 In the fifth congressional district of Maryland, Steny Hoyer is the individual who currently holds that seat. He represents that district. And the bad news about Steny Hoyer is that he is next in line to be the speaker of the house once Nancy Pelosi leaves. And as much as we all don't like Nancy Pelosi on the left, Steny Hoyer is actually worse than Nancy Pelosi. He's actually more conservative than Nancy Pelosi, more hostile towards the left than Nancy Pelosi, which is almost unthinkable because when you think about neoliberal and centrist hostility towards the left, I mean, Nancy Pelosi embodies that. But everything that we've seen based on his record, based on his rhetoric, Steny Hoyer will be worse than Nancy Pelosi. So we have to do everything in our power. I cannot stress this enough. Everything to stop that man from becoming speaker. And there's only one surefire way to do just that. Kick him out, oust him, launch a primary challenge against him and kick him to the curb. Now he actually does have a primary challenger. That's the good news. Her name is Michaela Wilkes and I actually brought her on my program a couple of months ago. And this is a difficult race. Like anytime you are challenging leadership, that's a David and Goliath situation. And I know that we may feel a little bit emboldened because we were able to oust a leader, a future house speaker when AOC took down Joe Crowley. But this is a really difficult task. This is, look, we've got our work cut out for us. But the great news is that Michaela Wilkes is gaining so much steam that Steny Hoyer is officially worried. And we know that he's worried for the first time in decades because he's actually having to campaign. You see, whenever there's a primary challenger against members of Democratic Party leadership, they have so much clout in that district, so much money that they don't even acknowledge the existence and run ads of, you know, their primary challengers or anything like that because they just know that they're going to win automatically. But guess what? Steny Hoyer is forced to campaign because of Michaela Wilkes because of the amazing campaign that she is running. And her campaign manager tweeted out this, Steny Hoyer just made a $30,000 TV ad buy spanning five regions. This is unprecedented for a primary race in his 40 year tenure. Michaela Wilkes clearly has him nervous. Hoyer's got money. Michaela Wilkes has people. And as you can see, they posted the report here. He is choosing to advertise on, surprise, surprise, MSNBC between 7 p.m. to midnight. Now you may see that and think, well, it's only $30,000. And that makes sense to think that that's not very much because we just watched a billionaire, Michael Bloomberg spend a billion dollars almost of his own money, buying ads across the country, but in a congressional race, $30,000 for an incumbent, that's a lot. That's a lot of money. And it does show you that she's starting to break through. She has a real chance to actually defeat him. And I want to show you why I think it's the case that her campaign is gaining momentum. She put out an ad in April and she has this pinned to her Twitter page. And this really shows you who she is and why Steny Hoyer is so bad. And this is by far one of the best ads I've seen throughout this election cycle. So take a look at the ad and we'll discuss it when we come back. When I was about nine years old, we moved to Charles County here in Waldorf. My family played a huge part in my life. My dad was murdered while my mother was pregnant with me. And so my aunts and my mom were my support system. Growing up, my aunt, her name Sharon Carver, we were just so close. I was in math class. We had a substitute teacher. The sub turned on the TV. What she was watching were airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center. I went home and I'll never forget my mom was in the living room watching the news. When I looked at the TV, I was like, isn't that where Aunt Sharon works? I began to run away from home. I began to skip school because I didn't know how to deal with what I was dealing with. What I needed was someone to talk to and what I received was being shackled and taken away to a juvenile detention facility. This was bigger than the individual. Like it's so much bigger than the people that get in trouble. It's the system that catches them when they get in trouble. I wasn't always interested in politics because I didn't see any politicians speaking about issues that were important in my community. No one was knocking on my door. No one was calling my phone. Then in 2018, I saw people like ALC running for Congress. We can run as regular people and we can speak truth to power to these issues that are heard in our communities and we can win. Single mother of two is taking on the second most powerful Democrat in the house. Steny Hoyer takes money from corporations that profit off of the most vulnerable, marginalized people in our community. And I know this because I'm one of them. We are, of course, on this floor now considering a major comprehensive drug bill. This is someone who signed every single crime bill that has been put into place that has helped to contribute to the mass incarceration crisis. This is someone who refuses to believe that we should act on climate change now and support a Green New Deal. This is someone who works with the very corporations that profit off of our pain. What we have at stake is actually having affordable housing. What we have at stake is actually providing jobs that provide livable wages. I'm fighting for Medicare for all. I'm fighting for a Green New Deal. I'm fighting for a restorative, more holistic approach to criminal justice reform, one that is fair to everyone and not just those who can afford it. We are going up against someone powerful, someone who is backed by the machine, but we have to show them that we have the people, those who have been affected by legislation, those who are closest to the pain. That is who runs this movement. It's us, it's me, it's you, it's regular people, not the corporations and not the politicians who profit from it. I'm asking each of you to join this movement with me. A vote for me is a vote for us. Wow. Listen, watching that ad, something just kind of clicked with me. If enough people in that district, if every single person in that district saw this ad and knew who Makayla Wilkes was, she'd win handily. In fact, I'd argue that if every single person who was going to vote saw that ad before casting their vote, she would win in a landslide because the difference between her and Steny Hoyer is like night and day. He hasn't just been not representing the people of Maryland's fifth congressional district, he's been doing damage to their community, damage to communities of color, supporting mass incarceration and whatnot. So that ad is so good that if people saw it, she could win. And here's the thing about these races. Even though oftentimes primary challenges are not successful, statistically speaking, it just takes more time. It takes more name recognition. And in every single one of these races, I truly believe to my core that all it takes to win is we educate enough people. Enough people have to know about the choice that they have. And I think nine times out of 10, they're gonna go for that progressive option. They're gonna go for the person who's actually hungry to represent them. I truly believe that. And we really do have our work cut out for us. I don't want you to make it seem as if this is going to be an easy race. And because he's purchasing $30,000 worth of ads, you know what's over. No, I mean, COVID-19 has really been a huge obstacle to all of these grassroots campaigns because knocking on doors is their bread and butter. So they basically have to rely almost exclusively on phone banking, which isn't everything. I mean, making those personal connections with future constituents, that matters. So, you know, this isn't over. I don't want you to think that, you know, Michaela Wilkes has this in the bag. But what I want you to take away from this is that there's a real opportunity. These primary challenges, they're not, you know, lost causes. They're not always going to be a foregone conclusion. Most of the time when we mount these challenges against incumbent Democrats, you know, our side isn't successful. But, you know, as AOC said in the documentary, Knocking Down the House, it takes a hundred of them to win or to run in order for one of them to win. And with the way that some of these primary races are going, where you have people like Steny Horror and Nancy Pelosi with Shea Hidbutar challenging her, actually being forced to campaign, that is a phenomenal, phenomenal sign. So, Michaela Wilkes can win this race. And I know it seems like that's an impossible thought currently because the left just lost the biggest race of our lifetimes with the Democratic Party primary and Bernie Sanders, but it's not over. And there's still a lot of wins that we can rack up in 2020. We've got a long way to go and her primary's coming up. So I'm gonna link you to the interview that I did with Michaela Wilkes. And I wanna encourage you to donate to her campaign. I know that everyone is hurting right now. I know that, you know, we're losing our jobs and our livelihoods because of COVID-19. But if you have anything to spare, a dollar, that can make a difference because she's got Steny Horror on the ropes. We just need to give her enough momentum to land that knockout punch. It's gonna be hard, but it is possible. It is within the realm of possibility. Don't tell yourself it's not possible. Michaela Wilkes has been campaigning now for over a year and she has a phenomenal strategy. She's running a good campaign. She has a solid team and she could do this. Don't just believe it, fight for it, but acknowledge it's possible.