 Hello, everyone. I am here with 2020 congressional candidate from Nebraska's second congressional district Cara Eastman fresh off of her primary victory She's here to talk about what she did to be successful and how we can help her win and defeat Republican incumbent Don Bacon in November Cara, thank you so much for coming on the program. Thank you for having me. I'm so honored to be here You know, I was telling Cara before we came on that her Success here really helped to kind of pull me out of this funk that I was feeling You know, because it seems like everything that we worked for in a way was crashing and burning before our very eyes and you know, there's still a number of really fantastic members Congressional candidates running for Congress across the country and your victory meant so much because it showed us that You know, we can still win we still have a lot to fight for and this election isn't over like we may have not been successful at the top of the ticket But we can still really have a tremendous impact, you know, when it comes to congressional races across the country So I just want to ask you because this is really a difficult question that we're all asking to ourselves How did you win? Like what do you think you you did? What were the key ingredients to your campaign success because you're running in Nebraska and you know Conventional wisdom would tell us that you have to be kind of centrist and you can't be too bold But you've run on this really bold unapologetically progressive campaign your advocacy for single-payer is just phenomenal The way that you explain it. I think is perfect. Um, so what do you think made you successful? well, I mean Part of it is just hard work. We we were able to you know in 2018 We knocked on about 200,000 doors this cycle We made a full pass to the district before the coronavirus hit I think my field director today said we had about 320,000 attempts at voter contact either at the doors or by phone And so I think hard work is part of it But but the other pieces, you know, I I'm fortunate enough to have run in 2018 So I do my name ID is relatively high in the district. I think that helps But also I think people are looking for authenticity in a candidate And even though we don't always agree on everything at least people know who I am and what I stand for and where I stand on things and and I think now it's just a matter of candidates trying to get people to understand that while not everybody agrees on Progressive issues there. There's there's so much common ground and I think part of the problem is is like messaging It's it's buzzwords that throw people off. We learned this right from Obamacare affordable care I people didn't know they were different things or they thought they were different things and and so I think that's how Happening now like you walk into a room and say Medicare for all and half the room shuts down because they're like, oh I don't like that thing that that guy was talking about on TV for years And so but the reality is when you explain it to them when you say this is cheaper for the federal government This is a lot cheaper for you This means you actually have choice and freedom when it comes to health care that you don't have to go with in Network out of network for no parent reason whatsoever that you're not kind of get hit with surprise billing I think then people start going, huh, that's really interesting Then you get a pandemic and you sit and people say wow untethering health care from employment not so crazy Yeah, and when I saw or when I when I posted the video of your single-payer Basically, you make you make the case for single-payer and you kind of respond to all of these talking points that we've seen that have largely You know Manifested from within the industry that are fed to politicians You broke down all of these anti-medicare for all talking points I think brilliantly and one thing that I noted when I talked about that was that you really you have a great way of Explaining something to where you meet people where they are so Understanding, you know the context of the district that you know that you're running in and all of that unique dynamics there You know you you touch on these aspects of freedom, which is important to people You know you will be more free under a Medicare for all system And what's interesting is that the minute you won your opponent Don Bacon Republican Immediately started lambasting you on Twitter with this absurd Twitter thread Going through all of the ways that you are kind of this cuckoo crazy person and he's really trying to frame you as someone who is an unrealistic candidate and What is going to be your response because he already is trying to really focus on single-payer and he's trying to use that to bring You down. How are you going to basically? Repel some of these attacks and what do you think will be the best strategy going forward to actually beat him because I think this is a very Winnable race and it's going to be difficult But if you win this could really change discourse nationally when it comes to where progressives can't win So how are you going to beat this guy? Good question Well, well first of all, we're lucky right this playbook has been played for decades about Democrats about ideas Medicare that this was the same narrative social security same narrative that this is crazy pie-in-the-sky idea and so so there's that right there's the The fact that this is this is a traditional playbook that they bring out to try to make someone look nuts when really what we're saying is like there's a better system out there that actually saves money and and and Obviously when when there's a woman running the the narrative they love, you know, they love this narrative like I'm I'm this radical socialist crazy person That I don't have the right temperament all these kinds of things Well, like I run nonprofit organizations for over 20 years My temperaments pretty calm pretty cool And I've gotten things done that people said couldn't get done and that's by building coalitions by bringing people together so I think one we have we have an obligation to point out where His his playbook is the Republican playbook It's the Trump playbook and and he's just regurgitating speaking points given to him by a party I've never been that person nor will I ever be because I I'm gonna fight for the things I believe in and any party can tell me what they think I should say but you know I'm just gonna be me and and the other part of this is the reality is Congressman Bacon has voted three times to take away health care from people without a viable plan to replace it when He talks about his plan, which was had some made-up name There's no way that that's gonna save money and and I can't believe that a that somebody, you know Where the Republican Party has traditionally been this party of fiscal responsibility. They're now completely Rejecting although not completely right because when we look at single-payer it keeps growing among rep You know in popularity among Republicans, but they there were there some of them are rejecting this idea That we could have a system that's much more efficient that eliminates waste and that saves money for people I don't quite understand why that would be unpopular. Oh wait Yes, I do when the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies are coming in and lobbying and paying for Politicians to say this crap it works And so now it's time for us to stand up against those things and say we're gonna elect politicians who don't take corporate Pact money who aren't bought and sold by industry and by special interests and we're actually gonna fight for regular Working and frankly right now people who aren't working in this country because this is what we need and what we deserve Yeah And the irony is that he accused you in his Twitter thread of wanting to quote-unquote take away people's health care But that's what he voted to do three times because if you just want to repeal what we have in place Obamacare it wasn't perfect, but it's better than nothing But if you repeal that and you don't have a replacement plan, that's quite literally taking away health care So there's this weird conflict with their talking points on one hand proponents of single-payer want to take away health care But at the same time it's too expensive and we can't afford it. Well, which one is it if we're taking it away then There's nothing there to pay for right So, you know and these talking points don't make sense because they're meant to really confuse people and at a time When we have whistleblowers like Wendell powderer who came from the industry who says hey I helped write this choice talking point that politicians are now using I think there's really nowhere to hide and I wanted to ask you because you've talked to so many people What is the reception when you talk to people who don't necessarily know about Medicare for all and might not necessarily be Disposition to support a progressive what is the response when you explain it to them because I think the way that you explain it It's basically you can't explain it in a better way. You break it down in such a phenomenal way That's why I shared that video rather than your actual campaign ad when I talked about your victory because it's such a great way because Part of what I think it's been missing with progressives is we're great at talking about policy But marketing is is difficult marketing in the sense that we don't explain policies As well as we should and I think that you really are honing this craft So what is the general response from people who might not necessarily be inclined to support something like single-payer off the bat? Well, I feel lucky that I've had been able to have these conversations so many times because trust me There are there are definitely people in the district who don't or agree agree or didn't agree And the reality is if I can get three sentences out Inevitably they say oh, I hadn't thought of it that that way or oh, I didn't realize that So inevitable. I mean I remember this distinctly. We had a fundraiser when we could actually go out in public Right at a small bar called the tiny bar and and the the former mayor of Omaha was there He's a Democrat. He you know, he would consider himself a pretty moderate Democrat And he's a supporter of mine, but he's he asked me a question there and he said I don't know about this Medicare for all thing explain it So I did three four sentences and afterwards he came up to me and said you sold me you sold me on it Same thing happened when we we wrote a two-page paper kind of a Q&A on On single-payer healthcare and we had a a Republican state senator read it and say wow I'd never seen it broken down like this. I don't know how I couldn't support something like this now So I think look there's been so much Misinformation unfortunately by both Democrats and Republicans put out there There's there's a lot of misinformation being spread on purpose some of it just because people are running and they want people to be more Amenable to their ideas and they think if they're more moderate than they won't scare people as much and I understand the fear It sounds crazy that tomorrow morning some of us could wake up without health care Well, except for the 30 million Americans who just lost their health care, right? But like for for most people who have a job who have health care and and it sounds insane Well, one there's a transition program. This isn't an overnight approach This this isn't snap our fingers and get health care, but but it's it's rational It's reasonable and it makes sense and it saves money So I don't see why we wouldn't at least put out this idea this, you know and and see where we go Like there's gonna be compromise along the way I actually one of the things I'm concerned about is overutilization and I talked to from illa jiapal congressman Who introduced the bill and we talked a little bit about this and she said there's places in the bill that prevent that But I can't why people would be worried about that, you know People worry that people are hypochondriacs and are gonna use health care too much and then what do we do if we have to wait? Mine I get all that it's scary But the reality is we would in the United States of America We would come up with the system that works and we can do it in a way where we're actually Saving money eliminating waste and giving people freedom to choose their health care provider I kind of want to go back to your victory part of the reason why I felt Really frustrated with you know the 2020 election is Because you know COVID-19 it really changed the dynamic of a lot of these congressional races because I think that you know The bread and butter of grassroots candidates is to knock on doors So you managed to win during a pandemic Can you explain how COVID-19 changed your race and how you adapted and how that's gonna change? You know the race going forward because you know as far as we know this could continue until November We don't necessarily know how long social distancing and self-quarantine will be you know something that is a necessity So how did you adapt and going forward? What would you say to other progressives who are currently running campaigns who haven't you know? They haven't won yet and their primaries are coming up. How do you think they can arm themselves to adapt to a pandemic? It's tough and as I said before I think the fact that we did have relatively high name ID her held obviously But we we were able I have a great team and they were able to very quickly Reconfigure so that rather than knocking on doors because we stopped you know immediately once we felt like it was unsafe For either our team or our volunteers or people at the doors When we stopped door knocking we immediately switched to phone banking and and there were days where we were making You know we had one weekend where we made 30,000 phone calls to people in the district And there's the technology out there to do that and if you have a strong volunteer base You can make that many calls, but it's really relying on that grassroots support And I think that's the nice thing for most progressives They have that support already so they can just really mobilize their own people and come up with some creative solutions We did a program called kids for cara where we delivered little coloring sheets in bags with crayons and stickers to kids We had about 100 people request these bags around the district Down to be in mail But I think you also have to look at other ways of reaching people and certainly the phone Especially when the pandemic hit was the best way because people were home and answering their phones Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, I wanted to ask you about the current fight that's being waged in congress We saw Pramila Jayapal really speak out because Nancy Pelosi didn't include her provision To guarantee paychecks the workers that she fought for and after a large portion of the agenda of the congressional progressive caucus wasn't included in the heroes act and most progressives voted for it anyway I wanted to ask what your position would have been, you know as a member of congress Would you have still voted for the heroes act or would you have you know taken the Jayapal stance and not voted for it? Because you know, I get the conflict internally, you know, there's some good in that bill But at the same time a lot of the progressive agenda was left off. It still doesn't go far enough So how, you know, if you're going to affect change from within How do you effectively challenge leadership and even not necessarily challenge? But how do you get them to take the progressive agenda? seriously because one of my main criticisms lately has been of Members of congress who are progressive that don't actually challenge leadership in a really effective and meaningful way And I think that if they held strong as a bloc and withheld votes once in a while They would actually be more successful at you know, just being taken seriously by you know Members of democratic party leadership. So what's your stance on this whole battle with the heroes act? Would you have supported it? What do you think would have been the better strategy to get more progressive provisions included in the heroes act? Well, so so to answer your question, I would have supported it and and mostly because In our district, there are so many people who have reached out to us because they're not getting what they need from their current congressperson who voted against it by the way and Who are are struggling and struggling pretty hard core? And and there are provisions here that will help so But but as to your broader question I mean one of the things we need to do is to get different more progressive candidates into congress, right? Because as we expand that base as we make sure that there's more of a bloc Of a progressive leaders in congress people who are willing to work across the aisle people who are willing to challenge leadership People who are willing to get things done This is where we we just need more people who are running on these Platforms to get into congress and then I think that's where the negotiation starts too, right? Like we this is this is a relatively new movement that we're seeing in congress 2018 was had some bright shiny spots We need a lot more of that to get things done At what point do progressives in congress actually really make a difference on the larger democratic party agenda because currently, you know Nancy Pelosi won't allow a vote on medicare for all even though, you know, we know that it wouldn't pass the senate But symbolically it would it would make a difference and show voters that you know The democrats just delivered on medicare for all they voted for it So elect a democrat or more democrats and you get medicare for all delivered to you like What do you think progressives can do because currently I don't really see the strategy Um from members of the congressional progressive congress Caucus being utilized correctly like I look to the freedom caucus I disagree with them on everything but you can't deny that they were effective and they really hammered leadership So in terms of like going into congress, this is difficult because you're not you're not there yet And you know, you don't you know, it'll be awkward, right? Because you don't necessarily want to challenge your own colleagues your boss and Nancy Pelosi That's so tough. So I can only imagine what that's like But what will your strategy be to really elevate the progressive agenda given the fact that in terms of numbers, you know You don't have that much progressives given the fact that you know, you are taking on You know special interests What will you do to basically make sure that what we want as you know, the left center left actually is Going to get more of um more of a standing in congress if not passed all together Sure. Well, well first of all My boss will always be the constituents in my district. That's a good answer And so I I truly believe that people here deserve a voice And and so I'm going to listen to them now We're a swing district and I think when you have candidates that say like I'm gonna listen to everybody and do what everybody wants That's crazy, right? Yeah Um, because like, you know Not half the district But you know court of the district certainly don't agree with most of the things that I that I would like to get done Although they would benefit tremendously from them So I think the other place where we we need to do this well is is to really pick and choose our battles and and the The tough thing right now Is that with the pandemic there's there's I mean, this is the worst crisis We've seen in the country other than donald trump as president. It's in a while if ever and so This is a tough time to be You know, I I feel for congresswoman giapal I feel for you know, some of the congressman brokana like I think that they've been incredible Attempts to get some more progressive policies implemented And and I think we also have to look at wins from a different perspective, right? So so what what are the things that we can accomplish? Where are the things where we can get bipartisan support for them? I mean when we talk about things, you know, people always ask me like well, what are the things you can work with republicans on? Well infrastructure certainly something that we all agree on You know there we all think that pharmaceutical prices are too high And that was something donald trump ran on and we haven't seen any movement And I guess when I say we all think that I have to go back and say well But congressman bacon voted against lowering prescription drugs So most people think that they're too high. So I do think that there's some common ground there, but But I think it's also it's also going to take different voices different kinds of messaging and my background has been in Bringing people together to solve problems when I was hired to start my nonprofit in Omaha Omaha healthy kids alliance My board was made up of membership who were you know appointed by the Nebraska delegation Who are almost all republicans and we were able to get a lot of things done I actually worked with one of our republican us senators years ago to help sponsor the healthy housing council act He was the only republican in the senate that would even touch it and it's to create a council to advise over healthy housing issues It's not like some sort of radical thing But like but that's the work that I've done So I believe I will take I can take that experience and expertise to congress to try to get some stuff done That's great. That's encouraging to hear. Um, one last thing I want to ask you with regard to policy is in a perfect world Um, if you could pass whatever you wanted to do with regard to covet relief What policies would you implement? What do you think your constituents would need the most at this time immediately? Um, well, I you know and I I think that the way that the it began in that in his ending is like it needs to be flipped Right, so it's always got to be working people first workers first Um, what are we doing for them bailing out the big corporations? Yeah, we can get to that But like they're doing fine, right? So so starting there starting with small businesses I've talked to so many small business owners who are Just don't know what they're going to do next and when you have the president of the united states say things like Small businesses will be fine, but maybe under new ownership. It's like come on, dude You don't like you must understand on some level that these are family owned businesses that have been passed down for generations Sometimes and the idea that you would just completely disrespect that is so un-american to me So it's like we really have to start looking at this from a different perspective. So for me, that's where we would have started Yeah, yeah, the response has been completely tone deaf You know, there was a there was a moment in time where at the beginning of this pandemic It kind of seemed like maybe We would see some bipartisanship In terms of relief But you know that hope dissipated almost immediately when we we just didn't get that, you know One time payment of $1,200 is obviously not enough for working families And you know when they you know, give us those crumbs give working people those crumbs But it's tied to a huge multi trillion dollar bailout for special interests You know, it just shows why we need people like you in congress because this can't keep continuing We can't keep giving, you know, um special interests all of these Gifts for lack of a better word while the working people continue to struggle and you know the the sense that I get from You know members of congress and president trump is that they don't even really seem to care anymore Like the the belief is that you know workers got that $1,200 bailout. That's fine You know, I think it was Steve Mnuchin who implied that it could last 10 weeks or something to that effect. I'm paraphrasing. So it's just it's ridiculous So look, I think that anybody who's watching this is incredibly excited about your campaign and we want to see you win So give us your um information about what we can do if we don't leave live in your district How can we affect change and get you elected? What can we do for you? Because we all want to see you in congress. We know you'd be a fighter. How do we make that happen? So if everybody watching could move to the district I think that would be really helpful and then No, we we rely heavily on volunteers as I said before so we we do have opportunities for people to sign up on our website Eastman for congress.com. I don't take corporate PAC money. So we also rely on grassroots donations and Any amount is great. We have a program called invest her That's a peer-to-peer fundraising program. So you can sign up and you know set a goal for yourself I want to get 20 people to donate or I'm going to raise 50 bucks or whatever it is We want to grow our grassroots support as much as possible And then just spreading the word commenting on our stuff on social media letting people know that, you know On our team that that you're with us It's nice to feel this collective energy right now of people who actually want to change the country and move it In the right direction Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much and I will make my pitch for Cara Even if you don't necessarily live in that district the policies that she passes will be implemented nationally Like I always like to point to the example of Ilhan Omar to where she proposed student debt cancellation That impacts me directly and she's not my representative. So, you know, this is about building, you know, a nationwide movement And we do this in every single district and get, you know, as many progressives elected as we possibly can So Cara, thank you so much for Winning first of all and giving us kind of something to fight for and letting us know that a victory is possible Even in very weird circumstances with, you know, a pandemic and whatnot And yeah, we'll be we'll be rooting for you and watching this race closely If I don't have you back on before the election, hopefully I can bring you on when you're actually a member of congress That will be very exciting That would be great. I'm happy to come on anytime. Thank you. Thank you so much Cara Cara Eastman running in Nebraska's second congressional district against republican Don Bacon Links will be in the description box if you would like to donate and support her campaign