Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I am your host, Ramsey's job.
He is Rams's job. I am q Ward. This is not the Quiet Storm. I'm just trying to get my voice back. You are tuned in to Civic Cite.
Yes, indeed, stick around. We have an excellent show lined up for you today. We're going to talk about local elections and why they are important and what can go wrong if you choose not to participate or if you
choose to ignore it. And you know, the best part about today's episode is we have an incredible gentleman with us today, a very special guest and a dear friend of mine and a friend of the show, mister Jevin Hodge, who most recently was the Democratic nominee in Arizona's first district that's Scott Still for those that know, and his race of all the four hundred and thirty five seats was the sixth closest, decided ten days after the election, and decided by less than one percent of the vote.
And I'm confident that list goes on. So please say hello to our listeners and let them know a little bit more about.
Well, the first thing I have to say is thank you for having me, thanks for being here, and thanks to all the folks you know tuning in and this is this is about to be a great show. I'm really looking forward to. Thank you for the introduction and the reason. One of the things I'm most excited for because I've been involved in politics and government for a while here. When out I was elected at twenty two years old to lead the Democratic Party in the state
of Arizona. I was the youngest statewide black official in the country. And one of my jobs is making sure we get folks elected, and we get and we have conversations around civic engagement, and we have run for local office. I've run for the Meericopa County Board of Supervisors in one of the closest races in Arizona history, and then
most recently, for the United States Congress. So I'm excited to talk about the importance of being involved and being engaged, but more importantly, the power of your voice.
Right well, I can't wait to get to all of that and so much more. Like I said, great show lined up for you today. But first and form most like we always do at this time, it is time for some ebony excellence. Q. So we shall so. Today's EBNY Excellence is sponsored by Hip Hop Weekly Media and I will be sharing from binnews dot com. Shout out to the Black Information Network one time if you don't want. A Georgia high school student has earned over a million
dollars in scholarships from dozens of schools across the country. Quote, I'm so blessed to have this opportunity, seventeen year old Regis Harris said or Atlanta News First. He goes on to say there were several schools at the top of my list. Parris, a senior at Chapel Hill High and Douglasville, was accepted to over forty colleges that are offering the total of one point six million dollars in scholarships. Some of the schools include the University of Georgia and USC.
He says, there was a lot of sacrifices. There were a lot of nights I stayed up studying all night long. The straight A student is a member of the band, chess club, varsity track team, and National Honor Society. He also works part time and sings in the church choir. Harris said he sees community service just as just as important as his academics. He goes on to say, the hardest part for me was that I balanced staying on top of work, but also that I maintained being a
well rounded person. He was born in the heart condition and his parents say their son has been a fighter all of his life. Quote. The doctors told me he would be developmentally delayed, his mother, Kia Harris said, quote they even stated that he might have to have heart surgery. Again, he is our miracle. But Harris has been able to defy the odds and looks forward to the next chapter
in his life. Quote. I'm looking forward to being able to adapt, to expand my mind, my learning, and I can't wait, he said Harris Frans, who attend North Carolina A and T where he'll study biology and hopes of becoming a psychiatrist. So shout out to Regis Harris. You
are indeed ebony excellence. Now but local Okay, we've talked about this on the show before, but today we have an expert in the building, a political commentator in Jevin Hodge, and someone who can help educate us and you at the same time in terms of why these things are so important. So what we'll do is we'll talk about some of the things that have happened recently, and what I'd like to do is get your reaction and just kind of the wise, let's do it.
Yeah.
Yeah, So, the one thing that's been making I guess the most news in this space in the past week a couple of weeks, i should say, is Tennessee. So the Tennessee House expelled two Democratic black lawmakers after falling short of outs ousting another that we're always ties me up. So Tennessee's Republican controlled House of Representatives voted to expel representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson a week after they let a gun reform protest on the House floor. Don't worry,
the story has a happy ending. But I think that this example, and we'll get to the others, shows exactly how much power there is in local governments. So talk to us about maybe what happened here and how folks participating in the election process can help shape these.
Absolutely absolutely, And I want to start by highlighting a theme that we're going to keep coming back to today on the show, and is that your vote matters and your voice matters, and what folks often forget is how powerful their vote and their voice really truly are, and it's our jobs to remind them and remind them the power of their participation in their democracy, the power of participating in government, the power of utilizing their vote at
the ballot box and utilizing their voice, whether it's that vote at the ballot box or a demonstration or whatever that may be.
But this situation here.
Is truly unique because there were three lawmakers that were voted to be expelled, two black piles and another that was not a black individual. But the only two lawmakers that had the votes to be expelled were the two black individuals. So there's a there's a racial component that competes with that is involved in this. But the reason why they were were up for the explosion was because they were utilizing their voice and protected under the First Amendment,
right is your freedom of speech. They weren't doing anything unlawful, they weren't doing anything to infringe upon the freedoms or the safety of anyone else, but simply protesting a significant issue that we have here in this country around gun violence and the future of gun rights and all of that.
And so these individuals were and what they were doing is that they were protesting they were utilizing their voice in the space in which they could garner the attention right on the floor of the House of Representative Where's going to matter exactly? And so let's go back now to the most important thing. How your vote in your voice matters. Okay, when you don't participate in an election,
people get elected. That may not do the best thing by the individual, right, And you know it's not it's not one side or another that basically decides an election. It really comes down to the folks that are are apathetic. It's it's the apathy that decides an election. I mean, we are the most advanced nation in the world where in elect a great election, right, we see sixty five seventy percent participation, I mean, and that's just outstanding.
Yeah, that'd be an astronomical.
Test, that's exactly right.
So you're telling me, you're telling me that at the end of the day, if only seventy percent of the people participate, right, that's great. I you know, and don't get me wrong, I understand a C is still passing grade. But when you live in a country that the first Amendment right is the value of your voice, the value of the freedom of your speech, and you're not utilizing that. That means that our system is flipped on its head
at its core. And so in situations like this happens because you have people in communities that aren't utilizing their votes, and you have individuals that are getting elected because of apathy. You get individuals that are getting elected in districts right, whether it's at the state level in this case, or at city levels and the municipal level, because of the lack of participation, and a lot of the times, right, A lot of the times, and this is the one
that blows my mind. These elections are decided by small amounts of votes.
I was actually gonna suggest that I remember seeing something on Netflix recently and this kind of put the thought in my head. What was suggested in this documentary I forget the name of it, but what was suggested was that because of how our political system is set up, a vote from an individual in California is worth approximately half in terms of its value to the overall election process than a vote from a white landowner male who
lives in Wisconsin. And that got me to thinking, if I don't vote, if I don't engage, which historically my understanding is that those of us of a more liberal persuasion tend to vote less, and those with more conservative values are very much engaged at every level of the
political process. So if I, being a liberal minded individual, don't vote, that ensures that the vote of those who perhaps want to see the country revert back to an earlier time state whatever, or it actually increases the weight of their vote. If I don't engage in the political process, is that that that is a very very good way of looking at ok. Right, And and I want to start by saying this, like, I have my views, I have my ideological standing and what I believe, and I'm
a proud Democrat. I don't run from it.
But as someone who has vied for elected office, my job is not to be an ambassador of a certain interests or a certain ideological stance, but to be a representative of one hundred percent of population. And that's what's missing, right, because of exactly what you just highlighted. If we have one for one participation, then that means that you know, the elected official is forced to limits into both people. But for every one vote, you got two on the
other side. And that could be Democrat or Republican. But in this case, right, it's you know, for every one liberal that doesn't vote right, another you know conservative does vote right. That's one for two, which means that the elected official that is elected only has to cater to one ideological.
To the voter is exactly the population the voters that are participating, right, And you know exactly I just I just want to make sure we're clear about that, right, because everybody, you know, as long as you're registered your voter, right, But if you're not participating.
Well, yeah, you hope that they got to pay attention to the people who are.
That's exactly right, That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And that's the reason why our system is flawed. Right, Our system is flawed because we you have individuals that are working every single day to destroy what we all collectively have worked so hard to protect and to preserve. Right, And as long as voting is difficult, there's no reason
why we don't have automatic voter registration nation. Why, there's no reason why you know, we're not automatically registering eighteen year olds in their Civics class or history class while they're in high school. Right. But but but that's by design, right, because as long as is certain folks are making it harder for people to vote. That means that they're going to be able to make atin in office. That means that they're going to be able to continue to do
nonsense things like what happened in Tennessee. Right, and again, let's go back to the beginning. Your vote matters, and your voice matters. You may not always get what you strive for, but your vote matters, and your voice matters.
I appreciate it.
Before we move on, how do we get people to believe what you just said?
Right?
Because the disenfranchisement of the voter sets the table for the outcome that you guys just talked about, where I only have to hater my messaging to the people who are going to actually turn out. I know these people aren't going to turn out because I and my colleagues have shown them that their voice does not matter.
Even those that come out and vote.
I've shown them now from multiple election cycles, your voice really doesn't matter. So as that number starts to dwindle and people get less and less motivated to even show up, then, of course, why would I have any messaging or any policy promises to these people who I know based on my behavior, you're in those like me, I've gotten to a point where they are apathetic, where they do not feel like their voice matters, and we keep proving it to them.
My brother, that.
Right there is what keeps me up at night. Right Like you just gave me chills asking that question, because we have to change the class of people who are running for office, because you have the disenfranchised folks, and there are so many different categories of disenfranchised folks who live below the socio economic belt, right, folks like us black from the black community. Right, you got folks in
the LGBT community community. When you feel forgotten and left behind by your government because of the elected officials, you have no desire to participate, in no willingness to participate. So we have to flip that on its head. And I'll just give you a very practical example. I've run
for office twice. I've run for office, and I've had over a million people cast their votes and elections for me, and both of my elections when you combine the vote vote totals together is less than thirty five hundred votes. And the reason being is because I personally believe we expanded the electorate. I ran for the county supervisors, which is like a county commissioner Americopa County, for a district
that had over a million people. The vote was decided fifteen days after the election by four hundred and three votes. And I ran in a district where as a Democrat, where Trump carried the district by eight points to the election before. This was not a democratic district. And then I just ran for the United States Congress in a district where you had a twelve year Republican incumbent and my race was decided by zero point seven percent or
three thousand votes, eight ten days after the election. The reason why I highlight that is because when you can flip the status quo on its head, the results will always.
Be in your favor. And we do differently, and I always say we is that we weren't campaigning. Never once did I campaign for offense. It was about building of movement to strengthen our democracy. And when you can inspire people to believe that never believe that their governm or their democracy was for them, that changes the complete composition of the system. And what's going to have to happen in order to change the makeup of the you know. I mean, look, let me tell you one of my
favorite quotes. If you want to change the laws, you got to change the law makers. And the only way to change the law makers is to make.
Sure that you have people who are reflective of the community participating in their election.
You got to change the voters. And I want to jump in right here because I think that this is exactly what we're seeing for those folks who might be disengaged in the political process. If I had to guess the best way to see what it could look like if everybody, not just you, I know, as individuals. Everybody's focused on money. I'm not mad at you. We all are focused on money. But this is a long road that we have to walk, and money's at the end of it. We got a lot of stuff to get
through before we get there. And this is my belief. So if we want to have an idea of how it could look, we can just look at the way conservatives move, and in particular we're talking about you know, Tennessee. Those representatives were elected, all those Republican representatives were elected, and as soon as they had an opportunity, as soon as they had the smallest little bit of dirt. You know what the funniest thing is that we you know,
we're all black men in here. We always say how we have to be twice as good to be Yeah, exactly, twice as good to go half as far. So this is a perfect example of that. You know, they didn't mess up. But you know, as soon as the conservative majority they're found in angle, they didn't censor.
Them, did them. They exactly they did the job that they were elected to do exactly. These people probably campaign on these principles exactly. And I want to just highlight to exactly what you just said. I want to bring this back to your point, Q. When you can make people feel something and you can inspire them to believe in something greater than them, that's how we strengthen the system. That's how we you know, it's not just asking people to vote, right, it's asking the question of how can
I be a part of your life? How can we make your life better? And it's not just going to go talk to them in October before the November election. It's talking to them in December before the election in two years, right, It's making sure that we have this continuous conversation and I just want to give you an example that's very fresh in all of our minds, right
and one that we probably won't forget. And I know you got I know, y'all got a lot of listeners out there that's much younger than us, so they may not remember what the country felt like in O eight. But President Obama inspired you to believe, hope, change, right, inspired you to believe in something that never you know,
we can never imagine existing. If y'all remember, y'all remember how it felt in O eight in twenty ten, where people were inspired to participate, Well, the same phenomenon happened in twenty sixteen, it just wasn't to us. President Trump inspired a group of people who felt forgotten and left behind by the previous administration. And that's how he got elected, right, He got inspired a group of people who felt forgotten and left behind. So two very good examples on different
sides of the ideological spectrum. But what they did is the same exact thing, right. Well, one campaign was filled with lies and bigotry and xenophobia, we're not gonna go to you know, we're not gonna go there, racism and you know, and all those things. But they essentially attempted to inspire a group of people who felt forgotten and left behind by their government. Right, and when we can do that at the local level, right, that's how we
build a more transparent, a more efficient government. You know, my mother, for example, is a city council woman in the city attempte first black woman elected in the city attempe. I mean, this woman is living history. But what she has done, you know, she's out there. You know, when community members are angry at a decision that she made, she doesn't run in the back room. She goes and puts up a chair and like, if they want to yell, and if they want to argue, you know, and it's
never argument. Let me be clear, If they want to voice the frustration, she is there for them to touch and allow them to voice the frustration, because that's what your elected officials is supposed to do, not run away in those tough moments. Are catered to the people that are kids in your tail.
Now, I also want to talk about some other examples in local governments, So Q, why don't you take us to North Dakota.
Ramses deals with these issues a lot better than I do, because flagrant hypocrisy, flagrant flagrant bigotry, flagrant racism. They hit me a little different. I think a lot of our colleagues and constituents have determined that flagrant and direct racism, bigotry, and hypocrisy is kind of intellectually beneath them to emote about.
And it drives me.
Insane, because you care about people.
Brother.
The Bismar Tribune is where this story comes from. Ten days after narrowly defeating a bill to provide free school lunches to low income K through twelve students, this is even and I laugh because of how frustrating this is to read. The North Dakota Senate approved legislation to increase the amount of money lawmakers and other state employees received in the meal reimbursements. I'm going to read that again
because it's really that unbelievable. Ten days after defeating a bill to provide school lunches free school lunches to children, that same body went on to approve legislation to increase the amount of money they get them and their colleagues for meal reimbursement. Let's take money from our children while approving legislation legislation. I'm sorry to give ourselves more money or the same thing.
It's a wild world we live in.
But I think that these are duly elected officials, by the way.
But again, this is an incredible example of exactly how far your vote in local elections can go. The temperament, the values of these people, you know, for those even even Republicans. There's a quote from the Bible. I think it came from Jesus and it's like the poor you will have with you always or something like that.
Right, that bill approved by Republican law matris as if I needed to say that, So.
You know, I think there's a term rhino Republican name only you know what I mean. But folks with with those biblical values that that that party tends to espouse would not be voting in this way. Right, What is the purpose of the government if not to care for children?
When you are talking about people who use the Lord Jesus Christ for market well, these are not beliefs.
John McCain a pr campaign, Well you know that that's a whole other topic for a segment down the road. But you know it's folks like John McCain rest in peace, right, Folks like Barry Goldwater rest in peace. These are traditional principled conservatives. But at the end of the day, you know, and I got the opportunity before the Senator passed away to work with the Senator on a few different things,
and we didn't always agree. And there are a number of different Republicans that I still work with to this day that we don't always agree on. But you know, the heart isn't the right place, sure, and with initiatives like this right, you are led to ask the question of why the hell are you doing this right, because
it doesn't make any sense. What's the purpose of a government if not to take care of kids children, And and you know they're going to give you some fiscal argument, they're going to give you this discussion about this or that, But it's the second action is the one that we must be most concerned about, that right. And it's the fact that they just a week later they voted for meal reinbursements for themselves.
So their hypocrisy is on full display.
So it's, you know, the philosophical standing here is that, you know, we don't want to pay for everybody to have everything, but it's okay for us to have it. And that's that's the issue, because look, if it's if it's an intellectual discussion, right rooted and based in substance,
I'm happy to have it, right like. Okay, So if the budget doesn't support paying for you know, free not saying that that's my personal opinion, but if the budget doesn't support it, and you can logically articulate why and where, you know there's going to be shortcomings, let's have the discussion.
But you can't say that, you know, I can't give money to these folks because I don't want to, but I can give money to us because I want to, right Like, that's not you know, but let's go back to the number one thing, and and nine year olds can't get a job.
There you go.
So before we wrap this part of the show up, I do want to mention the instance, this one in North Carolina. So this comes from CBS News. A Democrat in a North Carolina state House switch to the Republican Party Wednesday. Given the GOP veto proof control in both chambers of the legislature, it's a setback for Democratic Governor Roy Cooper as he tries to block hardline conservative policies in his final two years in office. Basically, what this
means is that they can override the governor's vetos. So what you're seeing now is people who vote in the election process every four years. I believe that's when you have a chance to pick your governors. But people not voting in, you know, the local elections, which tend to also be overrepresented by conservatives. So you have a state like North Carolina where the conservatives run the House and
the state House and the state Senate. But you have a democratic, democratic governor and now he can't do anything because of a lack of engagement.
So I wonder why someone would make such a switch.
I was