 It takes a lot of work to grow. You start with a seed, and then you show up every day and care for it until you have something more. After a few years teaching kids with special needs, I started working on a farm for people leaving homelessness. I believe we have a responsibility to one another as neighbors. I work alongside folks who used to sleep on a sidewalk or in a creek bed. The work we do together is the work of growing. We grow food and we grow community. We listen to each other, we care for each other, and we stand together in hard times. When we come together, we solve our common problems. We all deserve a good life. How come we don't have it? We're up against people who see no reason for change because this system works for them. We're told that politicians know what's best for us, that they speak for us. But we see who is getting rich while we struggle. They're taking away our homes, our health insurance, and our schools. Y'all, we have so much to fight for. The only way forward is shoulder to shoulder. When the poor and the working class have a voice, we make better decisions for our environment, our schools, our government, and our lives. That's why I'm a democratic socialist. We refuse to accept the greed of the wealthy over our own right to health care, shelter, and democracy. We value what each and every one of us brings to the table. We want everyone to live a full and dignified life. I want the good life for all of us. Real free health care, child care, public education that is tuition free, a clear path to citizenship for immigrants, and a justice system that allows us to heal rather than locking us in cages. We will create a green new deal that provides millions of union jobs with living wages, ensuring clean water, food security, and decent housing. A single congresswoman can't fix a broken system alone. This is one fight for every one of us. I grew up outside Dallas. We had a little family garden. When we had extra, we'd knock on our neighbor's doors and share with them, because that's what neighbors do. My name is Heidi Sloan, and I'm running for Congress to bring you into this fight. Hello, everyone. I'm here with Heidi Sloan, who's challenging a Republican incumbent in Texas' 25th congressional district. She is currently competing in a competitive Democratic Party primary, and she's here to tell you why she is the real deal. Heidi, thank you so much for coming on the program. Thanks for having me, Mike. I'm really happy to be here. It's really nice to have you on. I saw your campaign ad. I absolutely loved it. I saw your platform, and it's absolutely immense. It's so robust, and everything that you talk about, it just spoke to my heart. So let me ask you this. You are a farmer. You're an organizer, and you're someone who is a very human-centric candidate. Like, you care about all types of people, and this type of mentality is something that I kind of... It's like a guiding principle for me, because this is the humanist report. So, you know, I care about people. I care about what human beings need. Why did you decide to run for Congress? That is a fabulous question, especially with that background, and I think you're exactly right. Running for Congress certainly wasn't the first thought I had when I began to develop my own politics. Actually, making material change in people's lives was the first thought that I had. I was a public school teacher in a PPCD classroom, which is a classroom for pre-K students of all abilities and also including children with disabilities, for about six years, and learned a lot there in that space about what we can do when we have common ground and common purpose. And then I have been working in supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness for the last eight years. And what that has taught me is honestly not so different. It is that our human needs are overlapping and that the oppression that we experience is interlocking. But the answer to interlocking oppression is always solidarity that we build together, because when we are divided, they being the capitalist class, the millionaires and the billionaires and those who would use us to make profit, they have us on our knees. They have us in a position where we can't even bargain. It is when we stand together that we can address those material conditions. So I like that you bring up capitalism and the effect that it has on people from a really concrete human level. And you can kind of see that reflected in your platform. You are very openly a democratic socialist. I am as well. I think it is the most, you know, it's the most logical conclusion and the most logical ideology in terms of just speaking to human need. And the way that you kind of talk about this, there's a portion of your platform that I find really interesting. So you are proposing a four-day work week, which is also 32 hours. This is what I think more people should talk about, because as human beings, we are just machines. Like we're working. We're getting up, going to these nine to five jobs. And most of our lives are dedicated to, you know, a corporation that doesn't serve us. We're working longer hours for lower wages. So talk about why you think this is important and why we should just have more time to be human beings and to be free. Amazing. Yeah. It brings me back to what I've been reading about in the last couple of weeks that Trump is touting how low the unemployment rate is right now. And when you look at it, the unemployment rate is actually quite low. The number of people with jobs is high, but the wages are not increasing with the cost of living for most people in this country. And so what I see in that is the continuance of this race to the bottom, of making people work longer and longer hours despite increasing technology that should actually be liberating us more and more from not just having one job that costs us 40 hours of our week, but for many people having two or three jobs that when we look at the impact of that amount of work and that continual hustle on individuals and on families, we see the deterioration of our community. We don't have the time to spend with one another to do things like build and grow relationships, let alone the time to organize. And the creation of the permanent underclass and workers who are not necessarily in that class but constantly stuck just trying to make ends meet is a political creation to take away our power. It certainly has material effects, but it also takes the time that we would spend, the energy that we would spend getting to know and care for one another away from us and puts us back depending on working more and more for smaller and smaller or less kept houses for transit that is worse and worse and car rides that are longer and longer to get to jobs that don't pay us where that time, of course. Yeah, and you explained this so beautifully because like the way that I think about this is we are on this planet for what, 80 years or for lucky? And most of that time is spent doing something that we hate going to a job where there's this abusive employer-employee relationship where we are subordinate to a boss who doesn't care about us in a system that isn't really looking out for our interest. It's just about producing capital and capital and capital and more money. But I think that it's important that we really do talk more about this because most people in this country, they don't even realize like they just kind of go on autopilot. I was in the same way where I was working a job that I hated. I was on salary, so I would work like an additional 10 to 15 hours per week and wouldn't get the extra pay for that. So this situation is exploitative and we have to change it because as human beings we can have a better system than capitalism. We can have a system that actually speaks to human need and allows us to flourish and live lives that aren't just horrible, where we're dreading Monday when it's Sunday and dreading going back to work after we finally get a vacation if we're even able to take a vacation. So I like that your campaign really focuses on human need. You talk about your advocacy for the homeless and I want you to kind of talk about your organizing skills there and your activism there because what I like is that people who talk about homelessness they're doing something that others aren't doing like this is a true public service because people who are homeless they don't actually they don't have permanent residences so politicians tend to just forget about them because you can't send them campaign mailers so they're kind of this forgotten constituency that nobody cares about. So talk a little bit about what you did to help the homeless. Absolutely. As I said I've been working alongside people who have experienced chronic homelessness for the last eight years and that has taught me so much about the issue of homelessness not just being an issue of affordable housing though of course that is really really important but the issue of being a person who does not fit into the system of colonialism of always expanding of always having more of always being driven to pursue the next opportunity for power or for money folks who are completely cut out of that are disregarded when it comes to basic human necessities like health care when it comes to education when it comes to civil rights and that honestly is the fight that we've been picking here in Austin lately. About two years ago we began working to repeal ordinances that criminalize the very behaviors associated with homelessness things that people can't even help like sleeping outside when you don't have anywhere else to sleep and asking for money which is the only mechanism that people experiencing homelessness often times have access to to be able to feed themselves to be able to clothe themselves to be able to find shelter on occasion. So we picked this fight and organized to repeal these ordinances that were actually driving people into the woods away from supportive services and having the police follow them from campsite to campsite from corner to corner which is an argument it's a waste of taxpayer dollars but more than that it connects people experiencing homelessness to the carceral system in extremely detrimental ways. I have personally experienced or been alongside of a friend who was experiencing being kicked out of housing because of a warrant for tickets for sleeping outside previously and so we went after it and we organized long and hard and intersectionally around this issue and eventually in June Austin City Council after much debate voted to not completely repeal but very much change these ordinances and the backlash of saying that people should not be ticketed because they have to live outside has been tremendous and it has been such a growth opportunity for our organizing team here in Austin to know what it is like for folks who have housing who maybe are paying for a mortgage and hoping that the value of their housing is increasing to punch down in really strong ways and to carry our answer to the hegemonic narrative that it is the fault of the person who has less resources than you that you feel scarce in your resources and to turn that on its head and say actually who is it that makes you feel afraid that the value of your housing is going to go down that the value of your neighborhood rather than against our neighbors experiencing homelessness. You've pretty much convinced me that you are you know you're the real deal and there's a difference between you know the reformers and the revolutionaries really changing the way that people think that's part of it you know we need a bottom up approach and you're really you know you're on the ground you're organizing you're fighting for people's rights so I kind of want you to talk through the dynamics of your race because this is a competitive primary and you're going up against the Republican incumbent in the event you win his name is Roger Williams so talk about what the Democratic Party primary is like and the Republican who's been in office since I believe 2013 I want to say talk about what your chances would be in this particular district against him yeah I will I would love to talk about both of those things first the primary is as you say quite a competitive primary I'm running against the person who ran in this primary last time and went to the general last time a person who honestly follows our policy as it is published and seems to be on for the ride here the difference there is that we are here to root out the oppressive systems of capitalism everywhere we find them and to generate power with and for the people that if we are not putting democratic control in the hands of the working class and the poor then we will end up with the same system that we have always had and I think honestly that's where organizing really comes in is that our theory of change it revolves around this notion that we cannot elect someone to do this work for us we have to be building these institutions from the ground up on the way and once we are in office when we talk about housing we talk about things that I'm not sure anyone else in Texas is talking about right now but things like rent control and repealing the fair cloth amendment so we can actually build public housing where the market refuses to help and I know that that's going to be a fight I was you know Julia Salazar in New York has this fight on her hands right now and we were talking the other day and I said Julia it is the people standing with us that is going to get this done right and she said yes that is what gets this done every day for me this is the only way we move forward is that I call my organizer friends and I was like and they show up and they show up every day because it is their lives on the line and to run a campaign from a space where it is an individual coming forward and saying the right words and having the right policy I mean even with well meaning well intentioned figureheads we know that once those folks are in office there will be so much against them and it will be the industries it will be the Republican Party and honestly it will be the Democratic Party as well the Democratic Party has told their elected that they are not for Medicare for all and I have personally seen elected have to follow that line until we gave them a reason to do otherwise and that reason is always the people who are experiencing life every day in the struggle of not having basic human need like healthcare met Roger Williams is a much more straightforward target than our primary opponent Julie Oliver Roger Williams is the millionaire Republican who owns used car dealerships that he inherited from his father he never comes to the district unless it's for closed door fundraisers and I got receipts man he is Wells Fargo he is Goldman Sachs he is developers and mortgage insurance companies that is his entire list of supporters and we know that we can go out into this district which includes Austin but also includes a substantial amount of rural areas and we can say to folks why are your hospitals closing why are your schools falling apart why don't your wages keep pace with your cost of living as your quality of life is going down and when they aren't sure of the answer we can point to the people who are backing Roger Williams and using him as a puppet to get done what industry and what billionaires and what the owning class wants to get done every day that is a message that resonates because we are here to be class conscious it resonates across the working class in district 25 but I wanted to get your take on what you would do to fight within the existing oppressive structures because as someone who is a democratic socialist who criticizes capitalism very directly which I love by the way there is going to be an attempt from your own party to marginalize you so how do you fight back against that and actually affect change from within this is my favorite question and it took us a little while to be honest to actually put words to how we are going to accomplish this we know our allies we know their names because we organize with them for every fight they are the worker centers they are our unions they are our public school teachers they are all of these groups who are our grassroots team here in Texas but how do you institutionalize that relationship how do you build that power and bring it with you to congress that is a great question for us and then we started looking at leaders who we admire who we want to model ourselves after and seeing what they do what they have in common and whether it is my council member Greg Khazar that I do a ton of work with here in Austin whether it is Julia Salazar whether it is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Bernie Sanders over and over again what we see is that they are able to build those relationships and have one boot in office and one on the ground so we are working on actual policy right now that it is our organizing platform it says that we are committed to doubling union density in this district from office that we will come out and support every union drive we will be there on the picket lines with our union members that we will institutionalize our coalition work around issues that are super important to people in our districts so when we are here fighting for a Green New Deal we commit ourselves from day one to naming specific people specific organizations and coalition members who will be at that table writing that policy with us because we know if they are going to write it with us they are going to fight with us for it and we know that I as much as I really want a Green New Deal and see it as critical to our survival frontline communities are as dedicated as anyone could possibly be to those kinds of just transitions in our economic culture and to neglect to create this space for them to have a voice and to have actual power is to neglect the opportunity to actually accomplish what we want once we get into office so we are beginning to articulate that in writing right now and to offer that to the people who rightfully have a lot of mistrust for electoral politics generally which is me and coming to them and saying we need you to go with us now and when we are there and I like the way that I am kind of visualizing politics and you can kind of add to this I am really seeing what I think is a paradigm shift where we are not just electing people we are electing many movements throughout the country and we kind of see this with Shama Suwan in Seattle she isn't just one person she occupies the seat for district three but whenever she wants something accomplished she organizes like that is how she is so effective and that is essentially what we are going to see with Bernie Sanders if he is elected he is talking about being the organizer in chief and so what you are really proposing here is the congressional equivalent to that organizer in chief you know model where you are not just electing me Heidi Sloan you are electing me and the people the organizations the labor movement that are behind me because this isn't just about one person like what we are realizing and I think a little bit you know this is something that has always been obvious but it is really crystallized since the 2016 and 2020 Democratic party primary is that real change is not going to come from the top down it is not going to come by just electing someone who is going to represent the people we need a bottom up approach because organizing is the only way that we can truly affect change so this is a really big question and you can't possibly touch on everything because the platform is so huge but talk a little bit about your platform and really what are some of the biggest priorities for you and I will put a little bit of B roll over the screen so people can see how gigantic your platform really is because it is so impressive but what to you would be some of your top priorities if you are elected and I will say that our platform is continuing to grow as we continue to meet with the leaders in our community and get their input and have a dialogue around the change that they are working to build for me I cut my teeth on organizing for Medicare for all it is near and dear to my heart as something that affects my family every single day loved ones who don't have access to the care that they need and honestly taking care of the bodies of the poor and the working class and guaranteeing that as a human right not tied to our employment status or conditions means that we are stronger to stand up and to fight for even more Medicare for all also happens to be under the giant and beautiful umbrella of a Green New Deal I think it is brilliant that we have scientific backup to say that actually if we want to combat climate crisis we have to institute climate justice and that includes a federal jobs guarantee program centers, workers their right to organize, their right to fair wages their right to be recognized for the kind of care work that we have already been doing and must continue to do and be recognized for if we are going to have a world that works for all of us and then I would say also within that big umbrella of the Green New Deal we talk a whole lot in my community about the right to housing as a human right that has something that should not depend on our ability to pay in an ever increasing cost to us when folks who are inflating that cost are just here to make a profit to gamble and speculate on the places that keep us and our families safe that we have to mitigate that by holding the market to a human standard first of all and then as I said with the institution of public housing being refunded I mean we look at communities and we say where are where are people falling through the cracks and it could be that individuals are falling through the cracks because of discrimination on their gender on their sexual orientation on their race but to combat that division and that that that harm that is being done we have to create universal policies that are strong enough to hold all of us and so we look for those who are falling deepest through the cracks and then we look at the cracks and we make sure that we're assuring them up in every way that we possibly can to give the whole lot of us to stand on that is sturdier and ground that doesn't say if you just push someone else through the cracks then you're gonna be okay that actually says when you work to build a better world it better be for all of us or tomorrow we may find ourselves the ones falling through the cracks this time as we see especially under the Trump administration but certainly not limited to this time frame targeting people based on their race their immigration status or their income level these are the rhetorical devices that are used to keep us all done down and never negotiating for the entirety of the human condition very well said so I think that anyone who's watching to this point they're going to be convinced and they're gonna want to support you so tell us what we do to support your campaign thanks I have to be an organizer today we're building a movement here and so if you would be kind enough to look at our platform we always accept feedback and we always want to connect with people across the country and across the world who are doing this work and the places where they live we want to know you, we want to build with you so please reach out but secondly while we do know that we have the people power to get this done our volunteers who are incredible we get to November and we canvass four times a week and we draw a crowd every time we have huge parties where we get to know one another and then the next day we're organizing together we have to have literature we have to have water bottles we have to have clipboards we have to pay our people well who are working on this campaign if we are who we say we are and we need your help with that unfortunately elections still cost this country and while they do that money is always going to come from individuals it's never going to come from corporations because first of all we're not their candidate they know better than to try and secondly it is absolutely unethical to take corporate money so if this is going to happen and we know that it can it's going to be because people across this country have decided that they think it should and let me just add my pitch for Heidi what I like to get people thinking about is the way that we contribute to campaigns these grassroots donations these are kind of mini investments you're putting in something that will pay off because even though Heidi will be representing the 25th congressional district of Texas what she does will you know that potentially can affect you as well passing Medicare for all being a vote on the Green New Deal these are all things that are incredibly crucial not just to that district but everywhere you know to you as well so even if you could just chip in a dollar five bucks this is something that is you know a down payment for a real revolution in this country that is going to actually uplift human beings and Heidi clearly understands that I love that you have such a human centric campaign I've already talked about this but this is the human support so it's like if you bring that up I have to say I have to credit you for it thank you I really appreciate that and it's absolutely true I every time we get a dollar or three dollar or five dollar or twenty seven dollar donation it makes our day it makes us keep going it makes us believe in ourselves and what we're doing and that we are on the right track so I really appreciate that well yeah keep up the good work the website is HeidiSloan.com on Twitter you can find Heidi HeidiSloan for TX I'll have that all on the screen in the lower thirds as well thank you so much for coming on the program Heidi it's been a pleasure I'm incredibly excited and we will be watching very closely thanks Mike we'll talk soon