 So, it's obviously the case that women make up more than 50%, at least 50% of the population yet less than a quarter of them serve in Congress. And the reason why this is the case is because there are a lot more barriers that exist that prohibit women from running and even if they do run, it's more difficult for them to get elected. So what we have is a new Justice Democrats-like organization that is designed to help women get elected so we can finally maybe inch closer towards parody in Congress. So with me to talk about a new organization called Matriarch is its founders, Namiki Konst and Javanka Beckles. So thank you both so much for coming on the program. Thanks for the invitation, it's a pleasure. Thank you, Mike. Nice to see you again. Nice to see you again as well. So, tell us a little bit about yourself. So I'm sure that my audience is familiar with Namiki Konst, so we're going to start with Javanka and then we'll head over to Namiki and get a quick update. Javanka, tell us about yourself and your affiliation with the organization. Well, let's see, I am a long time activist, I've lived in the city of Richmond for a long time and decided that I could make a difference by running for office, so I ran for office in 2008, let me just back it up a little bit, I worked for the county as a children's mental health specialist and working with children and families, I see firsthand the challenges that families have and, you know, in working to increase the quality of life for the families that I work with, I realized that there was something lacking and what was lacking was policy and so I decided to run for office to be able to make a difference and create the kinds of policies that would help my family, specifically the families that I work with, Interest County, the majority being people of color. So I ran for office in 2008, lost by slim margin, one in 2010 was re-elected in 2014, ran for assembly because again, city policy is one thing and that's a good thing because we can do so much at the local level but I realized that there were policies that we couldn't implement at the local level, we needed some state policies and so I ran for state office, state assembly in 2018, we lost by I would say small margin but it was a grassroots effort, it was very little money and it was at that time that I realized how difficult it really is to run for a higher office working full-time. I worked full-time and it was very difficult for me to take off and, you know, like my opponent who was independently wealthy and it really was a challenge so when we started talking about it and Miki contacted me and other women, I thought this was a great idea because as working women, particularly women of color, we really need the boost and the support and the sisterhood that we are building here. Yeah, how about you, Namiki? What have you been up to since we last talked to you? I was like, she just covered it. Hey everyone, well, you know, I did run for office this year as much of us who are involved in matriarch have, I would say about 50% of our advisory group of over three dozen women is made up of women who have run for office, been in office, or are currently in office and one thing that just became very clear as I got to know so many of these women over the past few years in the progressive movement is there are obstacles that are just not laid out in a serious way when you go to these trainings to run for office. So if you're a woman and you've been interested in running for office, there are maybe a thousand different trainings out there and one of the first things that they do is say, okay, open up your Rolodex and you're going to call every single person you know and we want you to raise money. That might work for some people, maybe it'll work up to a month, but the most part, you know, unless you are independently wealthy or of means or have access to wealth, it is extremely hard to raise the amount of money you need to have a functioning campaign that can last, you know, several months. I ran in a special election. If that special election had gone maybe one more month, I wouldn't have a home and I'm being completely honest. Most people have to balance jobs, you know, maybe they are single parents, maybe there's a two-parent household and the other parent has to take on or the partner has to take on the extra burden. There's child care costs, there's rental costs, there's debt and a couple years ago when Donald Trump was elected, we saw a record number of women being called to run for office and they stepped up courageously and did so, but very quickly we saw the infrastructure was not there to support everyday women in running because it's not just that it's hard to raise the money, the organizations, the institutions that are out there right now for the most part are not recognizing their candidacy as quote viable, that's the word that they use for endorsement or support until they've raised like 150, 200, sometimes 300,000 dollars and if you're not independently wealthy, I mean it's even a struggle, a real struggle to get to 50,000 dollars and the press won't pay attention to you also if you haven't raised a certain amount of money. So if you want to crowdsource, maybe you're not famous, maybe you're a community activist, maybe you're a nurse, you're a teacher, a mom, I mean there's so many different professions obviously that don't get recognized. So we wanted to fill that gap. So for the last several months I've been working with this incredible crew of women to come up with ways where we can help solve a lot of the infrastructure issues that women face when they're running for office, but specifically for Congress for right now. And I really like that. When I first learned about Matriarch my thought was finally because this is a working class version of Emily's list essentially where it helps working women, anti-establishment people who don't have that financial backing get elected to Congress and there's already enough barriers if you choose to run like political science studies show that women generally speaking in comparison with men they don't feel as if they're qualified which is untrue and thankfully it seems like we're kind of breaking away from that stigma after the 2018 election when so many women across the country are running. But when you decide to run it is incredibly difficult it is self-sacrifice and you need these types of organizations to back you up. Of course you can do it alone but it's a lot more difficult. So what this organization to me seems like is a justice democrats type of organization where we're saying look we're taking on the establishment and we're addressing the specific barriers that exist that prohibit women from actually being electorally viable and successful and we absolutely need that because this descriptive representation is incredibly important like I cited the statistic about less than a quarter of women being in Congress but when you when you actually look at women of color it's 8.7 percent which is abysmal. We need these voices in Congress we need their perspectives in Congress and there is this difference between descriptive and substantive representation but more often than not descriptive representation just getting people in Congress that are representative of you know the public demographically speaking it leads to a substantive representation real change. So that's why this organization is so important so I wanted to ask you Jovanka in terms of what the short-term goal is for 2020 and 2022. How many women thus far because you guys just launched have basically answered the call because you could nominate a woman to run. Do you guys know just preliminary results as to what the response is because I find this incredibly fascinating and exciting so what's the response been? Well it's my understanding from the you know the coordination that the collaboration that we're currently undergoing there it's been a really high number of women who are responding either via through social media directly through us and so I feel like that's really exciting that that women are feeling that okay finally there's an organization that's really there to help us as working women that you know grassroots candidates working people. Namke mentioned earlier nurses and teachers and you know myself as a as a mental health specialist but we have so many professional women that are in the trenches every single day and and what better voice to represent us right as working people than than us. So I know that there has been I don't have the numbers in front of me but I know that we've had overwhelming responses to to the call sort of a foraction maybe Namke you might be able to to fill that in in terms of the the actual numbers. I don't have the number as of the moment but I say that it's it's coming in I mean every single time we check the monitor it's like oh another one just came in and what's incredible to see is the the number of women who've been nominated by several people sometimes into the dozens from across the country but especially from their communities it doesn't mean that it's exclusive it just you know we know that that community support is super important but it's it's so amazing to see people around the country looking at races that may not you know be even close to them but they're very curious about what happens in Texas what happens when he goes blue where Virginia goes blue and they're investing in a national partnership of progressive coalition and and we're we're excited to be able to help facilitate that. You know I was going to say that I really see that you know we have a we have a movement and then we have some some amazing I think super women that that are leading the way thus far and in Ilhan and and you know Alexandria and and women are seeing that yes I'm an ordinary woman I can do this I know what the issues are shouldn't I be in a position to be able to create the kinds of policies to help us through these issues and that help us to have a place at the table a seat at the table so this is this is really exciting and and I'm really so honored to be able to be a part of this amazing movement yet to me this feels like a paradigm shift where before women were essentially shut out from politics unless they were wealthy right if you if you're wealthy you can do pretty much anything but if you're a working class woman who we want to represent us the most because there are mostly normal working class people in this country then you know we need you to run but there's so many obstacles that make it so difficult so this it does feel like a paradigm shift in terms of more women getting involved and just you know women really becoming the face of the progressive movement I mean you stated that Ilhan Omar we have Rashida Tlaib AOC I mean Pramila Jayapal there's so many women who are now the face of the move of the movement and now I think that that really sends a message to ordinary women who are just working women that you know I can do this as well because there are other role model models who are leading the charge so I think that this is really nice to see like so many people rally around this one cause from different demographics and it's about damn time so I wanted to ask you because this is a pack so I want you to just distinguish between a pack and a super pack just so there's no confusion Namiki can you settle this for us because I saw a couple of tweets at the beginning when I when I kind of I put out a tweet in support of matric and you know one of the first things I saw was oh this is a pack explain what this is yeah so I'm not an elections attorney so there are not a lot of ways that groups can come together and facilitate assistance to candidates and that's just based on the legal structure that we live in I think we've made the case very clear as to why it's important to have organizations out there that can help candidates out I know from my experience it was extremely hard running when you know nobody thought we had a chance um had to raise a certain amount of money and thank god for shows like yours Mike because you believed in us and that really your viewers helped to get us to that level of where we needed to raise money but not every candidate has access to Mike um I was very grateful to and so it's important to have organizations out there that can help at critical stages so a pack versus a super pack a super pack is you know some billionaire can dump in his life savings and basically buy ads on tv and you know and it's we saw Joe Biden is going to be a billionaire maybe a few billionaires are going to be doing that for Joe Biden in his presidential race so that you know Joe Biden has limited campaign contributions that he can take as a presidential candidate they're still extremely high but they're limited and so he's he's been unable to raise the the amount of money he needs to be viable so you know maybe a few of his donors that have a lot of money and had maxed out can now put it into a super pack and make up the difference and buy pro-Joe Biden ads or maybe attack ads on other people so that's the facility of the super pack it's also you put corporate money in there if you want to a pack is very limited um the money you can receive is up to five thousand dollars and give is five thousand dollars a split into primary cycle versus general so we want to be able to invest in candidates at a critical point where um you know they need it when when no one wants to give them money or attention but we know we believe in them we see their path whether it's to victory or to changing things on the ground in their community to be in you know because candidates can can serve a lot of purposes right they can be running to make a statement they can be running uh you know thinking maybe they don't have a chance this time but the next time they will because much of this country has not been invested in by progressives or democrats for for 25 years or they could be running because they have a real path to victory and so we want to invest in a candidate uh that we believe in and um and all for other resources i mean jivanca is one of our extraordinary women in our sisterhood that is opening up their time and energy into supporting and having the backs of these candidates and so we we don't have our slate of candidates yet but once we do we're based on contributions of course we're going to be offering assistance um in so many different ways and that's something a super pack doesn't do uh that you know hopefully down the line we'll be doing other educational you know trainings but uh 2020 is underway so we're we're just trying to get as much done in this short period of time that we can to help candidates out that might be facing primaries earlier rather than later yeah i hope that answers the question no that's that does that totally answers the question the takeaway for viewers essentially is that this is not a dark money group like this is a grassroots organization and i'm gonna put a link on the screen and really highly encourage you to donate because these organizations like even though we all hate money in politics you know the problem is that it's a necessity if we do want to win and if you want to empower matriarch to empower grassroots women then they do need that money and so even if you can chip in a dollar you know at a minimum or you know find out a way to support it you know otherwise that really does matter it is important this is basically a nationwide movement um i don't view matriarch as like just one component one thing like i view them as a microcosm of a bigger issue as one part of our whole movement you know this labor movement the women's rights movement this is all just one collection we're all in this together basically is what i'm trying to say in a convoluted way so they need money so if you could donate anything to them that would be incredibly incredibly helpful because these organizations they really need a boost of money especially at the beginning like justice democrats they had TYT and secular talk to really help boost their name so we need to do this for matriarch because this is important this is a cause that really matters and if we want to make sure that we up our chances of winning elections across the country then we need as many organizations as possible and this is an organization that is needed that's much overdue and they need your help so i wanted to ask you guys this is kind of a generic question but i do think it's important because a lot of people they just kind of feel as if they're overly cynical i can kind of you know sympathize with that viewpoint and if you're a woman in this country you kind of see the trajectory that we're on right you know women's rights issues kind of is put on the back burner we have donald trump in president who's incredibly misogynistic so if you're a working woman what is your message to them and why do you think that they should run for congress in spite of what they might think personally well well because our women's issues are you know it's intersectional right we we you know we are black we are queer we are immigrants we are mothers sisters right it's a you know our issues are are intersectional and no matter you know where we come from what our background maybe even our passion as long as we have the as long as we have the passion and support because there's no way i could have even ran a successful assembly race without so much support without the grassroots passion that comes along with that and knocking on doors so no matter you know what where you come from as long as you recognize that problem is that there is injustice particularly as women and women of color you know we experience injustice every single day and so we recognize that we see it firsthand we look at it in the eye and so knowing that knowing what these solutions are policy creating the kinds of policies we are not getting the policies that we need from men and we're not getting it from white men and so we have to look to each other right for those for the for the change that we we want to create so i say it is a scary thing our lives change when we run for office and having to do it full time is really what helps it helps us to be successful but you know but but do it and go for it and and you will not be alone and that's what's so powerful and and and beautiful about this organization is that we are a sisterhood we we recognize the challenges and we've got your back you know the message is that you're worthy like what i try to tell people is that you are qualified to run for congress if you care about political issues because think about some of the people who are serving like we have Louie Gomert as a sitting member of congress if he can do it anyone can do it you are qualified so i like to use that as an example to put it into perspective because we need you like representation is so crucial javanka made such a good point about the policies that are being passed because there's a 2014 Princeton University study by Dr. Asgillans and Paige that i like to cite that you know when it comes to policy outcomes average citizens they have zero impact it's statistically insignificant but elites and special interests they actually do have a substantial impact so we're getting policies passed that benefit rich people and rich people disproportionately are white dudes so if you want to change that we have to start changing the structures and that means we increase representation for women it's absolutely crucial so um namiki any lasting thoughts that you want to leave us with and i want to give you both the opportunity to make the last pitch to donate because this is incredibly important this is a grassroots movement and money is needed in order to get these types of organizations off the ground because that money it's not just going to matriarch what what you do is you train candidates you help them you give them money and this really helps like justice democrats was incredibly instrumental in electing aoc and we want lots of aocs we want to broaden the squad so absolutely we need more people to get in power in congress and represent us and like we see how aoc and ilhan omar for example are doing such a great job nationally speaking so if we broaden that i mean think of the change that we we really could accomplish so namiki what's the last pitch that you want to make and any lasting words from both of you yeah just some lasting words in terms of um the electability factor you know there there has been a movement over the last you know 70 years but really the last you know 40 years in particular to elect women to reach parity in congress so that means is a little bit you know so we have equal representation in congress and we've had a couple of really great years in which one of which was 2018 where record number of women were elected and and you know there was one i think in 1992 and then in 2006 but one thing to keep in mind there is that um yes record number of women ran because they were fed up with the system they were fed up with republicans who had really betrayed the country whether it was uh you know bush senior or it was republicans during the war um in iraq and of course you know 2018 it was post trump but we have to think beyond those moments beyond the like critical mass horrible republican forces we have to think what does it mean to build an infrastructure so we reach parity and i think what's unique about matriarch is we have a platform that is intersectional it's a platform based on economic justice the green new deal taking no corporate money and and supporting candidates that don't take corporate money um looking at reproductive rights as reproductive justice issues uh criminal justice reform and all of the the progressive movement issues in in the in the best form possible um with the root of no corporate money because we think that you know if you take corporate money um it'll it trickles up from there and then it's that old parable about a a a frog being boiled in a in a pot and of course we know that so if we're electing and looking for women who come from working backgrounds and can relate to these issues personally firsthand then they have that special connection with their communities they know the issues of their community space they take those issues that they face firsthand or or closely into congress and then as we see with the squad and vermila jaya paul and barbara lee i mean there's so many women throughout history who have been elected and and defied the obstacles that took that energy into congress now imagine equal representation with women like that we think they're more electable um we think that they just you know they need infrastructure support they need uh other women and other men of course like yourself having their backs but they need that support the way that the centrists support their their millionaires and billionaires we got to do the same thing for our movement and i think the ecosystem is is growing and we're just another piece of that so please if you can uh chip in some bucks as as mike said it's supporting everything from um our incredible team that's going to be providing resources to candidates whether it's mentorship from our board of advisory or uh trainings or you know we have some fun things in store that i don't want to i don't want to unveil yet uh and of course you know financial assistance uh is important as well so thank you yeah any last thing words from you javanka i just say thank you well uh well said namakey um just you know that it takes all of us right and and and all it takes is just a little bit of either our time or our resources and you know the sum of that um is is really you know what would what's going to help help this movement and so any little bit of of money any build any little bit of any of your resources um we would appreciate uh because we're only going to continue to get the kinds of policies that uh that increase the wealth of the elite class um if we keep electing white men um so in order for us to have the policies that really benefits us all we need women who understand the struggles and the challenges that we face so uh thank you for for having us on the show and and those and those of you who are viewing thank you for supporting this organization we can't do it without you and the women that are running definitely can't do it without you so thank you in advance for all of the sport that you're bringing and thank you both for coming on the mickey cons javanka beckles um the website is matriarchpack.com let me just make my pitch for you all because i think that it's important that i always try to put this into perspective for people when you donate this is kind of like an investment like you're putting in money into an organization that will later essentially pay you back like i always use the end i people criticize me because i use this example every time but it's really important to me so ilhan omar she's not my representative she lives you know in a different state but she introduced a bill that would cancel all student loan debt that's pretty important to me personally right so when we donate to these candidates even if they are not our representatives that still is beneficial so by donating to matriarch you are donating to an organization that is going to help push the envelope further in terms in terms of um getting representation for women and getting policies passed that impact every single person namely working people and working women so thank you both for coming on and making the case i'm incredibly excited we will be following and i'm i'm looking forward to the uh candidate list all right thank you so much mike