This is How We Win
We interview Steve Pierson and Mariah Craven of the progressive activist group Swing Left and hosts of the grassroots power podcast How We Win, about how Dems can prepare for 2020 – and win with Swing Left's Super State Strategy. We discuss whether the Dems can take the House and the Senate, how best to beat Trump, and how to bridge divides within the Democratic party. We also break down the obstacles beyond Trump – voter suppression, gerrymandering, and an obstructionist GOP that may simply not concede.
Sarah Kendzior: I'm Sarah Kendzior the author of the bestselling essay collection, The View from Flyover Country and the upcoming book Hiding in Plain Sight.
Andrea Chalupa: I am Andrea Chalupa, a filmmaker and journalist, and the writer and producer of the upcoming journalistic thriller, Mr. Jones, which is now open in theaters in the UK.
Sarah Kendzior: And this is Gaslit Nation, a podcast covering corruption in the Trump Administration and rising autocracy around the world.
Andrea Chalupa: And so we are very honored to share with you a wonderful conversation with two exceptional guests. Today we're talking to Steve Pierson and Mariah Craven of Swing Left’s How We Win podcast. Steve and Mariah break down the strategy for 2020 on how we can be taking steps right now, right now to join a community, a Swing Left community, and work to elect progressives to Congress in both the House and the Senate to take back Congress.
Andrea Chalupa: So they're going to go through that entire strategy. This is such an essential conversation. Please bookmark this discussion, listen to it again, share it with 50 friends. I'm dead serious. Write an email after listening to this and send it to everybody you know, and ask them to listen because we are dealing with an existential crisis in the form of the Republicans stealing yet another election in 2020 and the way we avoid that from happening and our democracy being game over here in the US is by staying engaged, learning where we are needed, which States desperately need us to show up and get involved.
Andrea Chalupa: And it's by taking those key actions now, by fighting our hearts out now we will have less greater sacrifices to make it later should the worst happen. As we're seeing in this atrocious news cycle from the Republicans stealing a trial, the impeachment trial of Donald Trump in the Senate, by not allowing evidence or witnesses and voting to acquit them. That's not a trial. That's a rubber stamp of Trump's corruption by the Republican Party, which is just as complicit as he is in stealing elections and so forth.
Andrea Chalupa: So the way we avoid things from getting even more horrendous where people have to protest like the protesters in Hong Kong and Ukraine and so forth is by doing our civic duty. Now, these are the good old days that we're living right now. This is the easiest chance we possibly have in this moment of time, is to just get strategic, find out where we're needed and show up there. Make phone calls, knock on doors. If you don't know how to do those things, then listen to Swing Left’s podcast, How We Win, and Steve and Mariah will walk you through that.
Andrea Chalupa: Now here they are. Please tell everyone you know about this discussion. This is not a drill. This is such an immense moment in our country's history. It's a critical turning point and we all need to show up to prevent the worst from happening and 2020 is our last big chance to do that.
Andrea Chalupa: All right, so Sarah and I are here with Steve Pierson and Mariah Craven of the How We Win podcast featured on Swing Left and we are thrilled to talk to you guys. Welcome to Gaslit Nation.
Steve Pierson: We're thrilled to be here.
Mariah Craven: So thrilled. I think this is such a great match. People get all the information they need from you all and we tell them what to do with that.
Andrea Chalupa: Exactly right. So let's get the slumber party started. So tell us what is Swing Left?
Steve Pierson: Well, Swing Left launched right after inauguration day in 2017. It was one of these grassroots groups that really got so much momentum and our focus was taking back the House of Representatives. We didn't know what it was going to be like when we first launched. It was a lot of activated, angry people from politics and also from outside the world of politics who just were getting involved for the first time.
Steve Pierson: And obviously we built a great coalition with lots of partners. We had a ton of volunteers that showed up in an historic election to not just vote but volunteer in the midterms. And so now we're taking that same energy to the White House, of course, to Senate races and to local legislatures that will have an impact on gerrymandering.
Mariah Craven: And we can't downplay the fact that, hey, we did it in 2018 and that was due to all of these amazing new volunteers who suddenly were inspired and had some direction thanks to Swing Left so they could just hop on the website and find out what to do with the anxiety and energy that they had.
Andrea Chalupa: Great. Are you in every state? How big is the Swing Left community?
Steve Pierson: We are in almost every state. We have a little over a million volunteers signed up and some are more active than others. That's what our job is, is to make sure that everyone gets active. What we're really good at doing is taking volunteers from blue areas where they need to be focused somewhere else, where they need to be focused, where it's strategically important to get them involved. And so that's where we have our superstate strategy.
Andrea Chalupa: Okay. And what's the superstate strategy?
Sarah Kendzior: And what exactly is that?
Steve Pierson: See how I teed that up? I was waiting, I was just going to lay that out there. It was a teaser. So I mentioned that we are involved in the White House, the Senate and local legislatures. So when you look at those three areas, you come up with a number of States, actually 12 of them that have a combination of those races. So in some cases, two or even three of those races on one ballot.
Steve Pierson: So, strategically, when we focus our volunteer energy on those places, that's where your average volunteer is going to have the biggest impact.
Mariah Craven: Yeah, and it's really helpful, especially, you know, Steve and I are in Los Angeles. We call it the double bubble, super blue area. Where is our time, talent and treasure going to be the most valuable and have the most impact? The Swing Left Super Strategy points it out for you. And then people all over the country, no matter where they live, can adopt a state or a race or an area that moves them and get involved.
Andrea Chalupa: Okay, great. And so what are those States in 2020?
Steve Pierson: There 12 of them. You can go to swingleft.org and we have a really beautiful map right there on the website for you to look at, but they include Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Maine. I think that's 12.
Mariah Craven: Mm-hmm (affirmative). So these are the usual suspects that might decide the Presidential Election or have rampant voter suppression–hello, Georgia–or have a Senate seat up for grabs–hello Maine and Susan Collins.
Andrea Chalupa: We're all after Susan Collins in 2020.
Steve Pierson: Everyone should go to Maine, eat some lobster and get rid of Susan Collins. Come on. That's an easy ask.
Andrea Chalupa: Yeah, no, I agree. Everyone needs to vacation to a battleground state in 2020 or you're wasting your tourist money.
Mariah Craven: Oh, that's a great idea.
Andrea Chalupa: So walk us through the focus of your show. Obviously it's in the title, but sort of what's your strategy of how you're going to help defeat Trump in 2020 using the power of your podcast?
Mariah Craven: Well, I would say it's a tiny bit ranty, but it's mostly inspirational. And again, the idea is to talk to the people who want to do something in 2020 and make a difference. And so what we're providing them with is the inspiration to get involved if they haven't yet or to keep going if they're a little bit tired. But also practical advice and tools, whether it's finding out how to knock on your first door or the best language to use when you're talking to a voter on the phone or writing them a letter or trying to register them.
Mariah Craven: So a lot of practical tips, some anecdotes. Steve and I have both done a lot of field work and I think that we have a lot of cool experiences to share some advice on what to avoid and some tips on how to do it really successfully.
Steve Pierson: Yeah, we always say that action is the best antidote to anxiety. So we try to give people hope every episode and always give them something clear to do.
Andrea Chalupa: What is your background like? What do you... would you talk a little bit about your grassroots organizing?
Mariah Craven: Sure. Well, I love working on campaigns, especially for women and candidates of color. So I've been doing that for quite some time and have knocked on doors everywhere from Virginia to Texas to California and also done a lot of professional communications and digital organizing. So I love marrying the sort of traditions started in the civil rights movement and with labor grassroots organizing with all of these amazing new digital tools that we have. That sort of gives everyone a platform and a voice. And I think that's what my career has been focused on working with candidates like Kamala Harris and Wendy Davis and Karen Bass here in California.
Steve Pierson: Mariah is an unstoppable force of awesomeness is what she is.
Mariah Craven: Just trying to keep up with Steve.
Steve Pierson Awe. Thank you. As for me, I really kind of represent the people who listen to our podcast and the people that we want to reach through our podcast. Because I started out as a volunteer. I had done some phone banking and light volunteering for Hillary and other presidential campaigns, but I never really got involved until after Trump was elected.
Mariah Craven: And then he got real involved.
Steve Pierson: Well, I started saying yes to stuff. For me, one of the reasons I'm excited about the podcast is because I want to tell the stories of ordinary people who stepped into this work and found all of this great stuff to do and ways to make an impact. I didn't know that was out there. I would watch the news and get upset and be like, well what can I do about it? So as soon as I started doing this work, I started as a volunteer with Swing Left. It opened up this whole world and I found out that we need you. There is so much work to be done and there are places to make an impact. And that was really inspiring to me and I kind of took it and ran.
Mariah Craven: And it's cool because, you know, there's this group of people like Steve who are new to this and bring fresh new ideas in a new perspective. And then there are people, longtime organizers who've been at this work for generations who bring a historic perspective and tried and true tactics. And to see those things being married and work so successfully in 2018 is pretty extraordinary. I think we're going to look back at this time in history as a huge shift in activism and organizing.
Andrea Chalupa: It's an unprecedented era, which I think is what has led to a lot of this unprecedented activism. I want to ask about one of the core issues that voters have historically had to deal with, but even more so now in the Trump era, which is election integrity. You know, we're dealing with a lot of problems at once. Including domestic voter suppression, foreign interference, mostly Russia, but not limited to Russia, unsecure machines. How would you advise citizens and officials to prepare in advance of the election?
Mariah Craven: That is the most important question that we need to be asking right now, just weeks before people start voting. I think first and foremost is people need to be informed. And that starts with listening to Gaslit Nation, I think, which is so informative. But reading a lot. I think that it's so important to know the truth, to spread the truth, to stay focused on the truth and not to get sidetracked by the gimmicks that are going to be coming fast and furiously from outside the country, but also from the White House itself.
Steve Pierson: I would add to that that all of those things that you so aptly described are happening, are going to continue to happen. So when we look at polls for instance, and it looks close or we have an advantage somewhere, we can't get comfy with that. I think we need to have an overwhelming turnout in all of these races to overcome the Republican cheating. So that means not just showing up to vote, but that means really showing up to volunteer, getting your friends and family involved and just making this a blowout.
Mariah Craven: Yeah. Having people of integrity, voting, sharing information, being poll watchers responding–and I know they're going to be boiler rooms all over the country where voter protection issues come up–we all need to be as involved as possible and committed to the truth.
Andrea Chalupa: So all of this is such a feast for me because we on the show Gaslit Nation, we're not just about obviously Trump and pulling that existential threat out of power, but we also want to Trump-proof our democracy because, as we knowm Ivanka is coming up next. I mean that's just obvious when you're dealing with autocrats, wannabe autocrats. It's always like dynasty in place and people at first thought that was crazy when we were planning that out in like January, 2017 but now there are all these reports coming out that that is the plan.
Andrea Chalupa: And so for Swing Left and your podcast and the work that you do, what are your ambitions for your entire coalition that you have going here? Like are you thinking larger than Trump? Do you want to join us and move in together in a big house? [crosstalk 00:14:02]
Steve Pierson: That sounds fun.
Andrea Chalupa: Work on all these plans together because I've got ideas.
Steve Pierson: A big socialist commune.
Andrea Chalupa: Yeah. We're getting a bunker going, all right? Are you in or out? But no, but it's like if you think about it, if we were to come up with a big checklist among our... with getting everybody involved, like what should be on it? It would be election hacking. How do we make sure there's no more debate anymore on were our elections hacked or were they not hacked? Can they be hacked? I mean, we know they can be hacked, but how do we fight for election security across the board?
Andrea Chalupa: And that work is being done already as we've featured on our show. One example, in New York State, an indivisible group came together and made their own legislation to secure their elections in New York State. And they're working to get that legislation passed. They already have sponsors in the State government here in New York. So in terms of doing that all-important grassroots organizing and coalition building around specific issues to attack the causes of Trump, close the loopholes that the Kremlin took advantage of in 2016 when they attacked our democracy and helped bring them to power.
Andrea Chalupa: Everything from taking on the social media giants and trying to get a fairness doctrine passed to reign in the abusive powers of the media, including social media. So where do you stand on using your big grassroots engine to try to attack those specific issues and build a larger coalition around specific issues to try to protect our democracy from an Ivanka Trump presidency?
Steve Pierson: Well, I certainly want to do that. I mean I think we can all agree there. I'll say two things about that, that I've really seen happen in the last year or so with not just Swing Left, but all of these great grassroots new organizations that have cropped up like Indivisible. And first of all, I'm very involved in the California Democratic Party. I'm now an elected delegate and I'm a lead chair of our Voter Services Committee, which is, would be better named the Election Committee. And I've seen a lot of my colleagues who started School of Trump, right? Started right after Trump was elected, who have also joined in with the Democratic Party structure and are bridging those gaps. I think that's really important for all the things that you talked about in terms of pushing progressive legislation, pushing election integrity legislation, and having these new voices from the grassroots involved in the Party, that's going to sustain this movement and make it go beyond just Trump.
Steve Pierson: So that's one thing and it's been really exciting to see all these fresh voices inside the Party structure. The other thing is the presidency obviously takes up so much air in the room, these primaries and all the elections, that's what everyone pays attention to. That's what gets covered on the news. But the local legislatures, the opportunity we have to win back some State Houses before the census comes up, and draw fair lines in these local legislatures. That is a once in a decade opportunity to do really what the Republicans have been really good at doing. And that's securing their strength on the local level.
Mariah Craven: Yeah, and I would say for election protection in particular, a lot of this is going to come down to funding. The States need funding to upgrade their election systems and protect them from hacking. A lot of that will come from the federal government, which is why we need to flip the Senate because Senate Republicans have been holding up election funding and allowing it to trickle out last minute when we needed to be spending it two, three years ago. But also it comes down to flipping these State Houses, like Steve was saying, to ensure that there's also state funding to protect our elections as well.
Mariah Craven: And then I think what we're building, to your point, goes beyond a movement of resistance. What we are hopefully building is a group of people that can be activated every time it's necessary, which probably moving forward is going to be all the time. And I think a great example of that is here in Southern California, we built a coalition of grassroots and labor to help flip a bunch of House seats, including the 25th Congressional District. Unfortunately, the person who we got elected resigned suddenly at the end of last year, and all of those activists were ready to mobilize at a moment's notice so that we can make sure that we hold that seat.
Andrea Chalupa: And you're talking about Katie Hill's seat? Correct?
Mariah Craven: Yes. Talking about Katie Hill in the 25th Congressional District, and unfortunately Katie unexpectedly resigned at the end of 2019 and now there is a special election coming up in March to fill that seat and Republicans and quite a few Democrats are running.
Andrea Chalupa: When is that special election and how is it leaning, currently?
Mariah Craven: The special election is on March 3rd, so it's coinciding with California's early primary. We have a Super Tuesday primary this year and so it's coming up very quickly. And again, we are suddenly faced with Republican interest in this seat as well as several seats that we helped flip in Orange County. So the Republicans have a lot of money and a lot of people that they're running in these seats. So we can't let our guards down ever because they never will.
Steve Pierson: Yup. And I'll say to Mariah's point, it's been really encouraging and amazing to see the volunteers, like, just jump right back in. You know, you sort of wonder when you have some groups that put so much energy into a candidate and then sadly they resign, and they're disappointed, would they get burned out by that? Will they show up again? And it's been like, they've been kicking off canvases already. It's...the attendance has been crazy. People are really fired up to hold onto that seat. So that bodes well for us moving into 2020 we're here.
Sarah Kendzior: Yeah. I mean the Katie Hill saga kind of opens up this really dark, dirty era of Republican politics. You know, you see people like George Papadopoulos, a felon, considering running for that seat. We're dealing with a new type of GOP. I've referred to it before as a crime cult. And I don't say that lightly. It's a GOP that doesn't seem to respect autonomy or integrity in politics in general.
Sarah Kendzior: We're seeing behavior–you know, before, you mentioned Stacey Abrams–where they're just flagrantly corrupting elections, they're exhibiting obstructionism, like when Mitch McConnell blocked the Supreme Court seat, they ignore subpoenas. How do you deal with a party like this that just seems to have completely abandoned even following the pretense of following rules? Like, how do Democrats fight back to that?
Steve Pierson: Well, we've got to show up. The vote is the most powerful tool we have against oppression. I believe that's a Lyndon Johnson quote. And people who have been sitting on the sidelines need to get off the sidelines. We're at a time in history where it's not just about civic duty, but it's about stepping up and protecting our families against what's going on. I mean, I grew up in DC. I remember a time when Republicans and Democrats could have really heated very contentious debates, but then pick up their kids from school together and hang out and have a mutual relationship and respect.
Steve Pierson: My brother's a Republican who worked in both Bush Administrations who thankfully wants nothing to do with the Trump Administration. Those times are gone. You know, we are at a very odd and dark point in our history and it's up to us to step up and, like we talked about earlier, show up in overwhelming numbers.
Andrea Chalupa: It's really the fight of our lives. And so you talked about the census. Could you explain the high stakes of the census? Like, where are we right now with that and what's at stake?
Mariah Craven: Sure. So the census will officially begin on April 1st and what the census determines is how many Congressional districts each State gets and how much federal funding they get. Those are two of the primary outcomes of the census. So we need as many people participating as possible. What happens after the census in 2021 is Congressional redistricting.
Mariah Craven: So based on those census numbers, States will redraw their Congressional districts. If you live in a state that has some weird looking Congressional districts, it's probably because you have a Republican-controlled House that is doing some really funky line drawings so that they can keep the majority of Congressional seats in their State by doing some wonky, funky, weirdly shaped, fun looking maps. They're not so fun when Republicans are in power.
Mariah Craven: And so I think that this is, comes down to, again, what Steve talked about, is participation. We live in a State where there are a lot of difficult-to-count populations. We have a lot of undocumented immigrants in California. We have a lot of rural areas where people don't have reliable internet access and this is the first census that's going to be taken primarily by the internet. And we have people speaking a lot of different languages and so when we undercount, we risk losing Congressional representation and we risk losing federal funding for things like education and healthcare and really important things like that.
Steve Pierson: And also electoral votes too.
Mariah Craven: Correct.
Andrea Chalupa: Oh, electoral votes as well. Do you get paid to... I think you get paid to be a census taker.
Mariah Craven: You can. The census is hiring in communities right now particularly people who speak multiple languages. So you should check out in your community if they are hiring. But there's also going to be a massive coalition of organizations that are working together across the country to make sure that people are not undercounted. And so there will be many volunteer opportunities as well. If you're not up for another job.
Andrea Chalupa: Walk us through what the path to victory looks like in 2020. How do we win the White House? I read this horrible analysis–it was an excellent analysis, but the verdict was a bit troubling–that Trump could lose the popular vote by an even bigger margin in 2020 and still win the Electoral College. It's still possible. So what are your thoughts on that and what is the road to victory in 2020 for the White House for a Democrat?
Steve Pierson: Well, I don't like hearing that either. That sounds terrible. But you know, we talked about our Super States. I mean we know that, sadly, because personally I think we need to abolish the Electoral College. It doesn't make any sense to me, but it's the system we have right now. So there are some States that will have an outsized influence on the Presidential and those are States that we really need to be involved in.
Steve Pierson: The early work we can do to build these volunteer teams and the early work we can do to register more Democrats will pay dividends. One thing that I didn't realize about presidential-year elections, close to 90% of registered voters vote in presidential-year elections. I mean, because I know that as Americans we are terrible at voting, right? About 50% of the electorate votes. But if you're registered to vote, you're going to vote in a presidential election.
Steve Pierson: So the more work we can do to register Democrats now, the more Democrats we're going to have showing up in November. The other piece of that is like Obama for his second term launched a massive voter registration campaign and registered tons of Democrats because he had the bandwidth to do that. He wasn't running against anybody else. But when you have a bunch of candidates running a contentious primary, they just don't have the resources to do that kind of registration work. So that's where we can step in. That's where organizations like Swing Left and others can step in and register lots of Democrats.
Mariah Craven: I also think that one of the things that we have to be wary of that we saw the last time around was a primary that's so contentious that it prevents Democrats from voting. We can't afford to do that. We can't afford to say, "My candidate didn't make it through. And so therefore I'm not going to show up and vote or I'll vote for the Green Party candidate." So far none of my candidates have made it through, but I'm going to do everything I can to get whoever does make it through elected. And Steve always says “unify or die.” And that's the motto that we all need to live by. Then again, I think if you can take your summer vacation in Wisconsin Michigan, Ohio or Pennsylvania this year, that would be amazing.
Steve Pierson: Or Florida even, right? That's a typical... lots of people vacation in Florida.
Mariah Craven : Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can go to Florida this summer and in addition to your beach time, do a little door knocking and voter registration.
Steve Pierson: Right. And I'll say, just to double down on the “unify or die” thing, a practical thing, Swing Left actually has a Unify or Die Fund that we partnered with our friends at Pod Save America just to expand our podcast universe here. It's money that is held in escrow until after the nomination happens. So you can donate to the Unify or Die Fund and all that money will go to the candidate that makes it through the summer.
Mariah Craven: Yeah, you can put your money where your motto is.
Steve Pierson: I like that.
Andrea Chalupa: Yeah. We say Stop the Bleeding 2020. Any of those leading Democrats will stop the bleeding.
Steve Pierson: And not to belabor this point, but I will say on the ground, a lot of the activists and passionate people that I've met who were really torn up in 2016, I'm not feeling that same kind of stuff going on with everyone right now. Even people who are really passionate about their candidates, they also are ready to lay down and work hard for whoever makes it through the nominee. So I'm hopeful that continues.
Andrea Chalupa: That's true. And I feel like the bots, their strategy in 2016 was to rely on those divisive measures, divide and conquer. And it almost becomes easier to spot a bot now because they're so harsh and trying to be divisive and it's some random obscure count with a bunch of numbers in its name. So it does make it easier having this more of a united spirit this year to spot the bots for sure. So how do Democrats keep the house?
Mariah Craven: Oh, that's an important question. And again, I think that the danger of this presidential election sucking all the air out of the room and feeling so victorious after 2018 is saying, "Oh wow! We flipped the House, our work there is done." It's definitely not. We say here that we are renting those House seats right now and 2020 is going to be about buying them, meaning that they are now securely the Democratic incumbents.
Mariah Craven: So we have to hang on to those seats that we helped flip in 2018 and be on the lookout for additional seats that might be up for grabs. So I know everybody's kind of tired already, but we can't let our guard down on those seats, on those House seats, in favor of the presidential.
Steve Pierson: And we'll be adding on our map, on the swingleft.org map, we're going to be adding the Congressional seats that we're really going to be actively defending and maybe a few that were going to try to flip as well too, very, very soon.
Andrea Chalupa: Okay, great. And then this Senate, do we have a chance of winning the Senate in 2020?
Steve Pierson: Yes. Yes, we definitely have a chance. And that really is what everyone needs to be focused on. Because obviously like what a terrible scenario to take back the White House, hold on to the House, and Still have Mitch McConnell-
Mariah Craven: Oh, God, that would be the worst.
Steve Pierson: ... blocking everything in the Senate.
Mariah Craven: But we only need to flip four Senate seats-
Steve Pierson: Four Senate seats-
Mariah Craven: ... and hold the ones that we have-
Steve Pierson: Or three if we win the presidency.
Mariah Craven: Right. And so, I mean we flipped how many seats in the House last year?
Steve Pierson: 41.
Mariah Craven: 41. What's three or four seats? We can do that.
Steve Pierson: There are some that are squishier than others and where we really need to focus our energy on. We have a lot of friends in California who have made Arizona their raison d'etre and Colorado, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, hello, Maine, Iowa. These are all places where we really need to be active.
Andrea Chalupa: So if we have to flip four seats in the Senate in order to win, who are the four most vulnerable Republicans in the Senate in 2020?
Mariah Craven: I think that seat in Maine. I think that the tide has really moved against Susan Collins and she's getting some pushback from Republicans as well. I think that we have a good shot in Arizona. That's going to be a really interesting race to get Mick Sally out. I'm really keeping an eye on this Lindsey Graham's competitor is having some strong fundraising numbers, so that's going to be an exciting race to watch.
Andrea Chalupa: So Lindsey Graham could be possibly on the way out. Do you think?
Mariah Craven: That would be a Miracle on Ice moment, but I'm still excited about those fundraising numbers.
Steve Pierson: The question that we get probably the most, that I get the most, is–Mitch McConnell's got like a 29% approval rate, we just won the governor in Kentucky, can we get Mitch McConnell out? Can we vote him out in Kentucky? I think that that's a really appealing race to work on. But maybe not the most strategic, I mean Kentucky is still Kentucky. We're building a good scaffolding there.
Steve Pierson: We did get the governorship back, but I think we need to register a lot more Democrats before that looks like a really good bet to win back the Senate. But like Mariah said, North Carolina, actually Arizona, we have to take that. Texas also is a potential and Colorado is one that we should be able to get.
Mariah Craven: Swing Left has identified those seven seats where we are most likely to flip the Senate and in the grants with so many activists and volunteers, seven is a doable number to focus people's efforts on.
Sarah Kendzior: I'm curious what you mean by “Kentucky is still Kentucky” because you just brought up two points that seem in the favor of Democrats or at least of getting rid of McConnell, which is that he's incredibly unpopular and they now have a Democratic governor again, granted an heir to the throne, but I live in Missouri. I visit Kentucky. When I go there, I feel like Kentucky is a purple state that is often mistaken for a red state. And I'm just sort of curious what you think of all those kinds of dichotomies that are put out there like red and blue and this state is worth it and this state is a lost cause. Why wouldn't it be worth it to go hard in Kentucky?
Steve Pierson: Look, I think if you have the ability to go hard in Kentucky and you're around there and can go knock on doors, if that's your area, then you should do it. There were mixed results in the Kentucky election last year, no doubt. And as you said the new governor was sort of the heir to the throne, Matt Bevins, the previous Republican governor was roundly disliked by Democrats and Republicans alike, just intensely unpopular. The legislative seats all went Republican, right? So I think it is moving purple. It kind of feels to me like Virginia eight years ago maybe, and we need to keep working on that and keep building our infrastructure there.
Andrea Chalupa: Right. And that's really what it's about. It's about building that progressive infrastructure election after election. If you look at Newt Gingrich's district in Georgia, which was the birthplace of this rabid Republicanism we've seen under Newt Gingrich, that was deep red. And then John Ossoff, like a hipster poster child that came in and didn't win, but of course gave the Republicans a run for their money. And then Lucy McBath came in building off of that progressive infrastructure and she won.
Andrea Chalupa: And now a black woman holds Newt Gingrich's former seat. And that's phenomenal. A proud gun safety sensibility leader. It's just really exciting to see all the progress that's been made even when we don't win. But we are building a progressive infrastructure election after election. And so could you talk about that a little bit in terms of Texas and Georgia now and what's happening there?
Mariah Craven: Yeah, I think it's a great point and it's an important reminder, like you said, that even if we lose it doesn't mean that we're not making forward progress. I worked in Texas on the Wendy Davis for Governor campaign in 2014 and talk about a confusing state that has Austin and also some of the most conservative parts of the country. And they, for whatever reason, keep electing Ted Cruz but they also elected Ann Richards. And so that kind of gives you hope, but also is a reminder of how quickly that and how far that pendulum can swing.
Mariah Craven: So in 2014 a coalition of groups in Texas who were behind Wendy Davis for Governor built this unprecedented ground campaign. They talked to so many voters, they registered so many voters. It was incredible and we lost by a lot, but it laid the groundwork for what's happening right now, which in 2014 I would never have imagined that somebody would say, "Oh, Texas might be on its way to becoming purple." Like, what? But now here we are. And so that's why doing the work now is so important. And thinking again beyond Trump, thinking of the legacy that we're building as Progressives for a better future for our country and our democracy is really what the ultimate focus is.
Andrea Chalupa: Yes, exactly. And what advice do you have for people who feel overwhelmed by the crises we're being hit with?
Steve Pierson: I would say jump in and whatever your bandwidth is, whether it's... we mentioned a lot of our Super States, not everyone has the ability, most people don't have the ability to actually travel and go knock on doors. But we do have letter writing campaigns where we can write, get out the vote letters and register people by mail through our partners with vote forward. Those are really fun to do and really easy to do with a group of people.
Steve Pierson: Get together with some friends and write some letters, make some phone calls.
Mariah Craven: Phone banking is still one of the most effective things that we can do.
Steve Pierson: Yeah, I mentioned that I got into this really for my own sanity. You know, my family after Trump was elected, I have now a 17-year-old daughter. We were all under the covers, freaked out and I had to do something. I couldn't just sit on the sidelines. What I found was this great relief in getting into action. It really did alleviate my anxiety. So I would just recommend for people who are really upset and scared. It's a scary time. Try stepping out of your comfort zone a little bit. Do what you can and I promise you, you will feel better and you will find this amazing community to support you as well.
Mariah Craven: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Talking to voters will make you feel so good. And the fellow volunteers that you meet will have a transformational effect on your life.
Steve Pierson: It really will.
Andrea Chalupa: When you choose to do this work, it absolutely transforms you, and it sets you on a journey that just goes beyond your wildest dreams and it's wonderful. And so I appreciate all the work that you guys are doing. Thank you for doing it. And we look forward to talking with you again. And our focus is on not just defeating Trump, but defeating Trumpism in America. And so we're in it for the long haul together.
Steve Pierson: I love that. We're with you too and thank you for all the amazing work that you two both do.
Mariah Craven: Yes.
Andrea Chalupa:
Our discussion continues and you can get access to that by signing up on our Patreon at the Truth Teller level or higher.
Sarah Kendzior: We want to encourage our listeners to help the victims of the Australian fires by donating to the Australian Red Cross, working on the ground to help people in need. For help directed towards Australia's first nations communities, check out the Fire Relief Fund for First Nations Communities by Neil Morris. We've posted links to these groups and others on our Patreon page.
Andrea Chalupa: We also encourage you to donate to Wires, a group that rescues native Australian wildlife in distress, donate at wires.org.au, and if you want to help critically endangered orangutans already pressure from the palm oil industry, donate to the Orangutan Project at theorangutangproject.org. Gaslit Nation is produced by Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa. If you like what we do, leave us a review on iTunes. It helps us reach more listeners and check out our Patreon, it helps keep us going.
Sarah Kendzior: Our production managers, who we sorely need, are Nicholas Torres and Karlyn Daigle. Our episodes are edited by Nicholas Torres and our Patreon exclusive content is edited by Karlyn Daigle.
Andrea Chalupa: Original music in Gaslit Nation produced by David Whitehead, Martin Visenberg, Nick Farr, Damian Arriaga, and Karlyn Daigle.
Sarah Kendzior: Our logo design was donated to us by Hamish Smith of the New York-based firm Order. Thank you so much Hamish.
Andrea Chalupa: Gaslit Nation would like to thank our supporters at the producer level and higher on Patreon