state blue which we've worked very hard you know and I I'm still you know making that fight with Stacey Abrams right to continue to move forward and make sure that we tear down those boundaries so you know it's about turning this state blue and then ultimately it's about winning these senate seats that we have a U.S. Senate that's coming up in 2020 as well and then ultimately it's about turning and turning uh you know flipping the White House and making sure that we put a Democrat in the White House so you know it goes up and down the ballot the whole way and I think when you have people like me that are running that's already worked on the ground the kind of flipped seats you know I know what I'm going to do when I get elected you know I know how many more people I'm going to help get elected you know from city council to state rep and on on up that is what we have to have we have to have progressives that get elected that is willing to reach that handout and help the next person up that's willing to you know go out there on the stump and and go help you know a fellow Democrat to go get elected that that's running a solid sound platform that's not happening right now you know and when you don't do that you don't build that bench you know and you don't you don't set yourself up for success you know if you look through a party it's unfortunate you know but but we do see a huge gap that's there between our our house leadership and even our Senate leadership and then to to those people who are actually running for office and you know that gap just shouldn't be there and it's not a it's not a agism thing that's not at all where we're going with that but it has to be about staying relevant it has about has to be about staying in tune it has to be about staying relevant and present with what's going on and you know speaking of a first-hand knowledge I can tell you that's not happening within the 13th district of Georgia and our constituents are suffering for it right there they're not getting the representation representation that they need so unfortunately those services that are just there we're getting again we're getting one-day-year events right we're getting job fairs and health fairs instead of actual health care and actual jobs coming into our district so that's what I'm running on you know I hope that you know through this and many other efforts to kind of get my campaign my platform and and kind of my passion about why I'm running to get it out there so ultimately we can win this race we we really have to and I feel like when you talk about the 13th district and what you know David Scott has been doing it seems like people in Georgia's 13th don't have a representative like that's not representation you know once a year events and whatnot so if you live in that district there's no question you know Dr. Michael Owens is the answer one more time before we go tell us the website is www.owensforcongress.com o w e n s f o r congress.com and we'll have that up on the screen as well Dr. Michael Owens thank you so much for coming on it's been a pleasure we'll be following your campaign and we are rooting for you you're welcome thanks a lot I'm happy to be on