 Hello, everyone. I'm here with Isan Leckie, who's running to represent the fourth congressional district of Massachusetts. She is running for the old seat of Joseph Kennedy, who is currently challenging Ed Marquis for his U.S. Senate seat. Isan, thank you so much for coming on the program. Thank you for having me. So I'm wondering, because you entered this race initially to primary Joseph Kennedy, the third, and all of a sudden he's no longer interested in maintaining that seat. So do you think that your challenge of him had anything to do with him kind of abandoning it? Or do you think that he just kind of already had this career ambition to kind of move on and accumulate even more power? What's your take on that? Well, this district, Massachusetts District 4 has been underrepresented for a very long time, where we have communities that have a median income of 40K, grouped in the same districts of communities that have a much, much, much higher median income, including one of the towns that is the seventh richest town in the country. So talking about multi-millionaires living here and skewing that. Representation under Joe Kennedy has been skewed towards those who will give the big checks skewed towards the corporate PAC money and the pharma corporate money that constituted that constituted a huge amount of where his campaign finance came from. And that also showed up in the way he would legislate is that in a district where we have people who are activists for climate justice, activists for housing justice, activists for health care justice, and are at every single time feeling that they're not being listened to showing up at his office, our kids rally at his office. We organize for Medicare for all from our living room to call on his constituents to put more pressure on him to take the right decision. It's been just really, really difficult to feel that we actually have representation that reflects who the people of this district are. People in the southern part of the district where there is much more economic inequality have repeatedly told me on the campaign trail that they are sick of politicians who come take pictures and do nothing and only give to certain parts of this district. And that is injustice that needs to end. And as you and I are probably very familiar with this, that taking money out of politics is not just a sentence, it's a movement. And this campaign had started based on building that people powered movement where we organize at every corner of the district to make sure that we have representation that comes from the personal lived experiences that inform the legislation that will move us forward as people. Well said. And I want to talk about you and not just make this about Joe Kennedy, even though I think it's a really interesting race, because you are a phenomenal candidate. You have been endorsed by Brand New Congress. And what I love is that they're endorsing so many people who are just normal people. You're an immigrant. You're a mom. So tell us about yourself and why you decided to run because running for Congress is a huge undertaking. It requires a lot of self sacrifice. So why did you decide to run for Congress? Thank you so much. That was a great question. I came to this country from Morocco at age 20. And I had lost my father when I was 13 and became the sole supporter of my family. And I really was living this dream that I'm going to come to a country where I will have my basic human rights, that I will not struggle with with health care and security like my dad did, that I will have my basic protections as a survivor of sexual abuse, that I will have access to housing and to a dignified job and dignified education. And when I came to this country, I was shocked that that was not the reality that I found myself housing insecure. I found myself health care insecure. I was in a car accident and couldn't call the ambulance. I was afraid that I would be reported deported if I don't pay the $6,000 bill that's going to follow. And throughout that experience of poverty in the richest country in the world, I also learned that the only way out was to take up student loans. And even though I went through community college and saw many people who were really battling, you know, with two and three jobs and kids in tow and still battling to get that five year nursing degree and really, you know, looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and still piling up all this debt, it just felt so unjust. After I finished up my education, I happened to graduate during the financial crisis. And the worst that I could ever imagine to happen in America was to have a college degree and not be able to find a job. That's something that I knew so well in Morocco where people would get PhDs and not get a job, but not here, right? This is the promise. This is what I came here for, the economic opportunity. And you work hard and you get, you study hard and you get. But that promise was not the reality. The reality was that giant banks and corporations took the bailout from our government and the people were left out to nothing. The people lost their pensions, lost their homes, lost their financial security at every, and you see it today. You see how especially millennials now are working two, three jobs and still not able to meet the rents. You see the stagnation in income. But in that time of the financial crisis, I decided to become a Wall Street regulator to fight those big banks head on. I walked into the boardrooms and I saw how they really undermined people. They really have no respect whatsoever for who we are as a working people in America. And I also was able to see the power that we have as a people, if we had a people's government, that we will be able to say no to these corporate, to these corporate interests and say no to these corporate injustice treatment of working class and of our, you know, and of our people everywhere. With the Trump administration, I also saw how without having a people's government, every security, every protection that was built for us so that if there is another economic crisis, we will not bail out the banks, we will bail out the people. The banks will bail themselves out. Every protection that was put in that, in that way was taken away because after all, it's not really about having a Republican or Democrat government. It's about having a government that does not, that does not only represent the corporate interests and that's not the reality at this time. I saw how Democrats and Republicans sold our souls to corporations again and to these big banks. And right now, quite frankly, we really don't have that much protection at all. So, you know, as a Wall Street regulator, it was clear to me that the decisions that are being made in Congress were wrong and that we need to have that people's government. And I wanted to become part of it so that I can continue to take these banks head on. But also, you know, as a mother in that job when I was a regulator, it wasn't easy. I traveled a lot and I also, you know, felt the sting of what it's like to be a working mom. I saw, you know, my coworkers pumping breast milk in the bathroom. I, you know, my kid got sick and my boss wouldn't let me work from home. And the struggle with childcare is just so expensive. If you want to send your kid to a good school, you have to pay a very high rent or very high mortgage. And then you have to also pay for the after school program and forget it if you have a newborn child care. It's just so expensive. And when you look at frontline communities, communities of color and black communities in particular, you see how black mothers are not able to afford child care. It's over 50% of their income. And that means keeping folks in the loop of poverty, the generational poverty. So a lot, you know, a lot of my decisions, um, decision for running for Congress have come from personal experiences. Um, and I would have to say that when the Kevin I hear and happen is when, when I was like, you know, enough is enough. I, I can't, I can't bear to live in a country that promises freedom, that promises dignity, that promises protection and, uh, and be scared to go outside because I really have no protection as long as Calvin I is sitting in this on the Supreme Court. Your perspective is just it's so crucial because, you know, we all kind of have this vision of the American dream. And I've talked to people running for Congress who are immigrants, who kind of had that same sentiment. Like I want to come to America because there's this promise of the American dream. And you know, our grandparents, you know, they'll tell us stories about how they came here when they had nothing and they made something of themselves, but getting here and kind of realizing that reality, it really is shocking to a lot of people. And I can't imagine how you can make it now as an immigrant. Like the American dream is dead. I think that that's what a lot of people are starting to realize. And if we actually want to salvage it, then we have to take really, really substantial action. And it can't just be like we elect one person and they enact change. Like this has to be something from the bottom up where the people get involved. And I'm so glad that you really emphasize, you know, this is a movement. This is all of us kind of coming together and acknowledging that there are all these issues that need to be fixed. So let me ask you this because you've kind of diagnosed a lot of the problems and there is hundreds of policies that we can enact. And that probably would make a difference. But it still wouldn't solve all the crises. So hypothetically speaking, you get elected. What would you focus on? You kind of have like your core platform ideals. But if I were elected, I wouldn't know what to what to focus on. Like I wouldn't know where to begin because there's so much that needs fixing. So if you're elected within that first year, what do you think you would make a priority just personally? Thank you. That's again a great question. As you know, when we run these campaigns, there are people centered. We cannot be the traditional politician who's going to tell you, Oh, this is this is my top three. There is no top three. This is we live in a system that is absolutely broken, that is only working for the super rich, that is undermining the working class that is 99% of our country. And we need fundamental systemic change. We need to really, you know, reconstruct what is the American promise and what is American freedom and what is American democracy. And that goes, you know, from the workplace all the way to the voting booth. So for me, my number one priority is to make sure that we get money out of politics because we cannot make anything happen in this country unless we have a true people's government and not a corporate government. And I, you know, wholeheartedly believe that the Green New Deal is at the center of bringing that systemic change. Bringing a systemic change with a just transition for our for our workers with bringing millions of union jobs, green jobs, with making sure that, you know, we're not only fighting for the future of our of our children and our planet, but that we're also fighting for folks who are, you know, falling victim to climate change right now, climate refugees from outside the country and also from within the country. So these, you know, this is we live in a climate emergency. So we have to actually act very quickly on this. And in the meantime, we also see the crisis in housing. And that's also to me part of that Green New Deal, making sure that we have a homes guarantee where, you know, we're building 12 million units across the country, all green units. And and so this is this is how, again, I'm embedding this in in that fundamental systemic change, where we're addressing every area of the injustice that we see, also making sure that we are anchoring racial and social justice and economic justice in the work that we're doing. We, you know, we hear many politicians come and say, you know, we we need to find solutions to housing, for example, or to education. But the solutions don't reflect the needs of the frontline communities that have been not listened to for generations, that have been marginalized for generations and denied the rights for generations. So it is our responsibility to step up and step in and give back what we had taken over generations. And finally, you know, health care as a human right, I wholeheartedly believe that, especially as someone who had, you know, lost my father to health care and justice. And just to give you like a little glimpse of what that meant. If you get sick in Morocco and suppose that you have you know, some type of government insurance, if you get sick, you have to pay everything out of pocket and then apply for reimbursement. And what that does is that for many people who are living paycheck to paycheck, my dad was a public school teacher. He lived paycheck to paycheck, getting a shot of insulin or getting a shot of penicillin for his case was impossible. It became impossible as cost of living went up and wages stagnated. And here in America, which I really like to draw the parallel and, you know, I'm drawing the parallel between the richest country in the world and a little teensy African country. And and it's it shouldn't be that way, right? You would agree with me. It shouldn't be that way here in America. Folks are rationing insulin. Folks are not able to, you know, go to the emergency room. Folks are not able to get hearing aid or to get, you know, just even even a simple check at the doctor to get checked up at the doctor. And that is creating more and more sickness. And that injustice is really out of end. And I believe the single payer Medicare for all is definitely what we're going to be able to to do in this country to resolve this health care injustice. Yeah, I love that you draw the comparisons between the United States and Morocco, because there really should be no comparison. Like when we are the richest country on the planet, the richest country that humanity has ever seen, we should have everything. Like the story that you told me about you got in a car accident and you didn't want to call an ambulance because if you couldn't pay the bill, you would be afraid to be deported. I mean, that's just that's cruel. Like that's inhumane and so many people have stories like this. And it's so frustrating to hear these stories because it's sad and it doesn't need to happen. That's really the thing that makes it the worst, I think, not the fact that it is happening, but that it doesn't have to happen, that we can fix this because we have so much money. We live in, you know, a world that is dominated by global capitalism. So if money buys power and is supposed to, you know, increase the standard of living, then why do we have people in the United States dying or going bankrupt? Why do we have immigrants afraid to be deported to the extent where they won't even call an ambulance if they know that they need their life to be saved? It's just it really is it's disgusting. So I love that you kind of bring that perspective. And by the way, I have a lot of interest in Moroccan politics. I studied North African politics for my graduate degree and I wrote my thesis on partially on Morocco and the LGBTQ movement in Morocco. So shout out to Kiff Kiff. But moving on to the dynamics of your race. So you're running a People's Powered campaign, but that does put you at a disadvantage, monetarily speaking. And unfortunately, you do you do need money to win. That is a sad fact of reality in American politics. So talk about the dynamics in terms of who else is running. Is this kind of an open field? Is there nobody else left? Or once Joe Kennedy jumped out, I'm assuming somebody else tried to who the establishment wanted to try to go for that seat. What is it looking like and what do you need in terms of viability? Like, do you think that at this rate, you've gotten enough money and knocked on enough doors to win? So the seat had, you know, became open and a bunch of people jumped in and people who jumped in were waiting. Like before he announced for Senate, they actually went out and said, well, if he chooses to run for a different office, then I will consider then they will consider running. And to me, that's establishment politics, you know, wait your turn, build a political career. You know, you know, you can't, you know, you can't challenge an incumbent. And that speaks to me as my race has not changed. It's still people against establishment. And that also gives me a sense that I can't really trust people who run on on those so-called rules are made up by the Democratic establishment because it just tells me that it's going to be status quo. And right now we are in a political crisis. We are in a crisis. We have Trump in office, we have a Trump administration. We have a people who have become jaded to the point where they don't even trust anybody who's running. So folks like me, when they, when, you know, everyday ordinary Americans, when we run, we come to clean up the mess that's been that's been left by incumbents, right? We knock on the door and there is so much skepticism because people have not actually heard a knock on their door for 20 years in some part of this district. And it's weird to them. Like, why, who's this person who's showing up right now? And how can I trust you that you are going to actually do something that's going to affect my everyday life in a positive way? And the invitation of the door is about getting people to build that trust relationship and to become part of the movement, empowering them that they can build that movement with their neighbors, with their friends, with their family and join to grow this. And that takes that takes a lot of touches and a lot of work. It takes organizational work at the grassroots, at the community level. Many of the communities in this district have not been touched for long, long time. So thank you, Joe Kennedy, for that. But we are here for the people. We're here to work hard and to really get them to believe again and to believe in a different narrative in that we don't elect people to make decisions on our behalf that we completely disagree with, that we have not been heard or listened to for a long time and that they now have some so-called seat. That seat is not Joe's seat. That seat is nobody's seat. It is the people's seat. And the people should have a say in legislation and for them to have a say in legislation, whomever they vote for, whomever is their public servant needs to make the effort to listen to them, to organize with them, to show up at the picket line, to show up at the rallies. Right. So and and that's the work that I have been doing for since for the past year, since before I declared. And that's the work that I will continue to do in this district. Yeah, that's great. And let me just say this, for people who like wait their turn, I have no respect for these types of politicians because what we are in now, as you said, is crisis mode. So we don't need people who are too afraid to challenge power. Like people should know that you were there when nobody else wanted to challenge Joe Kennedy because they just thought that he was entitled to that seat. But that's not the way that things work in 2019. And it's not the way it's going to work going forward because people are realizing that they are the bosses of politicians and politicians are their subordinates and they really do have power. It's just a matter of, you know, finding their voice and realizing what they can accomplish if they elect people who actually care about them, such as yourself. So I'm curious about I heard from Joshua Collins. This is based on his analysis in Washington State, so totally different district, but you will be outraised, most likely by an opponent that's backed by backed by the establishment. But if you're able to raise at least 10 percent of the funds that like the establishment figure raises, do you think that's enough? Because really, the way that I kind of view these types of races is the progressive nine times out of 10 will win if enough people know you. But it's really about name recognition. So even if you get 10 percent, do you think that that's enough to win? 10 percent of the fundraising. Yeah, of the opponent, because I'm assuming that there's an establishment figure that jumped in after Joe Kennedy announced that he's not running for reelection. A bunch of them are. Yeah, who's raising millions of dollars possibly, you know, from special interests. So there's no way to out raise them. I mean, maybe it's possible. But most of the time, like grassroots candidates like yourself can't out raise them. But even if you get 10 percent, do you think that's enough to even propel your campaign? Because a lot of these campaigns are incredibly cost efficient with the way that they run. They have a lot of volunteers. So do you think that that's enough? I, you know, I don't know how much they're going to fundraise. They're obviously going to get a ton of big checks. And who knows? And I'm trying to even push them on signing the Green New Deal pledge to not take money from from fossil fuel executives, etc. I'm trying to push so that at least, you know, get them to also not take corporate money. But that's that that's not going to be in my control. What's in my control is I would tell you this, the more people get to know that I'm doing this out of a moral obligation that I'm not doing this to throw my name in a hat in my hat in the ring or or for any other, you know, personal career interests, the more we build that trust relationship and the more and the closer we get to win. And I really, really hate the fact that we have to fundraise our campaigns. And I would love to end that. I believe that campaigns should be publicly funded. They should have a limit. They should have a limit on time for running a campaign. And I will work very hard in Congress to make that a reality. Right now, we have to fundraise. So I, you know, I have to rely on a lot of small dollar donation. I have to rely on a lot of word of mouth. And that's that's for us to basically be able to pay for staff. And, you know, as somebody who is a huge supporter of unions, who's supporter of workers' rights. I want to be able to pay my staff at dignified pay. And I know that even a lot of my staff comes from low income backgrounds and and it's really important that we walk to walk and that just talk to talk. So that means fundraising. I'm, you know, not looking to fundraise to put my face on a billboard. I am I want to be able to buy, you know, water bottles for my volunteers and continue to build coalitions to put boots on the ground and touch people as many times as we can. So, you know, for me, this is still that people powered movement. I'm not looking at what my opponents are going to raise and what percentage of that I'm going to raise. I have a budget. I need to be able to hit that number so that I can run this campaign and grow this movement. And I know that it's completely doable. I know that this is a movement where people don't only raise funds within the district. This is a national movement and, you know, I will I will come any contribution. Definitely. And I love to ask this question because I want people who are watching to realize that even if you're not going to be able to out raise your opponents, in fact, you're most definitely going to be outraised because you're not taking corporate PAC money. You can still win. Like I think Alexandra Ocasio-Rotez was outraised by 10 to one and she still won. So people power can overcome money. That being said, you do still need campaign money to pay your staff, right, to buy water bottles, as you as you said, for campaign flies and whatnot. So I think that everyone who is watching this, who's in that fourth congressional district, knows that you are the real deal who's actually speaking truth to power. You're not waiting your turn. You're tearing up the rulebook and you're choosing to run because you have a mission. You care about the people. So tell us what we can do to help you if we're in that district or even outside that district and how we can help you win, because we know that if you get elected, you're going to be a fantastic new member of the squad and you'd bring change that we desperately need. What can we do to help you? Thank you. Look, every single dollar matters and every I call that voter money. It's the people's money. No matter where you are from when you donate to this campaign, I have so much respect for for that amount that you give. And I make sure that it is spent in the right way to make sure that we increase the votes. So with that said, if you have a dollar, if you have five, if you have eighteen dollars, if you have twenty eight hundred, which is the maximum, please give. I also really highly. I recommend that people host parties, whether on my behalf, whether I'm able to be present or not. Know that you are hosting, you know, a gathering. I'm happy to call in. I'm happy to come in and speak with folks and answer questions and listen to their concerns. After all, you know, this is part of the movement. But definitely being able to to fuel this movement is is something that I rely on many, many people to to join and and to contribute. Well, the website is isan.org. We'll have it up on the screen. And let me just make my pitch for you as well. Recurring donations are really, really, really important because this allows candidates like Isan to plan out, you know, their budget and kind of anticipate what they can do based on the money that they see will be coming in. And every little bit helps. And I always use the example of Ilhan Omar. She's not my representative, but she's still representing me across the country, right? She co-sponsored or she sponsored, excuse me, the Student Land Debt Cancellation Bill. That would directly affect me in a really big way. So, you know, you'd be representing the fourth congressional district of Massachusetts. But the policies that you implement would be amazing for people across the country. So, you know, notice that we're all part of this movement, even if we're not running for Congress and putting in, you know, a buck or two down is an investment into your future. So thank you so much for coming on the program, Isan. Thank you for having me. Really appreciate you. Take care. We'll keep in touch and we will be watching your campaign very closely. We're rooting for you for sure.