 Hello everyone. I am here with 2020 US Senate candidate Kimberly Graham who is taking on Joni Ernst in the state of Iowa in a very Flippable state. She can actually win this. She's been endorsed by brand-new Congress and he's here to talk about her campaign at Kimberly Thank you so much for coming on the program. Hi. Thank you so much for having me It's really exciting to have another Senate candidate on I believe you are the second Senate candidate that I've brought on the show The first one was Paula Jean Swarajan and you are a Senate candidate number two so many fantastic brand-new Congress members that I've talked to And you're running such a dynamic campaign and I want to get to a quote from you because I think it's so fantastic So everyone knows Joni Ernst for her infamous make them squeal commercial back in 2014 Or was it I'm not sure I think it was 2014, but this is a quote from you So Joni Ernst's campaign on a promise to make them squeal in Washington, DC and get rid of corruption But the only people squealing are Iowans harmed by her votes Explain that to us because I think it's such a fantastic tweet that tweet that really encapsulates. What's wrong with Joni Ernst, right? So, you know her whole campaign really started to get traction with that infamous famous Make we're gonna make them squeal in Washington, right? So Which which kind of ties in so ties into Something important about this race, which is which is ironically or interestingly tied to why I think we can win I think Joni Ernst got elected in large part not so much because people were interested in voting for a Republican but because Iowans were interested in getting corruption out of Washington and I think that they believed her Yeah, they believed her even, you know that hey, I think that's we're a firmly purple state Right, we got about half Republicans or a third Republicans a third Democrats and a third independence in Iowa And I what I've seen is Iowans will give somebody a chance that they trust that, you know They believe and that will stand up for them and that is how Joni Ernst portrayed herself, you know And when that make them squeal commercial hit I of course, I mean, it's of course. It's so catchy it gained a lot of traction and Simply that slogan honestly was a huge part of when her campaign really started gaining traction and what I mean by the only people Squealing our Iowans harmed by her votes is You know, she's voted I think seven times now to repeal the Affordable Care Act Which which if she wanted to repeal it and give universal single-payer health care I'd be I'd be saying great repeal it all you want, right? If we have something better in store, but she's repeated voted to repeal the ACA with absolutely no viable plan in place to You know protect pre-existing conditions to keep kids on their parents insurance till they're 20 You know 26 years old and a few of the other things that that were great and that are great about the Affordable Care Act that we Were able to achieve with that You know, she she voted she's voted to confirm everyone from Betsy DeVos to the head of the EPA to Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh to Hundreds I believe now over a hundred Federal district court judges that will be there until they pass away because those are lifetime appointments You know and as an attorney like I am you know, I Really understand and and maybe a lot of other people do but as an attorney Knowing how important court decisions are to to what then happens with various areas of the law The fact that we now have well over a hundred Federal district court judges confirmed Many of whom are entirely Unqualified regardless of their political You know political side, right? If you will they're just unqualified and the fact that they're sitting there now is going to be damaging To Iowans and to all Americans for years and years and years to come I think recently there was something like a 36 or 38 year old Person Confirmed to the federal bench who had never set foot in a courtroom Never But because they were recommended by the Federalist Society They they got through and with a Republican dominated Senate They got through and they they simply regardless of political ideology. They simply were unqualified as have been Cabinet, you know appointments Betsy DeVos and on and on and on Yeah, yeah, and you know one thing that I think you speak to is there is really I think a popularity and kind of this populist appeal to this idea of draining the swamp or making them squeal But you're actually offering people a real anti-corruption message. First of all, you are not taking corporate PAC money You are uncorrupted. This is a people-powered movement and you actually would make them squeal for lack of a better word because you Have an anti-corruption platform like you want to publicly finance elections and get money out of politics So for people in Iowa, we're actually looking for someone who will root out corruption Talk about your plan for campaign finance reform Right. So yeah, that's absolutely true And I think what's important for people to understand and I'm speaking out of people who may be Considering supporting or who are supporting the DSCC backed candidate in Iowa and here's what I want those people to know So her name's Theresa Greenfield. She's a very nice person You know, we speak at a lot of the same events. So are all of the other people running for this seat I mean, and I'm not saying that just to give lip service. Oh, they're nice people They really are nice people and I like them and I think they have good intentions but Theresa Greenfield so far has taken I think it's approaching $40,000. It's the the Washington Free Beacon I know but they did do their research The Washington Free Beacon did an article on July 23rd about Theresa Greenfield's Money that she's taken from lobbyists for corporations So all of us in this race are saying I'm not taking corporate PAC money and that's great But a lot of centrist Democrats establishment Democrats are saying that I'm not taking corporate PAC money and People that don't know that there's also massive amounts of corporate lobbyist money Don't know that their candidate is taking corporate lobbyist money and in my opinion that is just Sort of a technicality and end-run right and end-run around. I'm not taking corporate PAC money so Theresa Greenfield has taken I believe it's approaching $40,000 but anyone can look that up on open secrets on the FEC reports She's taken money from lobbyists for pharmaceutical industry From health care industry lobbyists and big tobacco lobbyists to name a few and if we are saying that lobbyists and corporate PAC money Incorporations are the problem that they have been over represented and influencing our government And that's why the most of us are not being represented Then I don't think that it's right that we are taking corporate lobbyist money So this is not like these are all individuals. I want to make that clear like One this one person of particular that that we researched and looked up is a partner in a lobbying firm And you know, you have to give your your occupation right when you give a donation like that And so we looked up the name of the lobbying firm and it's a lobbying firm for tobacco pharmaceuticals in the health care industry So you have to do a little Research to find this stuff out. It's not that difficult though. And I just think you know There's there's a saying in the Bible. I'm gonna paraphrase it. You can't serve two masters. Yeah and That's just as kind of a life saying I think right you can't you can't sort of people hold into some people and and then you know Say you're not beholden to this. It just doesn't work that way. So I think when you start out and If if if somebody gets elected who's already taken thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars From representatives of particular industries I would find it really difficult to believe that the people from those industries are not going to expect you to be doing something for them once you are elected and I Only want to do things for For lack of a better shorthand for the people. I'm gonna do the things that are gonna help most of regular Working people that are gonna help children that are gonna help elders that are gonna help people living with disabilities That are gonna help regular Lower and middle income working people in this country. Those are the people when I say the people That's that's what I'm talking about talking about Everybody except those top 10 percent of well-being come earners and corporations because they're gonna be just fine I promise no matter whether their taxes go way up. They're gonna be absolutely Okay, I was talking to a Des Moines businessman a few months ago very wealthy businessman who donates a lot of money to Democrats and He Said tell me a little bit about your key. No, you're your philosophy your platform your campaign and I was talking to him and I got to the part where I was gonna say and I think we should appropriately tax the very wealthy because frankly, they're gonna be fine even if they're taxed way more than they are now and we Need to have that money to invest in the rest of everybody else and for a split second before I said that I thought This is a really wealthy person. Maybe I shouldn't say that to him But I did it anyway, like I said for a split second and then I thought oh, that's ridiculous You believe what you believe say what you say, you know, it is what it is And I said that and when I was done talking he said I really like one thing you said and I'm thinking hmm what I said What he said you're right. I'm gonna be just fine Even if my taxes go up a lot more than they are now and he said enlightened business people should know That when their workers are happier and doing better at our financially stable their businesses will do better Yeah, yeah, and that's actually someone who Understands, you know the contradiction of capitalism so to speak because you know you Want to increase profits. So what do you do you cut? You know the pay of your workers you reduce benefits, but at the same time if everyone does that Well, collectively people are going to not have as much purchasing power and we can't buy the things that Capitalists want us to buy so people have to acknowledge that if you truly believe in Capitalism like these business people do then working people have to have money to purchase the goods and services that are produced You know so it's nice to see some of them at least acknowledge that and and one thing You know I get a sense from you that you're so much different because it's really really popular to Talk the talk right now and talk about how we want to drain the swamp and Republicans and Democrats say this because this really is a Nonpartisan issue. We know that money is a corrosive influence in American politics That's that's obvious to any political observer But everyone wants to talk about you know how they're going to get you know corruption out But they don't actually walk the walk and as you said you really have to look at the fine print, right? And these are all publicly available, you know Statistics you can look at the FAC reports if you look at Kimberly and compare, you know you to anyone else who's running for the Senate It's going to be wildly different So if you truly care about corruption, then you have to really do your research and look at who? Who's money you're taking because that's what people don't get like it's really easy and I get it because you know We have information shortages in this country. We don't have the mainstream media covering these Senate races So if somebody says i'm going to drain the swamp or make them squeal We just kind of take them at the word because it sounds nice But when they get an office change doesn't happen and we still are left feeling this satisfied Still wondering why change isn't happening and it's because we are electing people who aren't living up to that promise You actually are because you're you're walking the walk right now like you're not taking corporate back money Which is so important So talk about your platform as well because you have a really robust platform and you really are Someone who is you know going to facilitate change because your platform is incredibly robust and progressive Yeah, well, um, yeah, I think that that I think it's important too that we look at how somebody Okay, what somebody's done with their life up until the time they did they they ran for senate, right? What did they what's the demonstrated history? what have they been doing and You know have they have they been in some kind of public service? I you know, I think it's really interesting that senator tom harkin who If you just say that word in the state of Iowa Everybody smiles because he was he was progressive and he was He was a champion for children's rights. He was a champion for protecting elderly, you know our elders He was a labor champion. He was the primary architect of the americans with disabilities act and You know, he was elected for 30 years here in the state of Iowa He retired in 2014 and that's the seat that senator Ernst ended up, you know winning um and What I've done for the past 20 years is primarily represented abused or neglected kids and parents in the juvenile court system Here in Iowa. So I have For the most part I I've been a mediator and I've done some collaborative work But that's been the majority of my career in the last two years I've been the attorney and guardian at litem for all of the kids of participants in a drug court program So these are people who you know Most of them are in poverty. Most of them don't have sufficient education Most of them don't have sufficient health care, especially mental health mental health health and addiction treatment available to them They don't have sufficient affordable housing. They don't have sufficient Pay when they do go to work, you know, they want to work. They don't have sufficient child care They want to work But if they work since they don't make a high salary All of their money basically is going to child care if they make over About 30 000 a year which for you know for a mom with two kids or something is is very little money. Anyway, I mean and So there's I've seen with my own, you know eyes for the last 20 years What we need to do to lift people up in this country because I see what they don't I've I've watched for 20 years how the lack of investment in people harms them and harms all of us And we've invested really hard in the top 10 percent or so of people in this country for the last 40 years And it's paid off great They are doing better. We've invested in them by invested I mean we've given them tax break after tax break after tax break after subsidy after subsidy after subsidy We've put our money into Helping the already wealthy And it's it's it's gone great for them. They're wealthier than ever before, you know 30 40 years ago the top 10 percent controlled about a third of the wealth in this country today They control about 75 percent of the wealth in this country And there's that's not going to slow down until we get kind of regular working people You know into congress So that there's a critical mass of people there when this stuff's trying to be back room deal then wink wink nudge nudge To stand up and say No, I'm not going to vote for that because that's not going to help the people, right? So our platform kind of has all those things I just talked about when I'm talking about the people I represent, you know in court It will help not only them, but all of us, you know the universal single payer healthcare program, you know Similar to canada's where the doctors and hospitals are still private But you have one insurance, you know, you go to the doctor you go to your hospital whatever one you want to go to and Gets billed to that one entity done There's none of this appeal denial back and forth. We're not going to pay for that medication blah blah blah, you know that that's that's kind of this the system and that's um I think that's close to like the sanders medicare for all bill um, I Would really want to make sure the reimbursement rates though are high enough and I I've looked through that bill and I don't Specifically see something about reimbursement rates. It may be there and I've missed it, but that's my sometimes, you know Being a progressive you get attacked by the center, but you also get attacked by other progressives. Huh, so fun. So When people say are you for medicare for all well, yes And I want to make sure those reimbursement rates are high enough because if we're not reimbursing healthcare providers high enough And I assume that that bill would do that. I mean center Sanders is not a dummy I assume that that bill does that I just haven't seen the fine print and as a lawyer it's like I want to see the fine print Is this really going to be what I believe and hope it is? If it is perfect, um So there's that there's education, you know, we fund our schools on property taxes, which means the schools in the wealthy areas There's a lot more property taxes. So there's a lot more money going to those schools So our public schools have sadly in spite of the best efforts of our teachers are awesome public school teachers of which I'm a product of public schools And um our staff in public schools in spite of all their best efforts The funding is so disparate, you know from a very uh a neighborhood with a lot of poverty and low property values To a neighborhood with a high property values because that's where we fund our schools from So we need to do whatever it takes to equally fund our schools And in fact, I would argue we need to Give those schools in the more impoverished areas with lower property values even a little boost to help them because Those families typically have experienced the trauma of poverty and multiple other traumas that tend to coexist with poverty and so Those schools especially need school nurses school counselors, you know a lot of a lot of tutors, you know extra help to bring those kids up and you know We just have to got to stop funding our schools unequally because schools should be an equalizer And they're not schools have become basically um, you know They do the opposite they they created an unequal opportunity because what school did you go? To what opportunities did you have but I will say this that This also circles back to income the the biggest um indicator or or um indicator for academic success in children So I sometimes when I'm giving a speech I'll have people guess like what do you think is the biggest indicator of academic success in children And people will guess all kinds of things It's household income household income So it's it's not how educated were the parents. It's not your neighborhood per se. It's not it's household income And so to that end, you know, we need bare minimum 15 dollar an hour minimum wage federally here in the state of Iowa The minimum wage is seven dollars and 25 cents per hour I know some states have increased it and some municipalities have increased it, but here it's still 7 25 Uh, we actually have some cities here in Iowa Iowa city in particular who raised it and the republican governor said no, you can't do that made them reverse it And then they went around and voluntarily got a lot of businesses to sign on to do it on a voluntary basis But basically our republic or republican leadership in this state Um wouldn't wouldn't allow this city of Iowa city to do that But we need at least a 15 dollar minimum wage with index for inflation, you know, so it continues to rise um, you know healthcare That includes mental health and addiction treatment. So here in the state of Iowa, we had Medicaid which um, then got privatized by our republican governor and It would take three hours to talk about the mess that Medicaid is in Iowa right now But the shorthand is people are being denied things that treatments they need drugs. They need procedures. They need um And there's a lot of irregularities. Let's say that About what's going on with these private medicaid providers. We have a great auditor here. Um, who got elected in 2018 rob sand Uh, he's the only democrat in the in the you know in the hierarchy of of our You know upper leadership, you know governor's office a secretary of state all those positions rob is the only democrat And he's the auditor and so he is taking a really hard look at the privatization of medicaid Here in i1 doing a good job at starting to figure out where all the Where all the money's going basically Um, but I used to be able to get clients of mine the parents Um into drug treatment for as long as it took for them to Get well and get on their feet. There was a really great, um Drug treatment place here in Iowa called clarity recovery that I've had many clients go to and leave successfully and go on To be successful with getting their kids back in their care and I see them years later and they're still doing well It's a really great inpatient, uh drug treatment program. That's more like a home environment. It's wonderful. Well Starting I think about a year ago Uh, the private medicaid providers said we're only going to pay for 30 days of treatment at clear view 30 days to kick a methamphetamine addiction addiction is nothing Nothing they might as well have said we're just not going to pay for drug treatment anymore Because 30 days is so woefully insufficient and I see that I've I've seen personally the results of only being able to get my client 30 days worth of treatment versus Four months five months six months, you know, whatever it used to take for them to stabilize and and be on a really good secure stable path to leave their inpatient treatment facility So it you know, it just goes it just goes on and on and off Yeah, your your platform is huge and we'll have you know a link to your website on the screen so people can check it out But what really makes you different from other candidates is you're so focused on like the policy details and policy outcome So I love the way you talk about healthcare and you you really describe Single payer because now there's so many people who are democrats who say well, you know I support Medicare for all or the spirit of Medicare for all or something along those lines when they don't actually mean single payer Which is frustrating so I like that you're like glued to the details of it and and to your point about the reimbursement rate I I read something not too long ago. I don't know if it was in regards to the 2019 iteration of Medicare for all or Bernie Sanders 2017 version But I believe that once you take into account the administrative costs reduction Then it would be about the same although I'm not sure But I'm glad that there are people like you who would push Bernie on this because what we want is a robust healthcare system That is Great that is not going to have any issues like we want it to function and be stable Because the point is not just the past Medicare for all and check it off of our list We want it to be you know able to stand the test of time And what I like is that people like you will be in the Senate and push Bernie further because I actually I've criticized Bernie Sanders version of the bill because it actually has a four-year roll as as opposed to a two-year roll out Which I don't like So we need people who are willing to push the envelope and there's really even though like We have some people who I think would vote for Medicare for all in the Senate like Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley I don't think that they would push the envelope further like push that bill Further to the left So I kind of wanted you to actually talk about that dynamic because we have an increasing block of progressive Democrats within the house of representatives But there's basically a small handful in the Senate and that's being really charitable Like you can count all the progressives on one hand and I use the word progressive loosely, right? So how do you think you would be able to influence your colleagues? Because you don't have that much backup unless you and apology and get elected together In the Senate that's sweet and that's sweet you guys like if we don't get all three of you You're either going to be like standing alone Trying to influence Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley to kind of push further Uh, so I mean like how do you affect change when your block is super small in the Senate? Because the dynamic there is super different like in the house We have a growing vocal block as I alluded to but in the Senate like I don't know how to do that strategically so What do you think would be the best way to really push the narrative? You know just in general in the overton window rather to the left in the Senate, right, right So, uh, you know to state the like the obvious like, you know, we have to get some of us in there, right? Right like more than just Sanders and Warren and maybe Merkley, you know Um, I think once you start to get a critical mass of you know, what's a critical mass? I don't know, but you know more than a couple. Um, then you'll start to see that and I and here's the other thing So I've done a lot of mediation as well. I mediate people's divorces And and yes, that's not easy And um, and um, I'm told anyway people have told me over the years I'm I'm pretty good at it And I I I rarely have people walk out of my mediation and not have settled their their case And it might take hours and hours and hours, but we almost always get there And I think there's a couple of things to that that that are applicable to to Influencing others in the United States Senate So the first is you have to establish some kind of relationship and connection to people Even to people that maybe you normally wouldn't You know, I've mediated cases for Probably hundreds of people that I would never like choose to be friends with right like I wouldn't pick them out of a lineup And say oh, I have so much in common with you. I want to be your friend, right? No but I'm there to get something done and I genuinely want to help Them move their families forward and so you have to create some kind of relationship number one and I am I think pretty good at creating relationships with people Even if we have a lot of disagreements and I think that's really important as a u.s senator and and And that's another one of those things that sometimes draws fire from the very progressive left is you know, how would you even How would you even speak to them? You know, well You know what do you want to get something done or don't you well to be fair? I will say in their defense Like usually when we hear like bipartisanship or like reaching across the aisle it usually means to screw us So I get the cynicism but for someone like you you're not going to compromise So when you say it those negative connotations aren't actually attached to it because when when you say that like the way that I hear it is Okay, you're going to bring them to your side and not go to their side, which is the key difference Exactly exactly. So that's exactly right. So You have to develop some kind of relationship with them. However, you do that, you know, whatever you find in common It could be they have a 20 year old son. I have a 20 year old son, you know, whatever could be anything. I have a dog I have a dog whatever You have to find those really human connections with people, you know, um I think I don't know if the chicken or egg happened first I don't know but I know there used to be like lunches of senators not just democrat lunch not just republican lunch But there used to be like lunches with senators It didn't matter, you know what I mean people would sit down and you know break bread together, right? We hear about the importance of breaking bread I don't think that happens anymore the last I heard there were literally like the g.o.p. Lunch every week and the den lunch every week. Well, okay, I get that I get the reason for wanting to be around just your people That's a human thing and Like I said, if we can't create any relationships How are we progressives ever going to bring anyone? You know even start to bring anyone over to our side. How I don't think I don't think that's a non starter So you start to create relationships and you listen Again, it doesn't mean that you're going to do what they what they think that you know that they want to do But when you listen to people Something very interesting happens They start becoming interested in listening to you But you have to first listen to them So so there's that and then there's just being very persistent and and giving them real reasons And you know, is it going to happen in a day? No a week? No a month? No, but if you're persistent and you Really are interested in creating change or getting people to see your your side You create relationships you listen to them you tell stories Yeah, and and you and you tell real stories like You know my friend Robin stone who was the Delaware Here in Iowa the Delaware county party democratic chair She was diagnosed about Somewhere about six weeks ago. I think now With thyroid cancer and it was a very rare type of thyroid cancer Not like the usual one from what I understand is reasonably easy to to cure They remove your thyroid and you know probably most of the time I think people have a very good prognosis with with most thyroid cancers This was a very rare very aggressive very deadly one She wanted to go to Mayo Clinic, which is not very far from here. It's in southern Minnesota It was out of her network They wanted sixteen thousand dollars to even have her walk in the front door Now Will we ever know if she would have survived it or had a longer quality better quality of life for as long as she had lived Had she gone to Mayo? We'll never know because she didn't go there She went to a different hospital, which is a really good hospital here in Iowa But they did not have those Specific experts in that type of rare thyroid cancer that she really wanted to go see And she passed away a couple weeks ago very quickly after her diagnosis I'm sorry to hear that Yeah, thank you. Um, it was a huge loss for for everyone for her family Of course a horrible tragic loss and for all of us who knew her she was amazing and quite a force for change and brilliant and she She had a trachea me last several weeks of her life, which was just really horrible and hard to deal with She had it replaced several times And a couple a week or a week and a half two weeks somewhere in that window before she passed away She was in the emergency room And she messaged me on facebook from the she says i'm in the emergency room I want you to have my endorsement I want you to keep talking about me And don't ever stop fighting for a universal single-payer healthcare system And so robin I'm talking about you again Um, and so I do and those are the kinds of stories That you tell colleagues that maybe don't see it the way you see it right now You know you tell real stories about the young man in Dubuque Who in 2018 lost his life from rationing insulin and now his mother is going around talking about The the amorality of this in a wealthy nation and it is amoral you know and And if it doesn't move those people well, hopefully those kind of stories will move their voters Exactly, and it's not like that. I'll end up gone Exactly exactly and I think that building rapport is so important Like you're not going to get them on your side for everything But this strategy, I think if you're a senator you really have no choice And there has been a degree of success like my favorite example is bernie sanders. He got a tea party Senator mic lee to get on board with his um his plan to enact the war powers act To stop us complicity to Saudi arabia's genocide in yemen now it passed the house and the senate It was vetoed by donald trump But I mean these are the things that you can do and when like when you hear the way that republicans talk About bernie sanders they think he's a communist they think he's crazy But they still say well, you know, at least bernie sanders is honest, you know, they'll they'll say something like that So they kind of understand him at least from a human level And I think that when you have 99 other colleagues, and that's it you don't really have much of a choice But to kind of try to humanize each other and try to get them to your side not, you know To capitulate but get them to your side now When it comes to someone else like let's say There's another senator like ron wyden if he wants to work with a republican my senator Um, I cringe because I wonder how much is he selling me out? um, but when it's someone like you or bernie sanders, then I think Okay, they're trying to bring people to our side and not the other way around So that's such a key difference and it's so important I'm glad that you kind of thought this through because like I genuinely don't know what I would do if I were a senator And I never want to be in that position But if I were like I don't know what to do, especially with the block being so small But I mean the point that you made was we have to elect more progressives in the senate So with that being said I'm sure that everyone is enthusiastic about your campaign and at this point We're just preaching to the choir. So if we want to help elect you, what can we do? So you can go to kimberley for iowa.com. That's our website and there's donate and volunteer buttons there We by the way, if you think well, I don't live in Iowa. I can't volunteer. Oh, no, no So this is for those of you who followed or knew about better or works campaign. No, we're not follow We're not, you know, we're not on better or works platform But but his campaign though for us senate Was amazing. Okay. He got he had supporters and volunteers all over the country And that's what it was going to take to get rid of ted cruz and darn it if he didn't come close um That's kind of that that model of having volunteers all over the nation is what we are building out right now So if you want to let's and especially if you live in like a solid blue state, right? If your senators are already democrats that you're okay with Or or there's no progressive challenger and you want to find a flippable u.s Senate seat and help that person in the primary to help a real progressive We would love to have your help you can you know volunteer to do text banking volunteer to do Lots of different things remotely. So you don't have to physically be here in the state of Iowa physically knocking on doors to help So there's a volunteer button on the kimberley for iowa website that you can go to and sign up to volunteer And there's a field for your state so we know, you know, physically where you are um donating of course and I would say this too I totally get that impulse to say at least for a lot of people maybe not for really true progressives But for a lot of people to kind of hang back and say I'm gonna wait until the after the primary And then I'll give some money to whoever our democratic nominee is right I get that impulse because I used I used to be that person Okay, I used to be that person where I would just like You know, I'm a single mom. I don't make a ton of money as an attorney for kids I have massive student loan debt myself. I still do I'm not going to donate until you know after the primary Well, if we all do that We're going to keep getting the congress we have now with a few exceptions of Progressives that are in there meaning we're only going to get People who are either already wealthy or very connected to wealth Into positions of power at the federal, you know, representative level So if you're okay with keeping the congress we have by all means don't donate to any campaigns until after your primaries But if you want to get progressives into office progressives like aoc and ilhanomar and presley and You know, we know them all then please please please donate now because Sometimes, you know, I didn't used to understand either. Why do you need so much money to run for office? Just run Okay, my campaign manager My events coordinator and fundraising coordinator my digital outreach person because I can't be on twitter and facebook all day But I need somebody to be so that we can amplify the message of the campaign across the state and across the nation A finance director Gas to drive all over a really really big state. I was huge You know and on and on yard sides campaign materials Um Tables like to go to certain events. They charge us a couple hundred dollars to like have to be there Like to be there and to connect with a few hundred voters So, I mean the bare bones of this campaign as of as we sit here today Is in excess of ten thousand dollars and the vast majority of that per month ten thousand dollars per month to keep my campaign going And that's mostly staff salaries and by the way, I don't get a dime. I'm a volunteer here But of course my campaign manager and events coordinator all those people get salaries as they should right and I want to pay them a decent salary Um, I'm paying them market rates for those jobs. I'm not you know overpaying them but they deserve those salaries and they they should be paying them but Just so people know that's where all this money goes to is mostly salaries people To do all of this organizing. We need to hire a field organizer asap. We're looking for one now That's going to be another several thousand dollars per month Somebody to organize the volunteers to organize the boots on the ground the door knockers canvassers You know the the tax bankers all of those people that all takes people and people should be paid, right? You know, there's volunteers, but you also have to have a certain core staff that has to be paid um, so Donate donate donate donate donate and also we have a new tool that we think is the first time that anyone running for office has ever used it Which is peer-to-peer fundraising So if you go to our website, hopefully there's more information on it there I've looked at the website a little while since we got it up and running But what that means is you know how like you'll see people post a fundraiser on their facebook page like i'm raising money today for you know um puppy protection or Like like save the puppies or whatever um Well, we have that same thing now where people can sign up and like put of do a fundraiser Maybe they can't give a lot of money But maybe they can get their friends to each pitch in five bucks and then together you can send our campaign a couple hundred bucks, right? Or five hundred bucks or whatever from your friends in your contacts that you know And so a lot of nonprofits use that Um, we actually reached out and had the the platform that does this modify their platform a little bit So that we could collect the information that we need to comply with fc regulations So we think we're the first campaign to ever do this kind of fundraising But you got to get creative when you don't have those corporations to go to so um So we have that too. So we just say donate volunteer Spread the word retweet share on facebook Because all of that helps just to get the word out because that the the biggest uphill battle here is going to be funding We've been to 49 of our 99 counties so far and we're keeping on going We actually got a great deal on a supporter renting us an rv that we're getting probably next week So we're going to have that wrapped and we're going to be driving all over iowa like all over iowa To talk to people and listen with people Um, so that'll be really helpful because you can't miss it when it rolls into a town of 500 people everybody will be talking about Yeah So yeah And on your website too I will say I'll give you credit because when you go to that website on your front page You have like four steps for things that you can do to help out the campaign And I love that you did the peer to peer fundraising thing because I'll tell you someone who like I don't Never really go on facebook that often but when I see the the pictures of sad puppies Speaking of like puppy fundraisers. I feel compelled to donate right? It's it's so simple. It's easy So that's a really I think innovative way to uh raise awareness about your campaign and raise money So kudos to you. So look, let me just say this. Um, let me make my pitch for kimberley We need a senate that is more progressive We're making some progress in the house of representatives But we have not made that much progress in the senate So this is a down payment for actual structural change if you donate to Kimberley and there's a lot of people who are great progressives running for the senate You brought up bettoe and that reminded me that I also had sema hernanda's on the show running in texas against john Corden who's a phenomenal progressive. So we have her we have betsy sweet. We have polygene swearington and kimberley Graham imagine if all four of you got elected like the amount of change That that would make and there could be other senate candidates that i'm missing and I apologize to those people I uh if i'm missing you but like this really is a national movement and we have to participate either by Donating or putting in the time if we can't you know, uh contribute monetarily we can contribute our time That's really important and judges and judges The senate confirms judges y'all so important So it confirms judges. So if you want different judges confirmed down the line You got to get more progressives into the senate. Yeah, this is crucial So I think that 2020 is going to be the year when progressives actually start Taking on the senate because we you know, we we got our foot in the door in the house Now it's time we conquer the senate and kimberley. Thank you so much for uh starting that movement Or joining it with brand new congress and whatnot and thank you for coming on the show to talk about your campaign Thank you so much mic. I appreciate your time