 So last night the left got some surprisingly encouraging news and this really gave me hope for the first time I think since after Bernie Sanders won Nevada. So for those of you who don't know, in the second congressional district of the state of Nebraska, we had an upset. Progressive Kara Eastman won her primary, defeated a corporate Democrat, and she will now take on Republican incumbent Don Bacon in November. And for those of you who don't know about Kara Eastman, she is a brilliant candidate. This is someone who I was rooting for. I was watching her campaign. She's absolutely as progressive as you'd want her to be. But what's important is that she knows how to meet people where they are. She knows how to market the policies that she's pushing. So for example, one video that you put out that I want to share with you. It's relatively long, but I think it's worthwhile. She explains Medicare for all and she kind of goes through all of the myths about Medicare for all and debunks each and every single one of them. And she responds to the Republican talking points before they even critique her. So take a look at this video. If you didn't know who she was, this is just a little taste of one of the policies that she's promoting. We are spending 18 percent of our GDP on health care right now. And our outcomes are some of the poorest in the world. We are projected to show a 5 percent increase in health care costs over the next decade, each year a 5 percent increase so that we get to a point where we're going to be sending 23 percent of our GDP on health care. There is a better system. We know that the current bill that's out there, the Pramila Jayapal co-sponsor Pramila Jayapal who came to the district has endorsed me and has become a friend and hopefully a colleague of mine. HR 1384, the Medicare for all Act, actually saves the government two trillion dollars over the next decade. We need bold policy solutions that save the federal government money, that provide health care for everybody, and that also save American individuals and families money. That is why I'm supportive of that bill. Now, I get people's hesitance about it. We want something that protects insurance employees, Omaha's an insurance town. I will never do anything that jeopardizes employees in this town. And the bill provides for a transition plan and money for insurance employees. I will never do anything that jeopardizes union workers. And I understand union members trepidation about this. And I want to make sure that the union members who fought for health care get that money back in their pockets, not to the large corporations that will benefit from a proposal like this. There's a way that we can have a health care system that provides for vision, dental, hearing, long-term care, long-term care, something that each one of us who has an aging parent or who is an aging parent is worried about, I don't know if I'm an aging parent yet. But I mean, these are pragmatic solutions to a broken system. We need a system that gives people freedom and choice. Right now, you don't have freedom and choice when it comes to your own health care. You're dictated by what your insurance company tells you. I talk to doctors all the time that say, they want to actually have the freedom to practice medicine. They don't want to be told what's covered and what's not covered. If we actually want a free market health care system, we would not have what we have now. The Medicare for All Act is actually in accordance with free market principles because right now, you decide where you're going to get your health care based on what your insurance company says they will cover. That's not free market. We should be able to say, I'm going to choose my health care provider based on the quality of that care, based on the location of that care and based on how I feel about that provider. We need a system that actually gives people choice, that actually gives people freedom. And the stuff that we hear, which are Republican speaking points that are targeting people to say this is something that can't work, they're fear tactics, right? So you're telling people government takeover of health care. This isn't a government takeover of anything. This is publicly funded and privately delivered. We hear that you're not going to be able to choose your provider. You don't choose your provider now. But this would actually give you that choice. We hear that we're going to strip you from health care. Well, that's ridiculous because why would I be advocating for something called Medicare for All or universal health care or health care for all that strips people away from health care? That's simply not true. So we need the facts in front of us to be able to make this decision. And we know that there will be some sort of phase in program. This isn't an over the night flip a switch and everybody gets health care. But there will be options for people. They'll actually have more options than they have now, which is why I support it. That was fantastic. Anything that I've said about Medicare for All in response to criticisms from corporate Democrats and Republicans, she said in that video, it's fantastic. It's absolutely fantastic. And if she were to win and defeat Don Bacon, she can possibly change discourse in America and I don't mean to sound hyperbolic, but basically there's this idea that progressives can't win. They will just jeopardize the Democrats chances of keeping the house and taking back the Senate. But here's the thing in California's 25th Congressional District, a corporate Democrat lost. And last night we had a progressive win. So we can show the country, even if they probably won't want to pay attention, that we are viable, that we can win. I think that will embolden us and we need that right now. So I'm going to put a donation link to Kara Eastman's act blue page. And also I'm going to link you to her website. If you want to learn more about her, Medicare for All isn't the only policy position that she supports. She has a really robust policy platform, but for me, Medicare for All is my one issue. So the way that I personally gauge whether or not I am going to support a candidate is how enthusiastic and comprehensive they are when they talk about health care. So if I see anything like, oh, I believe in access to affordable health care, those code words, they scare me away. But we're not seeing that with Kara Eastman. She's great. Now, after she won her primary, her opponent now, Don Bacon, immediately went on this weird tweet storm where he started attacking her using the most laziest arguments imaginable. Because if you are a Republican Party hack, you can't really respond to someone you're running against on policy because the people are going to agree with Kara, not Don Bacon. So look at what she's already dealing with. Kara Eastman's extremist policy agenda will skyrocket our taxes to pay for a government takeover of health care and free college for everyone. I voted to cut taxes for hardworking Nebraska families and small business in Nebraska's second congressional district. Kara's ideas are a little out there. Kara Eastman's government takeover of health care will take away union negotiated plans, everyone's private health insurance, and lead to rationing of care. Nebraska, too, says no to socialism and Kara's ideas are a little out there. So he's trying to frame her as this wacky socialist, which I don't think is going to work. He also says radical socialist Kara Eastman wants to kick 180 million Americans off their health insurance. That sounds familiar. It's almost like the Democrats teed up this argument for Republicans to use. I want to increase transparency while increasing options and lowering costs for Nebraska to consumers, allowing them to make their own decisions. Kara's ideas are a little out there. Radical socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders support Kara Eastman. They know she'll be a reliable ally in raising your taxes to pay for massive expansion of government. They also know her ideas are a little out there. Kara Eastman opposed real Donald Trump's embassy move to Jerusalem and rightfully so. She supports BDS policies that make Israel vulnerable. That's false. I am one of the strongest pro-Israel supporters in Congress and even helped install their missile defenses. Kara's ideas are a little out there. So as you can see, he is not so subtly trying to push this idea that she's a wacky socialist. And he's not trying to expand his voter base. So I think that this presents the left with a real opportunity here because she is running unapologetically unprogressive ideas even if she is in a red district that she's trying to flip. But she's not running away from a progressive policy platform. She's trying to win by bringing out new demoralized working class voters who just don't vote, who don't participate. Right? So you can see who he's trying to play to. He's trying to play to the right wing, Maga Ched crowd. He's not trying to expand the base. He's talking about how wonderful it was for Trump to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which is disputed territory, obviously. And he's not trying to expand his base. So this gives us a really easy roadmap to follow. It's not going to be easy, but it gives us a really good sense of what we need to do to win. We just have to expand the base. He's not going to expand that base that he already has. But if Kara expands the base enough, she can win this. Now, this is going to be a tough fight, but it's possible that she beats him. It's possible that she beats him. So this is everything. This is exactly what we needed. We needed a little bit of hope. We needed something to hang on to, something to fight for. Now that Bernie's out of the race, and this is exactly it. And I cannot tell you. When I saw news that she won, I almost got emotional because it's like we've been beaten down, kicked in the teeth constantly. Like there's no light at the end of the tunnel for the left. And this is just something. It's something for us. It's going to be hard, right? This is going to be a very difficult race, but guess what? It's not unlinable. She can actually win. She can defeat this right-wing Republican extremist who's trying to paint her as the extremist. But what we can do is explain how these types of policies that she's proposing, especially now during a pandemic like Medicare for All, these aren't just popular among the left and wacky socialists. This is what Americans now know that they need more than ever. Don Dakin isn't going to be able to lie to constituents in Nebraska's Second Congressional District about how they loved their employer-sponsored healthcare plans because guess what? We're in a pandemic. People are losing their jobs. Your employer-sponsored healthcare plan is going away. So we have a real opportunity here to make a difference. We can beat this guy. She can win. So I'm fired up. This is the news that I needed. I needed something to hang onto, something, anything. And we got really fantastic news. Kerry Eastman is a phenomenal candidate. I will be bringing her on my show soon to talk about what we can do to actually beat Don Dakin. And all I know is get involved. If you live in that district, sign up to a canvas for her as soon as we can actually knock on doors again. And on top of that, if you don't live in that district, you can still phone bank for Kerry Eastman. We can actually make a difference. Donate if you have the money. I know a lot of people don't have money now because we're in a pandemic, but we can actually affect change. So these types of down-ballot races, this is what I think that short-term, the left should be focusing on because if you're not excited about Joe Biden, I don't blame you, but we have these types of really exciting races around the country. We have Kerry Eastman. We have Shahid Butar taking on Nancy Pelosi. And there is a competitive race in the state of Maine where we have ranked-choice voting. And you see really great options. You see a progressive Democrat in Betsy Suite and a viable Green Party candidate in Lisa Savage. So there is hope for us. All hope is not lost yet and we just needed this victory to show us. Show me at least. So this is everything. This is great. I will be looking forward to helping Kerry Eastman defeat Don Bacon. We're gonna flip this seat and show corporate Democrats why it's actually progressives who are the ones with the winning strategy and not corporate Democrats who stand for nothing. Christie Smith in California's 25th congressional district stood for nothing and she lost by a lot to a crazy right-wing MAGA Chad. But here, the progressive one. And if we can beat that incumbent unseat a Republican, take away the Republican Party stronghold in that district, we can really make a difference, I think. So I'm all about this. Kerry Eastman 2020, let's defeat this guy. This is great news. I've said that again and again, but like I'm honestly shocked that I have something good to tell you with no caveat. It's like this is genuinely good news. And now we just gotta fight for this victory and make sure that we secure this seat.