 Hello, everyone. I am here with six 2020 congressional candidates that you have heard about. They are returning to the show to talk about their campaigns and give us some updates. We have some huge news and some upcoming primaries taking place very, very soon. So I am excited to bring them back on the program. In this chat, we have Lauren Ashcraft running in New York's 12th congressional district. We have Joshua Collins running in Washington's 10th congressional district. We have Donna Imam running in Texas's 31st congressional district. We have Isaiah James running in New York's 9th congressional district. We have Jen Perlman running in Florida's 23rd congressional district. And we have Anthony Clark running in the 7th congressional district of Illinois. Big things are happening for all of your campaigns and I am so excited. So one by one, hopefully you all can give us an update about your campaign and tell us when your primary is taking place because some of you still have some months, others, not so much. So we'll start with you, Anthony. What has been happening since you came on the show? And if you could tell us when your primary is taking place, that'd be great. Yeah, definitely. Thanks for having me back on. Truly appreciate it. What's up everybody out there tuning in and listening and shout out to all the wonderful candidates that are on with us and that are not on with us. Keep fighting. So our primary date is March 17th, early voting to start sometime in the middle of February. You know, I'm attesting this to appearing on the Humanist Report. It's because of you. It's because of the Humanist Report, you know, but we've searched, you know, our social media presence has exploded. Our presence on the ground, you know, the number of volunteers that I've been reaching out and joining us to Canvas, the phone bank donations increased. So it's been wonderful to see when you're part of a movement, you know, when you're part of something that's bigger than yourself as an individual. When you put in that work and that energy and make it not only within your district, but across the nation, it's extremely powerful, you know, hundreds of people powered. So like I said, we're doing well. You know, we actually have a huge town hall tomorrow in the Austin community at the Austin Library on Century from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. So we're looking forward to that. And, you know, just overall the media presence has been beautiful. You know, we've had some viral tweets that have gone out by just simply speaking true to power in regards to the poverty draft, military industrial complex that exists in regards to, you know, the legalization of cannabis with a focus on racial justice in regard to reparations. So we just continue to push forward. We continue to fight. We're not only knocking for ourselves, but we are also knocking for Bernie Sanders within our district. So to see that progress and to see people, you know, truly understanding class struggle and class warfare, the oppressors has been a great thing. And once again, we thank the Humanist Report for giving us an opportunity early on, even prior to, you know, a lot of this momentum that we've been building. Well, thank you because you all are just such phenomenal candidates. And it's hard to keep up with how many people are running, but this is a really good problem to have. And I'm just I'm inspired by you all and you guys are surging because you are phenomenal candidates. So thank you, Anthony. Donna, you have a primary coming up very, very soon. So when is that taking place? And what has happened since we last talked to you? Yeah, so thank you so much for having us on your show. After I appeared on your show, something amazing happened. We got hundreds and hundreds of donations from your show. So thank you to every single person who donated. But the most interesting thing that we got were these handwritten letters that came from all over. And one of them came from a farmer in rural New York State who wrote how much he loved what I had to say and what I was doing with the community and what our campaign was doing. And that really touched us. And he wasn't the only one. There were just so many letters that came in. And I'm truly moved by that. So thank you so much. Lots of exciting things have happened to our campaign since the disappearance. Our primary is March 3 and early voting starts only three weeks away, February 18. So things are getting real. We are on the ground trying to reach out to people, let them know that they have a real choice in representation this year. And one of the most exciting things that has happened is that we got endorsed by the Texas AFL-CIO. And prior to that, we not only got recommended by the Austin Central Labor Council, but also the Central Texas Labor Council. And of all the people that are not city representatives, we were one of the few, very few, that got exclusive endorsement from the Texas AFL-CIO. So we are unions strong. 240,000 union members have gotten behind our campaign. And that's one of the most important things because as you all know, we launched this campaign for the people who work for a living. And now the people who work for a living are for us. That's incredible. Thank you so much for sharing. Lauren, can you give us an update because you've been on a lot of indie media shows and you've been making the rounds. So how has it been going and when's your primary taking place? Oh, so my primary is going to be on June 23rd. And I'm so excited. Actually, I want to echo what Donna and Anthony have said is that thanks to you and Mr. Ford and the viewers of the humanist report. We saw a lot of momentum start to build after I appeared on your show. And we can't do this without independent media. So thank you so much for having us. You're making a huge difference in this movement. And as you all know, if you're following my campaign, and I hope you do if you aren't currently, I am running because I want, I have this vision that every single person has full and equal representation in my district, but also across the country. And it is so far from the truth right now. District 12 in New York represents such strong income inequality where we have billionaire row, but also so so many people that are sleeping on the street tonight. So whenever I think about where we need to be headed, we need to be headed in a direction of people powered grassroots candidates that have faced every day, people's issues that seem to represent all of us, especially the working people who have gone completely ignored by a lot of members in Congress who are sitting there today. So because of you, you're making this very possible. And I'm just really, really thankful that this movement has has been growing. We started with three volunteers and negative $500 in March of last year. And right now we're we're getting close to six figures, which is nothing compared to an establishment candidate but we're very proud of it because our average donation is $25. And, and also we have 275 volunteers. So that that's going to keep growing and we're really feeling the people power and momentum and really a lot of it is thanks to you so thank you Mike. Well, well, thank you because I am not doing anything I'm just bringing you on and you know without you guys running such phenomenal campaigns with a message that resonates, people wouldn't react in the way that they have been so I mean this is all you guys are all just you are showing people that you know there's hope and the reason why I think it's so important to bring people on from across the country like New York, Florida, Washington is because like this really is a national movement and everyone who donates people who run for Congress, like we're all part of this this is like one unified effort so it's just it really is encouraging to hear all of this. Now I want to get to Joshua Collins because since the last time I talked to him. You had the incumbent dropout. And you've also gotten some national press coverage I saw a profile from you in GQ. And that to me is like, it's bizarre because to see someone who is a socialist running for Congress get coverage from the national press. It's almost unheard of so give us the update because I know you have quite a bit and tell us when your campaign primaries coming up. Yeah, so the biggest update is my opponent dropped out and announced he would be retiring at the end of this term and not seek reelection. Now this was unexpected to most people but we kind of saw it coming. You know, we were in a really strong position, we have had already fundraised more than every single progressive challenger from Washington State in the last like several years. And so we were already looking stronger than every single challenger. And now that he dropped out immediately after we raised 20, I think it was almost $26,000 in the 48 hours after he dropped out. And we're about to hit $140,000 raised in total for the campaign. And, you know, it's been a pretty exciting couple of months since he dropped. You know, our volunteer engagement has increased massively. The Democratic Party actually stopped fighting me. So we were close to securing endorsements from Democratic Party orgs in the district. And we kind of consolidated a lot of the left support in the district. The number of volunteers is well over 2000 nationwide and it's several hundred in the district. Yeah, we are, like I said, we're close to $140,000 and our average donation is like $15 and 80 cents. And so, you know, we're getting a lot of small donations, but a lot of donations, like overall, and that's been amazing. Just the number of people who have, like, been supporting this has been great. And I think the reason we're getting national media attention is just because of how big our social media presence is. You know, if they put my name on an article or they put socialist truck driver as the title, it gets clicked. So I think that's why, you know, so far it's been pretty cool because we got Huffington Post almost a year ago. And then now recently we got GQ, Teen Vogue, CNN, NBC, The Hill, like just almost all the, like, the online mainstream outlets have been covering our campaign, which has been cool. And they, our TikTok grew up, like, so I made a TikTok and made a bunch of videos on that and that kind of is what led us to getting a lot of that national press too. So yeah, yeah, but other than that, you know, everything's going great. We have a really good chance of winning for our election. That's incredible. And it's really cool because, like, back in 2018, when I was interviewing the first round of, like, progressive candidates or technically the second round, you know, I brought on people like AOC and Cory Bush. And, like, the general consensus was that what are they doing? These are such long shot campaigns. And, you know, now we know what happened. AOC is in Congress. We have Cory Bush running again, who is now a force. And now it's like the sense that I get is that you all are being taken very seriously now because you actually are a threat. And I think you're demonstrating that. And it's just, it really is encouraging. So I want to get to Jen Perlman. So you're running in Florida against a political behemoth. Some of my viewers may have heard of her. Her name is Debbie Wasserman Schultz. So how is that going? And do you have any updates for us since the last time we talked? And when is your primary taking place? Okay. Well, I actually have one of the very later primaries. So my primary isn't until August 18th. And, but the important thing is that we have closed primaries. And so it's important that everybody be registered as Democrats by July 20th. So we have to make sure everyone registers specifically that way. We've been doing really well. We, we are, I think at somewhere near 2000 individual donations, 12,000 Twitter followers, like I'm amazed at how well we're doing. And the key thing right now that we need is a field director. So we are actively searching for a field director. We've launched something called Gencore, which is a service campaign where actually I think I might be like the first ever congressional service campaign. Or just basically going around to commissions, nonprofits, organizations and asking how can we help you and going to everything from beach cleanups to food deliveries today. I was at Veterans Nursing Home and I've got like this team of volunteers and we're just out there doing service all throughout the district. And one thing that I wanted to ask you, Jen, that's amazing, by the way, is that it seems like you are running against a very high profile Democrat. Do you notice, I mean, it's difficult to say because you're not, you're only running against one person, obviously, and it's a subjective experience. But what is the general response? Like, do people kind of laugh at you as thinking, oh, well, this is a behemoth, you're not going to take her down? Like, does it seem more difficult or does it make it more likely that you feel like your chances are, you know, better to win because people are so anxious to defeat someone like Debbie Wasserman Schultz? Yeah, I get both. I get both. So like just today somebody came up to me and gave me a hug because they heard I was running against Debbie Wasserman Schultz. I've had so many people so thankful and appreciative. And then within our district, though, there is this tight community of following where I do kind of get, you know, the establishment is not too pleased with me. I'm sort of a persona non grata. I occasionally go to dem clubs, but for the most part, it's hard. There's a lot of people in our district that quite honestly are afraid of her. So they might be supportive of me, but they would never say they were being supportive of me. There's a lot of stuff like that. But because of who she is, that's why we're able to raise the money that we're able to raise. So many people dislike her around the country. It's phenomenal. Yeah, that's that's definitely an interesting dynamic. And that's why I wanted to get your take on that. So I want to go to Isaiah, who is running in New York. So I'm assuming it's the same primary date as Lauren's because she's also from New York. I've talked to multiple New York candidates who are just phenomenal. So we had you on, I want to say it was October, November. And I wanted to get an update from you as well because your campaign is also taken off. Now I can speak. Okay. Yes, the campaign truly has taken off and I just want to echo everybody here. I mean, you have no idea how much your viewers contributed to our donations. I mean, from the moment you put up the video when we did an interview, it was literally like thousands of dollars some flowing in. I was like, wow, we've received donations from 36 different states from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii. It's crazy to me that somebody who saw my interview in Alaska will contribute five or 10 bucks to me in New York because they believe in the message I'm talking about. I volunteer list is growing every single day. As a matter of fact, we're doing a big first campus kickoff at all volunteers this Saturday will be in the district talking to business owners voters. All those things I was just running around today to the print shop, putting in orders for t shirts and palm cards and door hangers and all that stuff on social media following has grown. When we started first did our first interview, I think I was at like 700 800 followers and now we're about to break 10,000. We've been verified we got a little blue check mark. So if I write to somebody else a blue check mark, they actually answered me back because I have a blue check mark. We've gotten some big endorsements. I don't think I wasn't endorsed by brand new Congress when we talk, but since we talked, I've been endorsed by brand new Congress and so are the other a few of the other guests on here. We've also been endorsed by Sean King, Civil Rights guy, Sean King reached out and endorsed us and we've been endorsed by our revolution, progressive revolution. Women are Bernie, we've got a lot of endorsements. Since we've talked last time it was three people in the race now there's six people in the race. So three other people have now jumped in. A guy who ran as a Republican last time is now running as a Democrat, he jumped in. Another city council member jumped in and another young man jumped in the race. But we've been getting a lot of media coverage but it's been like local press. It's hard for, you know, challenges to break into the national press. That's why I applaud Joshua for his social media following because he's doing something right but it's really hard to get media attention, especially in a place like New York City where things happen like a mile a minute. So, you know, they won't even focus on our campaign but I think my opponents are I know my opponents are sleeping on me. They don't they don't take us seriously but we have a campaign office we have all these things now. And now they finally starting to wake up like oh wow, that guy who's running in New York nine is really serious about a couple of the videos I put out of gone viral. I was at a protest in front of Chuck Schumer's apartment the other day and I was speaking about the need to dismantle the military industrial complex and everybody got 50,000 views and like a matter of days and I also want to highlight a couple of my compatriots here like I put out a call the other day, a fundraising call because you know my opponents are going to sue to keep me off the ballot they're going to try to knock me off the ballot. So we need to hire an election lawyer, and I sent Anthony and Josh between and without even hesitation they were like hey, they retweeted it they shared it with all their followers. And we saw thousands and thousands of support come in. So that's the type of community that all of us candidates grassroots candidates around the country have. We don't have giant machines. We don't have, you know, political wants it's just us and the people who we reach every day trying to try to change the world. Yeah, and that's kind of what I've noticed there is this really strong sense of community with everyone running. Not everyone is under the label of justice Democrats or brand new Congress or Democratic Socialists of America. Some have multiple endorsements some don't. Some have AFL CIO. It just you all are kind of like going towards the same direction and you all have this solidarity that it's palpable like you can really sense it that everyone is really looking out for each other. So I kind of want to get to some individualized questions because you each kind of bring something so unique to the table and so many different experiences that I think you all can offer a lot not just to other candidates running but to viewers who I think are, you know, wondering how they can help you and whatnot. So for Anthony, you're the only person so far who has ran twice for Congress. This is your second run. And based on, you know, what I've speaking with other people who ran twice Corey Bush, you know, Amy Vallejo ran once, you do kind of sense that you know more going into this the second time of round. So I'm curious, what do you think is the biggest thing that you've learned running a second time that you didn't pick up on the first time because I think that, like, this is all trial and error like none of us really know like I don't know what I'm doing like in terms of like with interviews what works what doesn't work. So can you kind of just give us your input there because I feel like you've been in this for so long you've been endorsed by brand new Congress. What would you say that we need to know having run twice now. Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's a great question. You know, thanks for raising it. And, you know, first and foremost to anybody that's going to watch this or hear it. If you're thinking about running run, you know, we're in a time now this is 2020. We're in the wealthiest nation in the world. Part of the people are still poor to live. The wealth disparities can seem to increase. So we all have to look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves whether we're going to risk and sacrifice for true system exchange. You know, we're all going to run for Congress, but we all play a role in the movement, you know, progress is literally all play a role in helping this movement move forward. So you know, back in 2017, I was nominated by brand new Congress and Justice Democrat, and I'll be honest with you, I had no idea what to expect, or what I was doing. You know, at that time, I'm still a public high school teacher, founder and director of my own nonprofit suburban unity line. A lot of work in the city. Oh, I don't believe in individual accolades. We got Village of the Year, but that's a movement award. But we didn't know what to expect. And analogy I'll utilize because I'm a huge Muhammad Ali fan, you know, of course, one of his greatest public service to others, which you pay for them here on this earth. I actually have it tatted on my arm. That's how much I believe in it. But it's like, before he was Muhammad Ali, he was kept in play. And every fighter has a chance. You know, we're all fighters in this movement. That's why running. That's why we donate. That's why we support the phone bank, whatever they do. That's the form of the fight. But it's getting there. And that first ran alongside now coming out to learn and know Cory Bush, Amy, Paula Jean, and so many others. We just needed that experience because the establishment, what they depend upon is money, you know, something in Illinois seven, for example, Danny K Davis, he takes money from big pharma. He takes money from Amazon. He takes money from all these large corporations. So essentially, they don't have to, even though no matter what you do, they don't have to build relationships and make connections with the community. Because they're dependent upon, you know, past large corporations and these billionaires to fund it. So when we started grassroots fundraising, we just started from scratch. You know, it was extremely terrifying to reach out to individuals. Because even though it's not for myself, it's for the movement. Still, you know how much individuals are struggling. You know how much individuals are out there trying to make decisions on a daily basis. Whether to put food on the table or to print. And now I'm asking for five or $10 getting to that, you know, how to fundraise effectively, learning how to target areas for door knocking and so on and so forth. The establishment, they froze us out, you know, so we didn't even have valid data back in 2017-2018 in regard to where to strategically target voters, because the incumbents as well, many across this nation and the Democratic Party, they benefit from low water turnout, they benefit from community divestment, and they don't count on individuals like ourselves truly getting out specifically to these impoverished and underserved communities and making those connections. You know, we were fast, similar to what's happening with Isaiah. We were actually talented and soon they got to knock us off the ballot. So we had to raise over $13,000 to go through a court case. That was an experience. You know, so we had to learn these issues. But now that we do, and now that we have data, we actually beat the incumbent without being experienced, we beat them in several precincts. We beat them as awards. And we also lost them some more. But now that we have that data, we're able to strategically target where we need to, you know, where we need to enter into coalitions we need to build. You know, shout out to Chicago D.S.A. Democratic Socialist of America. Shout out to the D.S.A. nationally. Gonzoma Collective, 25th Ward I.P.O., brand new Congress, people from the United States, our Revolution and Buffalo Grove, all these organizations, you know, that have reached out and worked with us, you know, 25th Ward I.P.O. We have strong coalition, you know, best provisional township. I could go down and put it, district is huge. We know why gerrymandering exists. You know, gerrymandering is designed to keep incumbent office. So it often takes more than one. So that's what I'm trying to do. If you want to run, run, recognize and understand. So, you know, shout out to AOC Congresswoman. Thank you for everything that you're doing to fight the gerrymandering movement. But not everyone necessarily is going to have that experience where they won the first time. The incumbent crashing event two years ago, when I first ran, was me in my case and literally told me the reason he was going to win was because he had more money than me and name recognition. And literally his slogan was the name you know, not what the hell he was going to do for the community, not anything about policy, literally for banking on name recognition. So that takes time. And I think that's the biggest difference as you've asked. We brought up from that last election. Now we have strong coalition. We have way more endorsements. You know, we have that foundation and I'll end it here and how that's, you know, comes to fruition and kind of like rear itself in August. I was by a car. I was leaving a campaign event and literally hit by a hit and run drive broke my leg crunch my tool toward ligaments. If that would have happened to me the first time around, we would have had zero infrastructure. We'd have had zero coalitions built to sustain and uplift because this is about a movement, correct. But because it happened this time around, though it was extremely difficult. I'm literally hopping around, you know, have a leg scooter, you know, door knocking and canvassing. I have so many other wonderful organizations and individuals ready and willing to pick up that flag because they believe in this movement that we are part of. And that sustained through, you know, appearing of the humanist report. And in the December, we raised like $30,000 in a race like this to where the incumbent Danny K. Davis is not now doesn't have a national presence. You know, he's not necessarily hated across the nation, but yet and still we have to change that blue, no matter who narrative, because blue, no matter who is not necessarily good for empowerment, no matter what. You have to choose justice before stability and being able to see that growth in a race like this that where we don't necessarily get national coverage. But now, you know, we're getting talked about in BT, you know, MTV just an interview from traveling to LA interview, just everything's coming together, and it's potent. So I just challenge people never be afraid to run no matter who you are. This is a working class or movement. If they tell you you need experience or experiences to struggle or experiences they did they like when we're just trying to survive. And if they say that you don't have support, I guarantee you you have supported the people. If you know how to speak struggle, struggle is the universal language. And whether you're in Iowa or Chicago, we understand it by just again, can't say that enough run never let somebody tell you you can't. And if you decide to run once, always think about running twice. And if you don't get it twice, damn it, think about running three times, make it happen. Yeah, that's incredible, incredible insight. And just to remind everyone, Ro Khanna, he didn't win the first time he ran as well. So sometimes this is like a sustained thing you have to do, which it's tough because I know that all of you are exhausted. I'm sure that you're all not really sleeping properly. You're doing so much and this really is tremendous self sacrifice. But you really see that passion like you're doing it because you know that there's going to be a payoff. So yeah, that's really great. Thank you so much for sharing that, Anthony. I wanted to ask Donna about your race because you're running in a district where it's on the cusp of flipping from red to blue. So my question for you is what has the response there been because, you know, in these other instances with like Isaiah and Anthony, for example, where you have them getting sued to keep them off the ballot, is the establishment like just ignoring you completely? Like what's been the response? And what are some of the difficulties in running this type of purple district? Yeah, so one of the biggest challenges is what Anthony mentioned, which is right now, their incumbents bank on the fact that people do not come out and vote in the primaries. One of the biggest challenges when you go door to door, people will tell you, oh, I mean, there's an election coming up. Like most people actually don't know that there is a primary, especially Democrats. So if you look at 2018 data for my district, you will see a huge difference in the number of Democrats that came out and voted in the primary and number of Republicans that came out and voted. Our race is not being taken seriously by anybody. And it's sad in the sense that it's so close. It's one of the closest and, you know, competitive districts in the entire country. We talked about 2.9% for flipping blue, but it's only 8,000 votes. And we had more than 50,000 people move into just one of the two counties. Here's the interesting thing about this district is when you have a six-way primary and no one is an incumbent in a Democratic primary, what people bank on is the fact that you're really not going to do a lot to get out. And I want to echo Anthony here again. What our campaign is doing is completely unique in the sense that Texas's 31st district has never really been aggressively canvassed, reaching out to underserved communities, rural communities that have never been asked for their vote, that have never been knocked on their door and said, hey, this time around you have a choice in representation. You have bold new representation. You have someone that's running for people who work for a living, people who need health insurance. And it doesn't matter whether you are, you know, you have a really great job or you don't, because even if you have a great job in Williamson County, you have a lot of affluent people, but people get laid off and people realize that at a certain stage in your career, you're up against things like age discrimination. So it doesn't matter if you're really well educated and you have a good job or you don't, or you're a server in a restaurant, we're both struggling with the same challenges. If you have a child or a family member that is ill or cannot get health care, it doesn't matter whether you're middle class or upper middle class. You can't pay for $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $50,000 of medical expenses. No one has that kind of money to stashed away. So this is a challenge that all of us are facing and that's the message we're trying to get. Right now in the Democratic primary in our district, because it's so crowded, most people from the establishment side are just letting things fall where they may. And this is the biggest advantage for us because we now have an opportunity to knock on doors and talk to people directly. I think the most important thing that your viewers should get away from this is that the establishment always talks about raising a lot of money, millions of dollars, right? The fact is this, canvassing, block walking, phone banking, these things are not millions of dollars. They don't actually cost millions of dollars. They don't cost millions of dollars of TV advertising. And that's not how most people are getting their information in the first place. So most people are focused on that. But what candidates, grassroots candidates like us need to do is we need to, yes, we do need money. Don't get me wrong, there's a certain threshold we need to get to. But once you get that, effectively using what you raise is the key to winning elections. Always remember this, money doesn't win elections, votes do. The last candidate who ran here raised a lot of money and did a really great job of closing the gap. But at the end of the day, if you want to win elections, you have to go and ask for the votes. And that's what our campaign is doing. We're getting people excited. We have people calling us on a daily basis. Our volunteer list is growing. They call and they're like, what can I do for your campaign? I've never seen anything like this in Texas's 31st district. How can I help? And that's what's exciting about it. And we think we can definitely flip this with the working people in Texas's 31st district. That's exciting. It's like every single one of you, it's very clear that you're striking a chord. It's just a matter of like, will enough people learn about your campaign and time? And this is a question that I wanted to pose to Lauren because you're running against a lesser known Democrat, who was incredibly entrenched in the establishment. And at the beginning, you know, she probably didn't take you seriously. But now she's realizing that you're building a huge movement. You're receiving these endorsements. And on top of that, you're a comedian who's running for Congress, which I think is amazing. I saw one of your stand-up clips and it was great. It was great. I watched on YouTube. It was phenomenal. So you guys, like you have just that appeal as being normal human beings. But on top of that, you're a comedian. So you have that extra charm about you. So what is it like to go up against a political behemoth who has the entire establishment behind? Like, have you seen any type of obstacles in the sense that they've tried to sue you or keep you off of NGP? Van, can you just talk through some of these obstacles? Because it really is a huge task to take on someone who is that entrenched. Oh, I mean, it's always intimidating. This is the first time I've ever run for anything. And to go up against somebody who whose majority of their funding comes from corporate packs is it really just shows how important it is that we are grassroots funded. And that our average donation is $25, which is amazing because it whenever we're looking at the occupations of people that donate to me, one of the most common ones is unemployed. So what it's telling me is that people who are experiencing struggles right now. Find hope in our message and what we're fighting for and trust that I am fighting for it. And whenever you compare my finances to my opponents, you know, most of hers are really big donations and we're really proud of our grassroots funding. So it's intimidating, but the fact that we have seen so much momentum, especially in the last quarter or two, it's becoming very real that we can win this. We have a real path to victory. Don't mind the cat. But yeah, I mean, I am, I am a comedian. So part of part of the territory is having a backbone and having some pretty thick skin, even though I am pretty nice. So, you know, she can come at me with her money and we're just going to keep knocking on doors. One of the biggest things that we're seeing because we have been out knocking doors since last March is that whenever we ask, you know, do you know who your current representative is most people say no. Even if we even if we mentioned her name, they're like, I don't know who that is. It's like, okay, fine. Well, I'll tell you why this election is so important. I'm the first person who has ever knocked on their door. And I get to tell them why it's so important that they vote for me. She hasn't made that connection. And this election is open to be won by a grassroots candidate. We're out there where we've been working really hard making connections with people tomorrow. On Thursday, January 30, we're going to have another comedy show with John Fugelsang, Kate Willett and Katie Halper. And we're really excited to have their support and also to keep spreading the message in the most authentic way that I know, and part of that is comedy. So our campaign is fun. It's also real and you can see me yelling on Twitter every day multiple times a day. There's a lot to be angry at, but especially with a coalition like this with so many grassroots candidates running across the country for the right reasons. It's really exciting. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I see a lot of hope in this coalition of candidates and also ones that aren't on this call, but I'm very, very supportive of. That's so exciting. I love how you each kind of bring something unique. I think using comedy and kind of like intertwining that with rallies is brilliant. And I'm really excited to see how that turns out and to have people like, you know, Katie Halper and John Fugelsang, like actual people coming out who have a lot of, you know, capital in the comedy world and who people know. I think that's so exciting. And so you're all using something unique. I gotta ask Joshua about his use of TikTok because one thing that I think a lot of people realize is the value in social media. It's what AOC kind of used to catapult her to victory, but you've kind of emerged as this like viral TikTok sensation, Joshua, and I'll be 100% honest. I just learned about TikTok like not that long ago because I am terribly out of touch with, you know, the youth. So tell us what your strategy is because you've managed to be successful in TikTok and Twitter. And what is your like, what is basically the main thing that you do? Is it comedy with policy? Like what's your goal and your strategy there? I don't know. I guess my biggest strategy on social media is to not put too much effort into crafting anything. People can kind of sense when something's like overproduced and so I'm careful not to like make anything sound too wonky or sound like it was like a written for like a college essay or something, you know. I think that helps a lot. It also helps that like if I were elected, I would be the youngest member of Congress. I just grew up with this stuff. Like I don't know. I don't remember a time without the internet. So I've been on like social media and other platforms like my whole life. So like as long as I can remember. And so it kind of is just something like you either know the culture or you don't. And I do have some extent of like I kind of understand humor even though I'm still a millennial. Like I kind of I spent a lot of time talking to Gen Z and stuff. So the radical policies really helps a lot too. The younger generation is very radical. So I think that's a big part of it. And yeah, I don't really put too much effort into TikTok. I put like a video out every couple days and sometimes like once a week and they usually take me like five minutes to make and yeah, and it usually does pretty well. That's exciting. See, I'm more from the Vine generation. I really liked Vine a lot. So I'm a little bit bitter, you know, apprehensive about jumping onto TikTok. But I'm curious, like without the use of like TikTok and Snapchat and whatnot on social media, do you think that you would be where you are? Or do you honestly think that the most important thing is like the door knocking the grassroots? Like I'm sure that there's a combination of both. They're equally valuable. But how instrumental do you think that social media has been in building your campaign to the point that it's at? Well, it's been my biggest asset for the campaign. Not as a thing to get votes, like just to be clear. The role it has served is getting me name recognition within the district, getting me a lot of positive press, getting me volunteers, really talented staff. Like when we were hiring for certain positions, we got so many like really qualified people applying to work for our campaigns just because I have a really big reach. Our volunteer number, especially since I started using TikTok has increased so much. TikTok is like uses like location services now. So if you are in the area, you're more likely to see my videos. And Instagram has been really helpful for that too. So we have gotten a lot of on the ground volunteers from social media. 100% of our fundraising has been on social media. And so yeah, we've raised almost $140,000, which is Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. That's really interesting to know. Okay, so talking about the unique dynamics of the races. So I've talked to a lot of candidates from the state of New Jersey. Shout outs to Russ here in Sione, Zina Spizakis, Hector Oseguera, who I had on, I think, the week before last. And basically a consensus is that a lot of people feel demoralized in the state of New Jersey because the politics there is just overtly corrupt, almost uniquely corrupt. And I also get that sense that in Florida and Florida in politics, that's kind of the same thing. So Jen, I'm curious in that type of environment, do people feel demoralized and do you kind of feel like the weight of the establishment, trying to squash your campaign, essentially, because I remember back in 2016. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was trying to crush her primary opponent back then, Tim Konova, by cutting off access to NGP van and whatnot. So have you experienced any types of obstacles like that in your experience running? Not really since the very beginning. And the very beginning was right around when the DCCC issued that fatwa on any consultants that would possibly help challengers to incumbents. And that made it difficult in the beginning. We originally lost our compliance officer and some people that couldn't do that. But I mean, for the most part, in my district, the people that are the establishment super voters, it's hard to say. Some of them are just, you know, they're with her because they with her. Some of them are with her because they're scared of her. But they're not really giving me that hard of a time, even the ones that do support her. I kind of, I've been doing this now since last January. So I've been doing this for a year. And I've, and most of that was before anybody even knew that I was actually doing this. So a lot of these people, as much as they kind of don't want to like me, they kind of do just because I've been there. And so I'm not an outsider to them. So I don't think that it is easy for them to dismiss me, even if they do support Debbie. So that's, you know, been really in district. But, you know, the party as far as statewide, they're kind of just seemingly staying out of it, which I appreciate. And I'm not sure if that's just because we're still, you know, however many months away from August, but we haven't had that much trouble from them. And we do have, I mean, we have access to their list. It's just a matter of paying for it. So, you know, that's been pretty standard. I feel fortunate so far with that. But yeah, you know, the people that are her people generally give me a little bit of, you know, I get the attitude. I have people ask me why would I do this, you know, is if I'm doing something so horrible. I still am bitter when I watched, I'm sure we all saw the knockdown the house documentary when AOC was handing out flyers and somebody just dismissed her and said I'm voting for Joe Crowley like I'm still bitter at that person. Like in my mind for just completely disregarding her. I'll give you a list. I can give you a list of those people. I keep like a mental list of those people and it usually is more of a of an eye roll. I'll say hi. I'm Jen. I'm running for Congress. Oh, what district 23 and I'll get that Debbie seat. And I've actually taken to say actually, you know, it belongs to district 23, but I could see, you know, she's been there so long, I could see why you would think that. But yeah, I just at this point, I just sort of laugh at it. Yeah, there's nothing that she can do. And that's it. And we're, we're reaching out outside of the party so much and bringing in people that are not part of that. So I really spend most of my time not with that. And I like it a lot. So, you know, we do everything like I said, vet clubs, community gardens, anything that we can do to help. So I'm really staying busy away from the party machine. Yeah, I don't blame you at all. So I wanted to ask Isaiah because you're running for Congress and we know about the difficulties but just as a candidate for the viewer. If you had to inform us about what it's like to be a candidate and like the one thing that could give you a boost that we can or can't do in terms of like just getting you to that next level. What do you think it would be and I know this is such a broad question but if you could like really, you know, think of one thing that would really help you, whether it be media coverage or just more money. What do you think would really put you on to that next level? Okay, so I'll answer in the order you asked him. I was having a conversation about this last night and a lot of your viewers who have seen my video before know I'm a veteran. I'm a combat veteran. I've been to combat three times and this is the most mentally challenging thing running for office that I've done in my life. And it's that way because I know what I'm fighting for. I know how serious the situation on the ground in my district is and on the ground around the country and quite frankly around the world. I know the deleterious effect that money has on our body politic and how it has corrupted our politicians and they suffer from this moral perpetuity of just giving every big company a seat at the table. So, and I'll be honest with you and I'm sure my fellow candidates can tell you that there are times when you want to quit. There are times when you think about it, you're like, why am I doing this? But then you're bullied by the fact that you know why you're doing it. I've had people tell me, oh, you want to be the next AOC as if I want people with cameras in my face all the time. I'm a very private person, you know what I mean? So I don't want that. But when I walk down Flatbush Avenue and I see the same homeless guy for years walking down Flatbush Avenue and people look at him as if he's invisible. When I walk in the neighborhood where my father immigrated from and I see where his old home used to be and now there's these giant high-rise apartments that nobody can afford. I know why I'm doing it. When I meet with my local congressman or congresswoman who I'm challenging now on the issues and behind closed doors, she talks about she's not going to give up support for all these big businesses and she's not going to stop taking corporate money. Then damn it, we have to do something. You know, the time to do what's right is always now. And like Anthony said, if you're thinking about running, do it because the problems that we're facing aren't going to go away just because you don't decide not to run. You know, most people work a nine to five but income inequality works 24 hours a day. It does not stop. You know what I mean? Right now there are big executives carving up neighborhoods, cutting pensions, planning to lay off workers, planning to shortchange us, figuring out how not to pay taxes. Right now there's somebody sitting in jail for a ticket they couldn't pay or joint that they had in their pocket. So just because you decide not to run, all the things that need to be fixed aren't going to fix themselves. So we have to fix them. I mean, that's what keeps me going at times when I get, when I get low or when I get like, you know, this is and to echo Jen, how Debbie Wasserman had her seat for longest. The person I'm challenging her mother was a city council woman, the daughter inherited the mother's city council and then worked as an aid for the congressman that she eventually replaced and has been there for 14 years. So, talk about a political dynasty in my district, you're running against Eva Clark. Oh, that's older Clark's daughter. Okay, that's good. God bless both of them. But what has she done in 14 years. Absolutely nothing. So that's the thing that folks should know. And I harken back to my days in basic training when my drill started told me when I was almost ready to quit basic training. He said the easiest way through something tough is straight through it. It's not to circumnavigate it's not to go is hit it head on and go straight through it. So I know this is a tough fight. I just have to keep pushing forward and keep pushing forward because like AOC said it knocked down the house you brought it up. I watched that at least once a month for inspiration. I'm not even joking because I do because I'm like, man, I feel terrible. I watched the video and I'm like, they felt the same exact way that I feel. So we have to keep pushing. The thing that we can always use more than I'm sure every candidate here will tell you that is money. Like I said, our average donation is $23. We haven't had a max donor yet. We haven't had somebody max out $2,800. And nine times out of 10, if you can if you can donate $2,800 to a political campaign, you're probably in the 1% of society. If you have just $3,000 to give to a candidate, you probably not the people that need help the most. So we can just use more small dollar donations. I'm telling you when I appeared on your show the first time, I was I was amazed to see how many people watch the video for one. The positive comments that were on the video and the donations that came through because you think Texas has a political machine or Florida has a political machine. Damn it, New York has Tammany Hall. It's real. I mean, I'm pretty sure they're going to sue my slate mate Lauren. Carolyn Maloney is probably going to sue Lauren Aschka to keep her off the ballot. I promise you that. We need 1250 signatures, 1250 signatures to get on the ballot in New York. If we get anywhere near that, we're not making the ballot. We're shooting for 10,000 signatures. Because that's how corrupt our political system is. That's how pervasive dark money has become. That's how bought and paid for all of the people we're going up against are. I know Josh was appointed dropped out, but he's a corporate Democrat too. And it's not only right for us to check Republicans, we must check Democrats as well. Because if you look at the donations, these packs give these candidates equally. They'll give to Republican incumbents and Democratic incumbents. They don't give a damn who's in power. All they care is they have access to whoever's in power. And we're seeing that that whatever we've been doing up until now has led us to where we're at. We are in a very bad place in America where there are tens of millions of people who can't afford health insurance, who can't afford to pay off student debt, who are losing their homes. There are hundreds of thousands of people across this nation sleeping on the streets. So whatever we've done to get at this point is not going to be enough to where we need to get to tomorrow. So we all have to fight. Yeah, that's absolutely beautifully put. It's it's a lot like I can't imagine like I've never ran for Congress and I don't think I ever could after hearing from all of you and just all the amount of sacrifice. So this is why I say if people kind of are with me on that and they don't ever see themselves running for Congress and the way that we can contribute is by helping all these phenomenal candidates who all are bringing something wonderful to the table. And I'm so honored to talk to, you know, six future members of Congress. You guys are running amazing campaigns and before we go, I just want to take the time to one by one refresh everyone's memory about the primary date because there's a lot of dates for trying to balance and what we can do to help you individually in your unique race. Lauren, we'll start with you. So my primary date is June 23. I am in New York's 12th District, and we can have the Green New Deal we can have single payer Medicare for all, we can have a federal jobs guarantee. We can live in a world where our bodily autonomy isn't always on the chopping block. We can move to an economically empowered society where working class people have a voice and full and equal representation. And we can live in a world where corporations don't hold the power over us. So in order to get there. I need your support I need your grassroots small dollar donations recurring is great. You've done so much already to power this campaign. We have a path to victory. Stay on board with me we're fighting together. You're on this team. Thank you so much. The website is Lauren Ashcraft.com you can follow me at vote Ashcraft, and I'm so excited to stay connected and partner with each and every one of you. Perfect Anthony, tell us what we can do to help your campaign. Yeah, definitely I mean we're all here. I love every one of you that's here with us today, you know, send a love to everyone that's out there. We're all here because essentially we recognize that we can no longer meet our communities and the Democratic Party where they are. You know, we have to engage in efforts to systemically move our community and Democratic Party to where they need to be far left is actually bringing us home. You know, I'm a teacher in my 11 years of teaching I've lost 12 students done by the Chicago in the Chicago land area. We are all struggling out here high levels of unemployment, lack of a livable wage homelessness in Chicago alone we have 1000 individuals that are homeless. Climate change how it disproportionately impacts brown and black bodies of the criminal justice system how black and brown individuals continue to be disproportionately represented in what I believe is slavery by new name. We are all out here struggling. But the one thing I understand is when we dare to struggle, we win and we went with Medicare for all, we went with a green new deal. We went with homes guarantee we went with a livable wage of federal jobs guarantee all these interconnected issues need and require interconnected solutions because I guarantee you when we create opportunity, you will also see gun violence drop. You will also see mental health issues drop. So again, when we dare to struggle, we dare to win. My name is Anthony Clark. I'm a public high school teacher nonprofit director, small business owner, and I'm running for Congress and Illinois Congress District. You can check us out at www. I like I always say that to my students. They tell me you're so old nobody says www anymore. But www.VoteAnthonyClark.com. On our website. We need individuals to volunteer whether that be phone banking or canvassing. If you have a dollar to spare. Don't buy talkies. Don't buy thoughts. Donate for movement. We need that dollar. So in vote Anthony card dot com and our social media accounts on Instagram and Twitter or Anthony for money. We keep speaking to the power. We love everybody know so again, I'm going to end it with a quote that I think ties into this class struggle that we're in. And it's from Martin Luther King. He essentially says we may have all come here on different. But we're on the same boat now. So we're in this together. This is an intersectional movement and I think everybody grow that they play in this movement all power to the people. Absolutely. And Joshua, what can we do to help put you over the edge? I know you're running against three other corporate Democrats. How can we help your campaign? Well, I guess the first thing if you are in need of a college internship or high school internship, we do have an internship program. And you can do remote or in districts participation for that. So if you want to do that, you can sign up at Joshua 2020 dot com slash intern. If you sign up on our website to volunteer, you can also join our discord. Our discord server has, I think like 1400 people in it. And you can join that and, you know, help, you know, with the digital aspect of it regardless of where you are in the country. And if you are in or near the Olympia to Poma area, definitely sign up at Joshua 2020 dot com slash volunteer. And yeah, donations are great. We get a lot of small dollar donations. So even if you want to donate our most common amount, which is $4 and 20 cents, then, you know, that would be greatly appreciated. So yeah. And, you know, our race is a really strong one. Our primary is not until like early August. So we have a lot of time and we're already in such a strong position. I never thought we would be like the front runner at this point, but you know, we are we've we've so far have the most money, definitely the most volunteers and it's not even close. And a lot of really big endorsements we have our Revolution National endorsed us our Revolution Pierce County and Thurston County and Washington state. And then we have Olympia DSA. We have the Washington youth climate strike endorsement. And that'll be announced soon. But I guess you guys can hear here first. Yeah. And we, you know, we've been getting a lot of support. Sign up to volunteer numbers. Number one thing we need is volunteers, knock doors, phone bank, text bank. And you can help with organizing from anywhere in the country. That's perfect. 2020.com. There you go. All right, perfect. And Jen, what can we do to help you? Yeah, so kind of the same thing as everyone else. We are August 18 primary. So we also are a late primary. And it is a closed primary. So we need everyone to be aware of that. And we are Florida's 23rd district. And we need volunteers as well. And, you know, people can text bank from anywhere. So people can sign up and volunteer on our website, which is gen 2020.com. And we are also Instagram and Twitter at gen fl 23. And we, you know, we adverse. We asked for $23 a month for district 23, 23 for 23. So that's a common price point that we get for monthly donors, which is very appreciated. And we are, like I said before, seeking a field director. So if anybody out there has experienced and is interested in helping us out, Debbie Wasserman felt we would very much appreciate them getting in touch with our campaign. All right, that's perfect. And Isaiah, what can we do to help you win? I feel like this is the closing statement of a presidential debate. I mean, I'm. When I hear I think about it, I mean, all of us are, we're doing a little more than just running for Congress. All of us are actually trying to change the system, not just reform it. We're trying to dismantle it in a sense. And if you look back to our nation's history, slavery was a system that existed for hundreds of years before somebody stood up and decided to change it. Jim Crow was a system that stood for almost a hundred years before people stood up and tried to change it. And they did. And now we have corporate dollars that have invested our body politics. And the old cliche is true. If you follow the money, that's why we're all running because all of our members of Congress are bought and paid for. And in doing so, they have forgotten the people they were elected to serve. And in doing so, people are struggling to survive. They're not even keeping their heads above water. They are drowning. And this is not hyperbole. This is not me trying to sound voices. This is real. People are dying out there. And all of us can no longer, we decided we can no longer sit back and allow it to happen. If it takes us one, two, 10 times, we must break this system that has affected our body politics. So anybody out there who's listening, if you can spare a few bucks, like literally we get donations for a dollar. That dollar means something to me. That's another palm card we can buy to hand out to a voter. That's another can, a slice of pizza we can buy for one of our volunteers. That goes to a shirt, a campaign shirt or button that we can hand out to somebody for coming and help us with the campaign. So if you can spare anything, anything, if you can make it reoccurring, that's even better. If you live, you know, in the New York City area, or in the tri-state area, you want to volunteer for the campaign. Our website is Isaiah for Congress, I-S-I-A-H for congress.com, all the same social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And if you can't donate, because I'm just as broke as you guys, you can always follow and retweet and share and help amplify the message because the more people we get our message in front of, the more powerful that message is. And we're not going to beat the machine piecemeal. We have to come at this as a collective. We have to come at this together. So again, I thank you for having me on, having all of us on, giving us a platform to speak when traditional media at first wouldn't do it. And I want to thank your viewers for all the support that they've given my campaign and all the other campaigns out there. And I look forward to their continued support. Our primary is June 23 of this year. And I'll come back on with my primary and tell you how we're going to win the general. Perfect. Donna, how about you last but not least, because your primary is coming up really, really soon. Tell us when that is one more time and what we can do to help you win that. Yeah. So our primary is March 3 and early voting for primary is February 18, literally three weeks away. We need all the help we can get. So if you can donate, please donate because I'm a first time candidate and people just need to know my name and that they have a choice. I'm also the only candidate in this district, North Austin that's unequivocally running on Medicare for All. But if there's one thing I want you to remember about this campaign is that I am proposing a solution to accelerate Medicare for All faster than the proposal today that's in Congress. And I think we can bring it much faster than the timeline that's there. So if you believe in that message, then please support our campaign. If you can't donate, you can volunteer from anywhere in the country. We need folks to help us phone bang. We need folks to knock on doors. If you're in this trip, please reach out to us. We need you. We have 500 yard signs, you know, sitting there waiting to be delivered. People have already requested them and we could use the help in any way, shape or form. I'm also one of the candidates running on real pay for all, a proposal that is above and beyond the living wage saying that you shouldn't just be able to get by, but you should be able to save to put a down payment on a home. And you should be able to retire with dignity and peace and financial security. So if you believe in this message, please go to our website, votefordonna.com, send us any donation. Every single dollar matters. And there is no campaign in this district that's going to stretch your dollar the way we are. We're effectively using every single dollar to touch the most number of people. So we've strategized, we've built an algorithm on who to target, how to go after them in the most efficient way. And last but not least, if you want to join our campaign, we're looking for people to come join. Not just as a volunteer, but we're also looking for a great, you know, field folks, great management folks, event folks. So around the country, come here. Let's flip Texas 31 blue. Let's take a nine-term Trump or out of office and show them that it doesn't matter where you go. When we flip Texas, the message is reverberating across the country. And we can do this. So votefordonna.com. Well, thank you all so much for coming on the program. Once again, thank you for the updates to your campaign. I'm sure that we will be in touch, but if I don't see you by the time you're in Congress, then know that we will not become demobilized. We'll still support you when you're in Congress. And hopefully the next time that I talk about your campaigns, it will be covering you as a member of Congress. You know, hopefully, you know, shooting down something that Fox News said or the establishment did. We're here all the way to the end and we're in this together. And thank you all so much for running for Congress and doing this to all of my viewers. I would encourage you to chip in to support all of these great candidates. And if you live in one of these states in their areas, please sign up to volunteer, to phone bank, to text bank. It's not as scary as it seems initially and you do get over that fear fast and it can become quite addicting once you start phone banking. And you kind of realize that it's actually relatively easy to convince people to get out to vote. They just need to know that there's someone out there who's fighting for them. So thank you all once again so much for those of you at home watching this. I appreciate your viewership. Please find a way to get involved, even if it's just as little as retweeting these candidates, because any little contribution is a down payment to a better future. And I know that sounds corny, but it's true, it really is. So thank you all so much.