 Growing up we didn't have much but I had dedicated parents that taught me and my sisters the importance of giving back and taking care of one another. I was sick as a kid. I had severe asthma that forced me to miss a lot of school. My mom, being the compassionate person that she is, was in and out of work because of the care that I required. My dad faced racism and inequities that prevented him from obtaining upward mobility in a sustainable way. My story has become far too common in the first district of Illinois. Many of us live in poverty. Our babies are more likely to get asthma, we're more likely to have lead in our water, more likely to be shot. We know what causes gun violence in our district. It's not a lack of morals, bad parenting, or video games. It's systemic poverty. It's educational inequity. It's the lack of universal health care. It's environmental injustice. It is a system that isn't broken because it works for those that it was designed to serve. My name is Robert Image Jr. and I'm a gun violence prevention advocate, social innovator, and non-profit leader. I was raised in a small town named Maze Landing, New Jersey and I grew up in Auburn Gresham on the south side of Chicago. I'm running for Congress to get the federal government to understand that these are common-sense gun violence prevention laws that will lead to prosperity. The solutions are simple and that's what makes them innovative. A living wage, universal pre-k, and access to higher education for all of those who want it. Expansion of transportation accessibility, Medicare for all, and a green new deal. These policies and cultural shifts will allow those in our community to live with dignity. For generations folks have been saying this is why we can't wait by any means necessary and enough is enough. In this moment we cannot afford to wait our turn. Generations to come are depending on the actions we make today. In our community we march for our lives every single day but we ought to live in a world that we don't have to. Join our pursuit of peace and be a part of this movement. We are the solution. Together. Hello everyone. I am here with Robert Emmons Jr. He is a 2020 congressional candidate running in the first congressional district of Illinois and he is here to talk about his campaign. Robert, thank you so much for coming on the program. Of course. Thank you so much for having me Mike. I really appreciate it. I appreciate you coming on. It's always exciting to talk to candidates from around the country and you are from this new wave of progressives of Democrats who you are outspokenly progressive and you're running for Congress and tell me why you decided to run because if I decided to run for Congress I wouldn't know where to even begin. So what made you want to one put yourself through all of this and two be a fighter at the national level? Yeah. That's a really good question that we get at every single town hall and I answer it differently sometimes depending on what's going on in my life because there are so many different things that happen back in 2018 when I first made the decision to run for office but to not today I'll talk about just how I grew up once I moved to Chicago. So I moved to Chicago when I was 13 turning 14 years old and I distinctly remember in my high school in the south side of Chicago every now and then having an assembly on what the teachers will bring us all together and they would inform us that we had just lost a classmate, a friend, a family member, a former classmate. It's a gun violence that weekend and I remember in those moments thinking about how critical it is for us to act and to not just allow that to become normal because we are losing so many futures to senseless gun violence so when I was thinking about what I wanted to do when I finished up high school I knew I wanted to get more involved in advocacy so I applied and got admitted to the University of Illinois at our Bennett's Champaign with my two friends and which we room together our freshman year and that's when I began to really get involved in advocacy criminal justice reform gun violence prevention. You name it I really want to get involved in it and during that first year of college I remember talking to my friend one of my roommates about his grades and how they began to flip and then he received a letter from the University of Illinois at our Bennett's Champaign telling him that if he didn't get his act together he'd be kicked out and despite his best efforts to to bring his grades up he was unsuccessful and ultimately kicked out. With that he tried to remain successful and try to be resilient like he's always been but he's unsuccessful and that is what I need to move back to Chicago and when he moved back to Chicago he felt deeper into poverty and he ended up getting some getting into some bad bad things here in Chicago and in 2015 he was shot and killed. As you can imagine that that devastated me and every single person that was in his orbit and the thing that kept resonated with me is that statistically speaking unfortunately his death was predictable. It was predictable because he was living in a system in a society that failed him at every turn. Our economic system that allowed him to fall back into poverty when he moved at Chicago it failed him our education system so that didn't give him the adequate amount of support in order to be successful. It failed him and even our racist criminal justice system it failed him. Rehabilitating our young people is more focused on punitive measures similar to the academic probation that encountered at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I think what drove me to run for office was even though his death was statistically speaking predictable because of what's going on in our current society it was also 100% preventable. It's preventable with a living wage, it's preventable with access to higher education for all of those who want it, it's preventable with Medicare for all, with the expansion of access to mental health care and criminal justice reform and a greening deal. So I'm running for U.S. Congress to make this the very last generation to be faced with everyday gun violence and to do so we need to address it at its root causes and that's what we've been missing in our country and the national media seem to not care as much about what goes on in communities like mine as it pertains to gun violence. So we're going to make sure that we are setting a vision for the country so that people in my community can live with dignity and live in safety and prosperity and peace. That's why we're running for U.S. Congress to fight for these progressive issues to make our lives and lives of generations become brighter than what the trajectory would suggest today. And I'm so glad that you shared that story and the reason why I like to ask people why they're running for Congress even if like generally speaking like nine times out of ten when you ask a candidate why they're running for Congress they talk about their qualifications they talk about well you know I was a mayor and I have X Y and Z qualifications but when I talk to grassroots candidates like yourself you always really you have this personal story this personal thing that happened that impacted them and the reason why I like to ask this question is because running for Congress is it's just a huge personal sacrifice like it takes so much effort like you're probably not getting any sleep so I like to ask and there's always a reason behind it and for you that personal story absolutely that resonates with people and I'm so glad that you you decided to step up now you talk about root causes I want to read a quote from you this is in your ad this is probably my favorite quote of this entire race so far so this is what you say quote it is a system that isn't broken because it works for those it was designed to serve I know what you meant by that but I want you to elaborate because that is such an amazing way to frame it and it makes so much sense so what policy prescriptions do you have to fix it yeah yeah that's I'm glad you pointed that out it was a derivative of just what I've I've seen other activists around the country saying so a lot of times you especially in a row as we talk a lot about the system being broken and dismantling the system but it occurred to me and this campaign actually that the system isn't necessarily broken unfortunately it's corrupted and it's greedy and it feeds off of the vulnerable in our communities like our criminal justice system and how it's fueled by the amount of folks who are incarcerated and how we privatize our prisons since 1984 and perpetuated policies like the 1994 crime bill with desperate at vicious cycles of poverty and in that case violence in our communities and it's working pretty well the prison industrial complex is a billion dollar industry for private institutions and so it's working pretty well but we do need to dismantle it because it's not working well for those it was designed to hurt intentionally so that's just one example of what we're fighting what we're what we're talking about when we're talking about broken systems so one thing we can do when using the criminal justice system as an example is to ban private prisons no one should profit off of folks being incarcerated it again it adds to this this ugliness that has existed in America for a few decades in which case I know you've seen the stats the United States has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prison population and one out of that means that one out of every 110 citizens have been incarcerated with it within their lifetime and that's an extremely vicious capitalist way of repairing our society when someone does misbehaving in some way so we need to ban private prisons all together and and invest in making sure that our system our criminal justice system is curated around repair and restoration and rehabilitation and not just punitive measures that just don't work and that's why our recidivism rate here in this country is so high and that's what we mean when we say that the system is working pretty well because the folks who profit off of that are benefiting from recidivism and keeping those keeping those jails as full of prisons as full as possible yeah and that's so important it's a really good way I think to differentiate yourself from other candidates because people will just look at this mass incarceration crisis in our country and think wow this must be a flaw of our system how can this happen but if you think about it and you know about capitalism it's functioning exactly as you would expect because the goal of capitalism is to take every single component of our society and commodify it turn it into some type of money-making venture and so when you start turning prisons into this money-making venture and health care into a money-making venture I mean we really can't be surprised because this is exactly the way the system is designed so it it it takes people like you to come out and say the system isn't broken we just have a system that doesn't work for normal people and I think that's so important and for people now to come out and you know criticize capitalism I do really see the overtime window starting to kind of nudge to the left and it's all because of grassroots activists such as yourself people who are really saying maybe it's okay to criticize capitalism you can consider yourself a capitalist but if you are going to allow things these things to happen then maybe you know maybe capitalism isn't what you thought it was you know we think about the glorious things about capitalism I love my you know my PlayStation 4 you know I we love the clothes and whatnot but we don't think about the way that this affects people at you know a very very concrete level in terms of us getting our basic necessities so it's it's incredibly important that's why I want to bring up that quote because it really stuck out to me and I absolutely love it but let me ask so hypothetically speaking you're elected to Congress there's a lot of things that we have to do to change the system but there's only so much time so let's just say we get the best case scenario we get you know a Bernie Sanders president and a Democratic House and Congress or and Senate so in that first year what do you think realistically you'd be able to accomplish if you get elected because this is something that for me there's so many different policies that I want to pass I don't think I would be able to figure out like where to begin I would my head would be spinning so what would you do in the first year that you think would be feasible in a in an ideal world in which you just painted out the scenario the I believe that's the best thing that I can do for the people of the Illinois first congressional district is push as hard as I can and advocate with members of the House and the Senate to reverse the Dickey amendment so that the CDC can study gun violence as a public health epidemic gun violence is a disease and it is contagious and it is killing thousands the dozens of thousands of Americans every every year and until we can begin to truly study it and get down to the root causes of everyday gun violence we're not going to be able to to address it the way we're supposed to I am a social innovator by profession I go around the world with the innovation lab known as a leash bringing together a thousand young people from around the world to solve some of our most pressing issues focus on the United Nations sustainable development goals and one of the things we start off with is the research and allowing that to to to influence how we design programming and how we make decisions because we we got it to end the epidemic of everyday gun violence now not later 100,000 Americans are either wounded or killed by a person with a gun whether that be themselves or or someone in their communities every year at that rate there are going to be a million Americans that will have been directly impacted by gun violence within 10 years that is a crisis that isn't talked about enough and only talked about when there is a national mass shooting with which the media centers in on but this is going on in our communities every single day and and we have to solve it and we have to solve it once and for all but to start like I said reversing the the Dickey amendment so we can actually study gun violence and allow that research to influence our decision and how we we advocate and continue to fight for a peaceful peaceful world and all of our communities that's awesome what else would would you think would be feasible because that actually is something that I think there would actually be a large enough consensus to where that would get done because like it really is it's absurd that the CDC can't study gun violence that doesn't even make any sense and of course you know that is written exclusively just for the gun lobby it's it's embarrassing that that is even a thing and I actually do think that that even the democratic party would be on board with that that's kind of a basic step what else do you think could be accomplished in that first year because you're going to have a lot of people like what I noticed is that each candidate running for congress they all kind of have their own bread and butter like some are focused on health care some are focused on housing rights and you're coming to congress with you know a gun reform agenda so what else do you think could be accomplished in that first year because I feel like if we truly do get all three branches old maybe not supreme court of course that's not something but I mean electorally speaking if we can elect you know a democratic house senate and white house then that first year I think we can accomplish a lot so what else do you think could be done realistically speaking absolutely I think we're in a green deal which is also gun violence and that's what we've been saying around our district and around the country the green new deal has the federal jobs guarantee portion of it also would help reverse the impacts of environmental racism that our communities are facing in this in this investment communities around the country we can pass Medicare for all again gun violence prevention uh gun violence prevention policies with the expansion of mental health care for members of my community that are suffering immense amounts of trauma that perpetuate cycles of violence I think we can pass education reform the the way we fund schools and in Illinois is are heavily based off of housing taxes which means if you live in a core community your school is likely to be under resourced which which is an injustice in and of itself and again set up intentionally like that so we can we can pass all these progressive issues and the reason why I feel prepared to champion a lot of a lot of the policies I just I just I just explained and and listed out is when you think about a lot of these progressive issues that we fight for the issues themselves the disproportionately impact black men under the age of 35 like our criminal justice system like education like gun violence yet we don't have a single member of congress that fits this demographic either in the house or the senate so that means we're missing a key voice in congress right now one that understands the interconnectivity of these issues having gone through it having been from a community that is facing it and having friends and family that face these obstacles and fortunately for a good amount of us overcome them through resilience but we're missing that voice right now I believe I can bring in the stories of of my district and bring in the stories of people around the country to begin building more bridges in congress so that way my kids your kids our grandkids aren't aren't fighting for the same things that we have to fight for right now that's the mark of a sustainable society is generation after generation uh progressing and that's the way I look at progressivism and that's why I happily call myself a progressive and given that scenario that you illustrated an ideal world as long as we're physically engaged right now we can realize that I believe that the the sky isn't even the limit for what we accomplish and then lastly here's a big kick in my we gotta we gotta figure out a way to get money out of politics yeah because that is that is what what is hurting and stunting our growth as a country even though you have 90 plus percent of the country as believing that we need comprehensive background checks we saw the congress that that isn't moving the way it's supposed to we got got mitch mcconnell uh holding hr 8 hr uh 1112 uh on on his desk because of influence is like uh like the nr a um another very special interest that prevents them from actually moving um but we need to get money out of politics and I believe we can do that with a progressive uh uh executive and legislative branch and then uh we got some work to do on the supreme court and we're going to uh we could talk about it and then we got some work we got some work to do yeah that's a whole different conversation I took off the phone with my communications director we're writing a blog on on it so uh so express on my mind yeah uh get that absolutely oh for sure for sure there there's we could we could literally talk for 24 hours straight about everything no so basically what you all talked about is it's phenomenal you laid out like your agenda you cited the lowest common denominator but let me ask you this though so you're running against bobby rush um he's been in there since I believe the uh the 90s I want to say I don't know the exact year um so you're running against someone who doesn't have as high of a profile as other democrats so my question is oh hang on a second I just activated Siri okay sorry so my question is um what is it about bobby rush that makes you feel as if you would be a better voice for individuals in that first district of illinois because for like if for example we have shahid buttar running against nancy polosi mackayla wilkes running against teni hoyer so to people who aren't in that district it's obvious but for your district you kind of have to lay it out a little bit more for people who aren't there and don't have the context so why do you feel as if you are better suited to represent that district than bobby rush yeah that's a great question um and one that's critical um in terms of developing contrast between me and the current incumbent in which I respect um and I I honor his years of activism in the 60s and in the 70s um but since he's been a congressman um he was elected the same year in which I was born uh I'm 26 years old um he's been a congress for 26 years my birthdays and four I guess about three weeks uh happy birthday I only want to be able to do that thank you I won't be able to use that talking place for about a month since he was elected in the general election in November 1990 so we'll we'll stop using that for a month it's a good one but it's still at 26 and 26 and 26 um in 1994 um he voted for the disastrous crime bill a lot of democrats were were wrong about about that that crime bill um and I I do think that it did originate with good intent but it had terrible um impact on on black and brown communities around the country um instituting three three strikes and you're out uh and uh you just go on and on about how bad that was um and we would have given bobby rush a pass um because of the information that was available then well it's available now um but 25 years later um in the mayoral election here in chicago um he supported a candidate uh for for mayor and there were plenty to choose from um that in broad daylight in an effort uh to reduce crime propose that we spend 50 million dollars in drones surveillance um in black and brown communities that is the same the same methods that the 1994 crime bill um instituted which does nothing but militarize and criminalize communities so that means bobby rush even though he said that was the the worst thing he's ever voted for um he hasn't learned from it um and it's important to learn from your mistakes so that's that that's that's one thing another thing that that that just makes us drastically different um is our understanding of how to solve the climate crisis uh bobby rush sits on the committee on energy and commerce um so the green new deal uh resolution went through his jurisdiction in which he called a smashing graph um that he's glad is out of his committee um and that should come at no surprise to the people of the first congressional district or folks around the country uh because bobby rush is also taking money from the fossil fuel industry um and this is all the while uh we including myself um in the first district of Illinois have some of the highest levels of asthma uh than any other place in the country yet we have a sitting congressman who had who is in the committee that could help solve the climate crisis um by passing resolution um that would put us on the trajectory towards reversing the impact of climate and guaranteeing jobs and i've already alluded to the fact that that is gun violence prevention right there uh bobby rush is uh is out of touch uh with his constituency because the vast majority of the people i speak to in the first district of Illinois they want the green new deal uh they want medicare for all they want us to address gun violence at its root causes um bobby rush is is late to the party um and what we've been saying and what other progressives around the country have been saying is out of touch out of office yeah 20 years ago 20 years ago president barack obama ran against bobby rush um in 2000 and barack obama uh then state senator barack obama said that bobby rush was out of touch and it was time for change it's been 20 years since then so you can only imagine what the people of the first district feel currently and that is why folks all around the district are so excited about this election um in our candidacy because our mindset is fixated on the belief that we are the solution together meaning one person alone one election alone it will not solve the issues at hand but when we come together actively pursuing justice and peace we can solve all of these problems uh but we got to do it together and that is what i've been doing um as a gun violence prevention advocate as a non-profit leader and as a social innovator both locally nationally and even internationally to solve some of these big issues and i always do it with my community not just for uh but with and that really is the difference i think between grassroots candidates and community organizers people who just know the issues of their community and someone who's been in congress for years decades and like they just grow out of touch like this is kind of a similar story that i'm hearing but you know throughout the country you know their candidates are running against someone who has been there forever and maybe at first they had a lot of new fresh innovative ideas but time has passed and they kind of just grew complacent and comfortable and just feel like well you know i'm here i don't have to do much i have you know the power of incumbency behind me um and and just this is what i'm hearing and it's so important that we get new blood in there especially when it comes to the issue of climate change because you know impacting violence in your community that's something that you can you can make a huge amount of progress with but in terms of like representing our entire generation that's also incredibly important because it's people like you and i who we have to think about when you're when we are senior citizens what the world will be like after climate change really takes a toll and it's scary you know so it's nice to see people step up and run for congress and i already know that anyone who's watching this they already are going to be behind you 100 um i think the choice is absolutely clear so let me just have you make your pitch to my viewers um tell them what we can do to help you where we can donate and how we can get involved because if you get elected that's good not just for the first district of illinois this is good for all of us because you're fighting for everyone across the country this is a national movement so what can we do to help robert emin jr get into congress thank you so much mike i want to point we have now received contributions uh from folks in 41 different states around the country um about ending every day gun-off by addressing it as root causes some of the media oftentimes overlook we're making sure that the entire same page um in terms of fighting for peace and fighting for safety um we're fighting for for this generation to be the last generation face with such violence um so we we need your support so visit our website at robert emin dot org find us a volunteer donate to our grassroots campaign um the current congressman bobby russ for decades has been taking money from the fossil fuel industry and other corporate packs that is not what we stand for what we hand for is giving the keys to the house back to the people and the people are the only only the only folks that we will be loyal to when we make it into congress in 2021 so join the movement and we're looking forward to to change this country together and we are all going to be rooting for you let me just make my pitch that i always do for candidates um it's you know there's a lot of people running for congress and so it's difficult we're kind of stretching ourselves thin just as a movement but even if you have just like a spare dollar every single penny helps because when you're going up against someone who is part of the establishment that political status quo that is well financed you know you need people to get behind you and it seems like you've really hit a nerve because to get donations from 41 different states i mean think of that's so unprecedented right i mean to think that just 10 years ago what you're doing would be even possible um it really does give me hope like everyone it's easy to be cynical but to see everyone across the country rising up just normal everyday americans who care who care about the issues that affect their community it really is it's just it gives me hope so thank you for running and please to all of the people watching consider supporting robert um anything you can do to help if you can't donate money then donating time is also incredibly crucial and just spreading the word goes a long way so it's uh robert emins dot org and on twitter you can follow him at our emins 2020 robert thank you so much for coming on it's been a pleasure it's been a pleasure thanks so much mike appreciate it