Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, where we discussed the top political headlines with some of today's best minds, and Republicans are worried Mitt Romney's new book will reveal their true feelings about Trump. Lol. We have such a great show for you today. Wisconsin Democrats chair Ben Wickler talks to us about Republicans' latest anti democratic play to impeach a newly elected Supreme Court judge
because they don't like her. Then we'll talk to Russett Perry, who was running for a critical swing district in Virginia's very important state Senate election. But first we have senior editor at The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein. Welcome back to Fast Politics.
Ron Brownstein, Hey, good to be here again. Thanks for having me.
I'm so delighted to have you, and I know how unprecedented I feel. And I McCarthy today saying you saw that where he said they should try to take me down with a motion to vacate explative explative.
I mean, what is happening, Ron Brownstein.
Well, at the broadest level, you know, we are rolling through this ongoing confrontation between what I've called the Coalition of Transformation and the coalition of restoration, which simplifies to the parts of the country that are and are not comfortable with the way we are changing culturally, demographically, and economically. And our politics was heading in this direction before Trump.
I coined those phrases immediately after the election of twenty twelve, when it was pretty clear in the pattern of voting
even for Obama and Romney. But Trump has really crystallized this, and his emergence has both radicalized the Republican Party and created this existential, permanent sense of dread on the other side of the ledger and left us with the politics that is just see seems to be unable to climb down from the battlements, is constantly in crisis, and in part because we are so closely divided, and it seems like very small changes among very small groups in very
few states can tip the balance of power for a nation of syringe of thirty million people. And because we're so polarized, the future, right, I mean, the future of Republican dominated government and democratic dominated government is so wide at this point. So we have these kind of massive stakes hanging on tiny morgins, and that is kind of a recipe for like permanent stress.
It's true. I mean, there is an anxiety.
I was promised that once Trump was defeated, we wouldn't all be walking around on tinderhooks.
But it seems like this impeachment thing.
I've heard a lot of theories about it, that McCarthy had implemented it to avoid a shutdown.
Does that even make any sense.
I think McCarthy implemented it because it was more about McCarthy's job security than Biden's job security, right, I mean, I think we discussed this even on the show. I felt that as soon as McCarthy avoided the debt default, which was truly a potentially catastrophic event, and I assume that he got his chain yanked by the Wall Street wing of the Republican Party saying you cannot mess around with this, that you're going to only go so far.
Once he did that, I've always felt that a government shut down was inevitable because he could not stiff his right flank on both of those issues. The impeachment inquiry, which he can authorize but really can't take too far without a vote. Sooner or later, he's going to need a vote both to continue the inquiry as a full pledged inquiry, but much less to you know, actually impeach Biden. And so the issue that he's tried to avoid now where pretty clearly he doesn't have the votes.
Sooner or later he's going to have to face that.
But whatever he did on impeachment, I think he is going to have to shut down the government because and see how he could tell the right no on both fronts, and he chose the one that could really be catastrophic for the domestic and global economy. That was where he chose to kind of behave in a more responsible way, which I assume was was a stern message from the kind of financial infrastructure of the party.
I feel like the donor class is not happy when you destroy all of their public market holdings.
Yes, for example, right exactly.
You know, what was it, Carnegon you said during the depression liquid eight, you know, liquid a capital, liquid e labor. I don't know, I'm not sure that's I'm not sure that's the battle cry today.
Yeah.
So, I mean I do feel like Democrats are hand ringing in a way that is so profoundly democrat.
I mean, you would never have Republicans being.
Like our guy is three years older than Donald Trump, and so he must drop out.
I mean, it's just so nuts.
I guess I'm in the yes and no in this camp.
I would say that if you look at the environment today, I believe it is still true that Joe Biden has an easier path to two hundred seventy Electoral College votes than Donald Trump or any Republican nominee who might actually win the nomination. But that doesn't mean that you can completely ignore what I think is pretty clear resistance in poll I mean, there is definitely resistance in the public
to re electing Joe Biden for another term. There are many Democratic strategists who hope that by now things would be improving for Biden. They're really not. I have argued that there are four big changes in the electorate since Biden and Trump met in twenty twenty four, changes in the environment, and two of them are hurting Biden and benefiting Trump, and two of them are hurting Trump and
benefiting Biden. I mean, the concern about inflation is real, right, I mean, its real and pervasive, particularly for people around the median income or below, upbringing people.
It is an invenience, an annoyance.
All of these things but it is really a struggle for people of less means. And even though inflation is slowing down, that doesn't mean prices are going down. The overwhelming likelihood is that by election day in twenty twenty four, people will go into the booth with the necessities of daily life costing more than they were when Biden took office. I mean, we're you know, it's hard to believe milk and eggs and rent and gas are going to be back.
Well, that is a headwind.
And then I agree real quick, the other headwind is people are genuinely concerned about his age, right, I mean, we have multiple goals. That doesn't mean he can't win, but it does mean that the whole situation.
Is much more precarious than you would expect.
And then what are the Trump headwinds?
Well, I think the two big Trump headwinds that weren't there in twenty twenty are abortion and insurrection. January sixth happened after election day, and everything that he did to undermine.
The election happened after election day.
So I think that there is more concern about Trump as a threat to American democracy than there was even on election Day in twenty And then you know, obviously the Supreme Court decision overturning Row was in twenty twenty two. Abortion was not nearly as big an issue in twenty
twenty as it will be in twenty twenty four. And I think when you add up you know, age and inflation on one side, and abortion and insurrection on the other, layer, that over the underlying calcification, as you know, John Side's and Lynn Vaverick call it of our politics, where it's really hard to move a large number of voters under any circumstance. And that explains why the two of them
are so close together. The other, you know, the other implication of all this molly is that Biden, just on Labor Day once again, he calls himself middle class Joe. You know, he says, the last guy looked at the world from Park Avenue. I looked at it from Scranton. I think if you add up all of these factors, both the vulnerability and the opportunity, Biden is probably going to be even more dependent on better educated and more affluent voters in twenty four than he was in twenty.
I mean, he's going to struggle to equal his twenty twenty vote, not only about not only among whites without a college degree, but non whites without a college degree, especially Latinos, who are feeling really really squeezed by inflation. And I think he can offset that by running better among white collar suburbanites who are the most concerned that Trump represents a threat to democracy and are also the
most likely to vote on abortion. And we've seen that in everything from the Ohio ballot initiative to the Wisconsin State Supreme Court election. There is a pathway for Biden to win reelection, but I think it's one that runs more upscale than even he did in twenty twenty and is really about values more than it is that I delivered for your interests. I think it's going to be hard for him to win that argument if prices are higher in twenty twenty four then they were in twenty twenty.
You know, we have multiple polls in putting another one this week. People have asked directly who would be better at managing the economy. I mean Trump has a significant lead over Biden, but that doesn't mean Trump is guaranteed to win, because people have those same doubts in twenty two and in the states that matter abortion and democracy. Did Trump inflation and concern about Biden in Arizona, Georgia Senate race, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
So it can be done.
It's just but there are reasons it's not irrational for Democrats to be a little nervous about how this all looks.
At this point, we have seen Biden continually overperform in elections where he's been on the ticket. Again, like, there is no mechanism for like, say the polls were really bad, say you had Biden it, because like, the thing I'm struck by is like Republicans want Democrats to think he's too old, and they want that because they know that
he has incredible power in incumbency. Can we talk about the power of incumbency because I feel like when Trump was running for reelection, everyone's like the power of incumbency, and now that Biden, who is the incumbent, is running, there's let's talk about the power of incumbent.
Say well, look, I think Biden is very aware of this and one reason why he so far is so dead set on running. I mean, there are obvious costs of trying to replace a sitting president. I mean I think he is worried that if he stepped aside, there would be a full scale Donnie Brook to replace him. There obviously would not be deference to Kamala Harris and would certainly see serious opponents to her, and she might not win the nomination because there are a lot of
Democrats who are worried that she can't beat Trump. But of course, ousting the first woman of mixed race, it would be just a mess in the Democratic Party.
Obviously, Biden.
That's one reason why Biden thinks it's important for him to stay on. And there is a kind of a value in incumbency. I have noted in the past that every incumbent president, including Trump, ran better among Latino voters, for example, in their second election than they did in their first. There is kind of a you know you have the job, You look like you can, you can do the job.
I mean.
The offset to this is what Ben Tulchin, who was Bernie's polster in sixteen and twenty said to me for one of these recent stories, which is that, and I should add the the other thing is obvious. You can raise an enormous amount of money. You get an early start. Biden is advertising now in the Swing States. Trump is using his fundraising to you know, pay for his legal bills,
and that will probably be true for months. I mean, Biden could be unanswered unless you know, Carl Rove and Steven Law get around to it, you know, I mean, They're going to be unanswered in these swing states for
a long time. The counter point on the other side is that, you know, he is an incumbent at a moment when people are really unhappy about the economy, right, and that does put a ceiling on how much Again, he has an argument to make that he is helping families by lowering costs and by creating good middle class jobs, and they are putting that argument on TV, you know, about Medicare drug prices and about all the construction jobs that are flowing out of all of the Big three
bills that he passed. But I still believe that if things cost from or daily necessities costs more on the fall of twenty four than the in the fall of twenty it is highly likely that going to the election, more people will think Trump can deliver on the economy than on him and he's going to have to win despite that, which is doable but is not negligible.
You know, Obama did also have this problem.
Obama did have this problem, and he disqualified Romney on the economy eventually, right, I mean Obama made Romney the symbol of the guy who came to town and shut down the plant, and that allowed him even to win Ohio and idaha, we forget. Obama won Iowa against Romney and he won Ohio against Romney, and Biden will have that case to make, which.
Is you will argue I am delivering.
Lower drug prices, I am delivering lower utility prices. I am creating good middle class jobs. And this guy's worried about the rich and Park Avenue. Democratic consultants like Terrence Woodbury or Ben Tulchin again, people who do focus groups and polls among young, non wide voters, and they are hearing things in focus groups like I hate everything Trump stands for. He's a racist, he's a horrible person. But I had more money in my pocket at the end
of the week when he was president. That is a headwind that is going to make it challenging for Biden. I think to match his vote in twenty among non college voters of whatever race, meaning that he's going to probably have to do even better than he did among college voters who are not nearly as inconvenienced or frustrated by the economy. The stock market's going back up and so forth. That's doable, but again, always struggle with younger voters.
He always struggled with the Latino voters. And now he's four years older, and in many ways he looks it. So you know, those are those are real issues for him, not insurmountable issues, but you know you can't sweep them away either.
I want to talk to you about how impeachment may figure into this, because from what I understand of history, and I'm thinking of Bill Clinton's impeachment and also the anxiety that Nancy Pelosi had about impeaching Trump to begin with.
Talk to us about.
What an impeachment looks like when it feels frivolous.
The ninety eight one with Clinton really is the example. And obviously we are even more dug in and polarized than we were then to be. Clinton approverrating was over sixty percent at that point. I'm not sure a president you'd get there anymore. And there was an undeniable backlash against Republicans in the nineteen ninety eight elections.
It wasn't enormous. I mean, there were I believe at.
That point ninety six or ninety eight House Republicans and districts that voted for Clinton. That's how different our politics were at that point. There were so many split ticket districts, and virtually all of them voted to impeach him. Only a few of them lost. Democrats gained five seats in
the nineteen ninety eight a midterm. I think that if Republicans move forward with an impeachment that it would hurt House Republicans, the eighteen House Republicans and districts that Biden carried, the additional circle of Republicans and districts that narrowly voted
for Trump. It would hurt then because the one reason why Democrats avoided the worst case outcome in twenty twenty two, despite majority disapproval of Biden, despite seventy five to eighty percent of voters in all the key states saying the economy wasn't that jape, was because many of the voters who were dissatisfied with conditions voted for Democrats anyway because
they view the Republican alternatives extreme. And I think a groundless impeachment would certainly make it easier for Democrats to stamp Republicans in that way. I'm not sure it would solve Biden's problems, but I think it would increase the problems of House Republicans.
You're answering all the questions I want answered, and so now the time is going by so quickly. One of Biden's problems right now with these poll numbers is that the base is not rallying around him.
But that is.
Theoretically a problem that could be solved with impeachment.
I mean, you will help with part of the base.
I mean, I think when I look at the polling, and I think when many Democratic pollsters look at the polling, the two things that jump out are young people and Latinos are approving of Biden rates way below their vote for him in twenty twenty. And that reflects the fact that he was never connected that well with either of those groups either in the primary. They came back to him in the election against Trump, but they've been hard
hit by inflation, right. I mean, those are groups that are that don't have a lot of financial marching, so they're not really enthusiastic. The Catalyst data shows though, that in the states where Democrats did run campaigns in twenty twenty two. They did fine among Latinos, and they may have done even better among young people than they did in I believe, the twenty eighteen elections. So there are arguments that Biden has and that Democrats have to make
this case, particularly to young people. I think about climate, about abortion, about democracy.
I think the Latino thing.
Is a separate problem where inflation is really going to make it hard for Biden. If you agree with sides in Baverick, which I largely do, you know that we are in an era where the two sides, you know, mobilize in the end. The issue is more differential turnout than it is swing voters, although it's a little bit of both. I mean, I think there are going to be eight million more gen Zers eligible to vote in twenty four than in twenty I mean, that is a
big group of people. It is potentially dispositive, you know. I mean the electric is evolving generationally, evolving toward the generations that have been most favorable to Democrats, and we'll have to see how many of them will come out to vote for Joe Biden. When you phrase it that way, the answer almost certainly is going to be not enough. But the question if it's Trump, how many of them will come out to stop trump Ism that is in many ways not only in collision with their values, but
like is actively targeting their identity. I mean, gen Z is the most diverse, most secular, most LGBTQ friendly generation ever and trump Ism aims at all of that. So maybe Trump can do again what Biden probably can't do on his own motivate that constituency. But there is a turn of the dial in terms of what the eligible voterpool looks like that should make this a little easier for Biden than it was in twenty twenty. The counter you know, the counterwavailing forces our agent inflation.
Ron Brownstein so helpful. I feel like every time I talk to you again, so much clarity.
For my own work. I mean, you just are a font So thank you.
Thanks for having me.
Ben Wickler is the chairperson of the Wisconsin Democrats.
Welcome back to Fast Politics, Ben.
So good to be back. In a wild moment in the state of Wisconsin, I.
Mean wild, So explain to us the story because you are there.
Yeah, Republicans during the Scott Walker era decided that they didn't like how elections were administered. So they created something called the Wisconsin Elections Commission, scrapping the old system. Like a nonpartisan agency, this one has democratic commissioners and publican commissioners, and for anything to happen, they have to have a
majority vote. So they had a majority vote to a number of years ago to nominate Megan Wolf to lead the to actually run the administrator for the Wisconsin Elections Commission to run elections in the state. Other states, it's the Secretary of State some other office. Here, it is as a nonpartisan civil servant who's chosen by this nonpartistan commission and then voted by the state Senate, which voted unanimously to confirm Megan Wolf. And she's done a spectacular
job as the Wisconsin Elections Commission leader. Under her tenure, Wisconsin has consistently been in the top five or even top three states in the country for running successful, free
and fair elections. But then Trump lost and a whole lot of Republicans concluded the only way that was possible is if there was cheating, and there was fraud, and that must be the fault of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, and this conspiracy theory started that death threats started, and they held investigations, they held hearings, they didn't find anything. There was nothing defined. She did a great job. We have a very transparent, very clean tradition and continued system
to actually run our elections. But now Republicans in our state Senate have decided they want to get rid of her. So they had a vote today, but they have a little problem. They voted twenty two to eleven to get rid of her. Here's their problem. Under the system that they set up, they would need a majority of the Wisconsin Elections Commission commissioners to actually send her nomination to
the state Senate for consideration, and that didn't happen. The three Democratic appointees voted against having a new nomination vote. The three Republicans said yes. There was no majority vote, which means there's no vacancy there, which means there's nothing for the state Senate to actually vote on. So this was just a sham stunt to try to claim that she should be kicked out. And now this issues in court, So there's already a lawsuit filed to say that there
is no vacancy. What Republicans are doing is completely invalid and Megan Wolfe, who's at the center of all this, who's not partisan in any way, doesn't lean in either direction, just tries to do her job and make sure elections actually work. She is just how the press conference like an hour ago and said that she will keep doing her job until a court tells her that she shouldn't, if that should ever happen, or until there's actually a
legitimate process, which there hasn't been. So we're now entering a twilight zone where Republicans will claim that they have fired her, but they actually haven't because they can't, y as they can't under the rules that they set up. This is their system. It's amazing and it's so characteristic of what the fight for democracy is like in Wisconsin right now. It has a number of parallels to the situation of the state Supreme Court.
Start with the big election and go from there.
So this spring we had a blockbuster Supreme Court election. It was probably like fifty five million dollars in tracks spending on TV ads. The previous record was like fifteen million in one in any judicial election in the country. Massive, massive, massive stakes, a huge person on both sides, a far right, mega Republican who was involved in the fake elector scheme and endorsed enthusiastically by all the most extreme anti abortion groups in Wisconsin. On the on the kind of Republican backside,
it's officially non partisan the court. And on the progressive side, we had Janet Protocewitz, who ran a great campaign and as she was very clear on the campaign trail, she'd say like, I would never prejudge a case, but you should know what my values are, and I think abortion should be your decision about what you do with your own body. And I acknowledge that our maps are rigged
and we should take a look at them. Yeah, And Republicans were apoplectic about this, but the public was like, Okay, this person understands reality, and they voted in an eleven point landslide for Janet Protoswits, which.
Which for Wisconsin, eleven points is humongous because you're very split state.
Exactly, just to put that into context, that is more than eleven thousand percent of the margin in four of the last six presidential actions, Like it's been under one percent in form we had a one percent margin center race last year. Getting to eleven points is just that is the public thunderously saying this is what we want here. Yeah, the public has its say and to get to that number, it means you have a bunch of Republicans crossed over
voted for Jenipro Sviits. It means you won overwhelmingly with independent voters and the united support from Democrats. That's the verdict of the people. The jenipot Sawitz has sworn in on August first, and immediately the Republican Speaker of our State Assembly, Robin Voss, starts floating this idea that maybe he's going to impeach her to stop her from being able to rule on the court. There's a two lawsuits
now that different groups have filed. Not the Democratic Party, by the way, but two different organizations have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of our ultra jerrymandered maps. Even though we're a fifty to fifty state where you know, winning or losing by one point is the norm. Republicans have rigged the state so much that they have a two third supermajority in the state Senate and are hair's bread the way from a two third supermajority in the state Assembly.
It is the biggest partisan advantage of any state in the United States, according to the Princeton Dairymandering Project. So those are the maps we have right now. All it takes in the Constitution is a simple majority in the state Assembly to impeach a judge or justice. And what someone's impeached, they're suspended, so they can't rule on anything. But the rule is you're supposed to be under the Constitution.
You're supposed to only impeach if someone's had corrupt conduct in office, or crime or misdemeanor.
Or if you really don't like them.
That is the thing that Robin Voss seems to have added in his head. She hasn't done anything in office. She hasn't ruled on a single case in office. But the idea that Republicans are pursuing their claim is that by saying the maps were rigged, that was prejudging a case against them. There was no case. When she said that the maps are ragged, she said that was her
personal view. She said she never prejudge a case. Republicans have run for State Supreme Court, like with wearing NRA logos and holding guns in their campaign materials, like of course you're allowed to have your person and on.
I mean, you have ron but right, you're allowed to have a personal view. It's total bs. But what I want to ask you now, isn't there a theory that if she is impeached that the gu governor, who is a Democrat and won by a landslide of four points, which is right among this for Wisconsin, can actually appoint someone else.
If there's a vacancy, the governor appoints someone. Normally we saw, you know when Trump was president, the House impeaches and then the Senate holds the trial and either equits or convicts. And Republicans in theory, could they have two third super majority in the state Senate so they could convict someone. We've heard from multiple state senators and the Republicans side that they would not do that. They're not into this
at all. But most of all, it seems like the Republicans in the state Senate don't want to even have
the trial. But if they don't, then we're in limbo because if you impeach without a trial under the Constitution, you're suspended until acquit it, which means that they could essentially suspend someone indefinitely unless either a court step in or the Republican legislature actually, you know, does its constitutional duty and has a trial which would I think lead to acquittal if they actually did it.
So what I think is really interesting is what's happening in Wisconsin is not not happening in Florida, right, I mean, there are other states where Republicans are getting way over their skis and taking the anti democratic nugget that Trump is sort of birthed and taking it to its logical conclusion.
The difference is, I think in a.
Place like Wisconsin, we have a very strong Democratic Party that is really taking them to task, and it's much more split, so they're not getting away with it the way they are in Florida.
Yeah.
I mean, Wisconsin has a Democratic governor. All but one of our state constitutional officers are Democrats. We have Ron Johnson, yes, but we have Tammy Baldlet is a fantastic progressive center and the public has been we voted for Biden in twenty twenty. We've Democrats have won fifteen to the last eighteen contested statewide elections. So it is a different situation in that sense. And it's true that both the Democratic Party and the progressive movement here broadly is super engaged
and super fired up. And so right now there's a massive campaign that we're helping to organize to ensure that voters in Republican legislative districts know what's happening and contact their legislators about it. The first poll came out today, the public is two to one against this impeachment. Republican legislators are you know what we're hearing just being flooded
with calls from people who oppose it. There's not a kind of like groundswell to fundamentally shatter our system of government by having the legislative branch execute a kind of coup of the judicial branch. And there's still a faction of the Republican Party that are like business Republicans and they want to you know, make sure that they rake in the tens of millions of dollars in corporate donations for their national convention next summer. That they want they
want their tax cuts. There's like, while this is happening, Republicans and the state legislature are trying to do a big tax cut for rich people. They're trying to undercut the governor's proposal. They increase support for childcare, like that's traditional Republican stuff.
This is true, big mean to poor people.
They should all get around there, you know, we're really here to take things away from people who need them and.
Give tax cuts to the super wealthy. Like that's what they're really about. For those Republicans, it's like, oh my god, why are we talking about this impeachment thing. This is a disaster, And so they're split. They've had two public defections already in the State Assembly the State Senate. Again, this is really at this point an Assembly question because the State Senate doesn't want to have a trial, but the state Senators are kind of like publicly trying to
wave this away every chance they did. It still could happen. But I think that the political costs that the GOP will pay if they do this, he will engulf everything else they try to talk about. They will be known and proven and very clearly the people who overturned a free and fair landslide election in order to get political power. That will echo all the way through twenty twenty four. It just reminds people of January sixth and everything else.
And for some Republicans, I think there's a real I wish that they can find a way to stomp on the brakes and Robin Voss again, the Republican Assembly speaker, he did just kind of do a delay play. After rumors that they were going to do the impeachment this week, he yesterday announced that he was appointing a secret commission of three former Supreme Court justices who advise him on impeachment and that it would take a few weeks to do it. So there's now a window of time where
the public can make its views heard. Where you have a website at defendjusice dot com where you can find your state legislators. I will say, if you live outside Wisconsin or if you're not in a Republican legislative district, don't contact the legislators yourselves. They don't care about what
you think. What you can do is go through that website, find the phone bank, and then you can call voters in the Republican legislative districts and tell them about this, and then they can call their legislators and that actually does help. Or you can donate all that's very helpful too, But we need these Republicans to hear from the people that they actually have to face. Every November and I'll
say one last piece of this. I think Republicans have realized that there's a bunch of ways that not only could they if they do this, could that have huge kind of backfire impact on then it also could fail to stop new maps from getting drawn. And then they're the worst of all possible worlds because they have fair maps that they're running in where it's actually like fifty to fifteen a lot of districts, and they have an electorate that is enraged by having been kicked in the
teeth by this legislators. And so I hope for democracy's sake that they pull back from the brink. But if they don't, I think it's a political disaster for them. And then aleco across the country.
Well, give us like the TLDR on how it's going, and you know how you've done it. And also white states, you feel like there's something to be hopeful about.
Absolutely so all certain. On the other end, if you look at Anderson Clayton in North Carolina, the new Democratic Party chair there, or Yoli Bejerado in Arizona, or Liz Walters in Ohio, these are all like very tough, very complex states with amazing and as today. All these are women's chairs. Lavora Barnes, and in Michigan has already achieved what all of us are hoping for another absolutely down
in my chair. But in those three states they have these gigantic fights that will have enormous implications for twenty
twenty four. They have constant fights on the way there, from the election deniers of Arizona to the new Republican supermajority in North Carolina to in Ohio Republicans trying to change the ballot initiative rules to stop the abortion ballot initiative, and it shares there in each of those states and a number of others are doing the thing that we've had the chance to do for several years now in Wisconsin and in Michigan, which is to not just build
up right before an election, but to build a year round organizing machine. And what that means for us is we have staff in every region of the state, every corner of the state, rural areas, suburbs, and cities who work to build these teams of volunteers that understand their own neighborhoods and their own communities, and they knock on doors year round, sometimes in iceon Stowe in Wisconsin. I imagine another places the sheet and humidity would be the
bigger challenge. But the really key thing is you don't shut down that takes money. You have to raise money. We have a thousands now of monthly donors who make that possible for us to keep this team on board. We have a year round voter protection team that works on local elections as well as the big state wide elections, that works to make sure there's pole observers you're showing
up everywhere. Often local elections literally come down to one vote, and if you build up the kind of infrastruate sure of democracy that stuff has, it carries forward, it works more successfully when you get to the really big elections.
We have a year round coalitions program, so we have staff that work to build our relationships in our parties, partnerships and train candidates from all the different communities of color around the state, from tribal nations you know, Latino candidates and voters and Black and API and all the
different communities that make up our state. We have a Rural Power Up initiative that we've been doing to support our rural county parties in how they communicate, how they organize, also how they do yard signs, which has been for a long time. There was a kind of a thing where Democratic operatives would say signs, yard signs don't vote. But like when you know the people who put up the yard sign and they are publicly endorsing someone, it's
an enormous validator. So we actually take that seriously. We do that work all around the state. And it means that a we like the Democrats in bright red areas, know they're they're not the only one. So Democrats are not automatically it will lose, so they know it's so worth voting and organizing, and it engages people in the bigger product that includes all the other stuff that we do.
So we do all that stuff year round, and it means that when we get a crisis like this one, we're actually already in the communities around the state and we can fight back that instant. We don't have to wait then parachute in someone in from some other place to be able to do this work. It also means that in elections like this spring the Supreme Court election, we had an infrastructure already in place to be able to organize and fight all across the state and on
and on. We'll have local elections in the spring of twenty twenty four. Those tee up what needs to happen for the fall of twenty twenty four, and by the time we get there, we're going to have Tammy Baldwin for US Senate. We'll have the presidential race where we'll have be the tipping point state. We have at least
two potentially flippable House seats. We under either the current maps, we have to stop supermajorities, or if we have new maps, we might be able to fight for majorities, but will have already done the groundwork so that it's not like we're rocking up a few weeks before the election and trying to introduce ourselves with Democrats and that, to me, it's the long term project of building a democracy actually involves building community and helping remind people that they have
power over the way that the world unfolds. They don't just have to post angry what do they called that? X's you know, if there's something you can do. To me, that's the big project. And I'm thrilled about the work that other state chairers are doing around the country, And to me, where everywhere we can. In the purple places, it's very clear how if you work a little bit extra hard, if you push a little bit further, it
might have a huge impact. Sometimes that's harder to summon in places that look nominally bright blue or bright red. But as we saw in New York, the stakes if you don't do this can be enormous.
Yeah, we lost the House beacause of our Democratic Party. Not that I am salty about this at all, because Kevin McCarthy is a very serious leader. Then so appreciate you tell people what they can do, how they.
Can suppore you.
So if you're listening right now, first thing is go to defend Justice dot com. If you're in Wisconsin, find your legislator and contact them. If you're not, join our virtual phone bank and call Wisconsin voters. And then second thing you can do anyone can do from that website or with stems dot org you can click through and don't and especially if you become a monthly donor you support the kind of year round infrastructure I'm talking about. What happens now is going to have a gigantic impact
on the presidential election in twenty twenty four. The Republicans have moved all their chips to Wisconsin. Their national convention is in Wisconsin. You just saw their first presidential primary debate here. They know that if they win here they probably get the White House. If they lose, they probably don't. So if anyone who is able to help us, you can volunteer and you can donate, you can help us make sure that we make the state blue. And if we do this and then we have new maps, maybe
we have a chance to unrigistate. The Republicans have built through law after law to be totally voter proof and voter hostile and democracy proof. We have a chance to unwind that trap. And if we do that, it could have enormous long term implications for the whole country.
Thank you, Ben, thank you, Molly.
Appreciate it.
Russet Perry is the Democratic candidate in Virginia's thirty first Senate district.
Welcome too fast politics for us.
It hi, I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for having me explained.
To us a little bit about your race when it is what it is, et cetera.
Yeah, So I'm running for state Senates in Virginia. My race is the most competitive race this year in Virginia probably in the entire country. It is coming up early. Voting starts September twenty second, and the actual election day is November seventh. But the reason my race is so important is because of the way that Virginia is currently divided. We have a Republican governor, a House of Delegates that is Republican held in a Senate that is narrowly held
by Democrats. My seat is the tipping point seat for whether or not Democrats are able to hold the Senate this fall here in Virginia. What that means sort of the top priority is abortion and abortion rights and abortion access and abortion freedom. Like we've seen across the country and other states and on other ballots. My race is the race that will, like libit at this siding vote for what happens with abortion here in Virginia this year.
This is sort of the big election before twenty twenty four. Is this Virginia State House race. Will you explain to our listeners. Virginia has a House of Delegates and it has a state Senate. Right, that's right, Yep, the entire thing everybody is up this year.
Yeah, that's the right. Every single race is on the ballot.
We saw right after Trump got elected, Democrats were able to flip both the House of Delegates and the state Senate. Since then, Virginia has sort of lost democratic focus and Republicans were able to win back the House of Delegates.
Yes, and that came with the wave of Governor Younkin, who we saw national news come out with this parent's right sort of thing that happened primarily in my district here in Louding County, Virginia.
And then we were subjected to cycles and cycles about how what a genius Youngkin was because he wore a red vast and didn't advertise himself to be a total fascist, unlike a lot of other Republican governors. Explain to us what his gubernatorial record has been like, because I think some of us in the national press got the idea that because he was treated as a moderate, he was governing as a moderate. I don't think that's really accurate.
Yeah, I don't think that's accurate either, But that is the press that he's been able to get. But that is in large part due to the fact of what we call the blue brick wall in the Senate.
Right.
So whatever Youngkin's agenda is it has been routinely stopped by Virginia State senators.
Can you say more about that.
Give me an example of something he tried to pass that you were able to stop.
Yeah, there's a false lieu of bills, right that he's put forward. That are these more extremist type bills that we have seen from these maga Republicans, right, that have only been stopped in the Senate, and those include things like wanting to be able to access menstrual data from him and through search warrant, which is used of course
in criminal prosecution, wanting to outright being abortion altogether. You know, we've just seen bill after bill after bill that has been these these extremist magal like positions.
So Youngkin is not up now.
Youngkin is not up for election this year. That's exactly right. There has been national press over the issue, and Youngin himself has said that his focus right now is on trying to flip the Senate right and making sure that he has that Republican trifecta, the Republican governorship, the Republican House of Delegates, and a Republican Senate, with the goal of being able to enact the agenda that he has been wanting to enact and using that as a launchpad to run for president.
So if he is able to do that, tell us what it will look like. If Youngkin is able to flip the House of Delegates read and keep the Senate.
Yeah, if he's able to flip the Senate and keep the House of Delegates red, then there is no more blockade to these extremist bills that I that I previously referenced. There is no stopping it. And we've seen nothing from Republicans on wanting to limit or tamp down or stand up to any of those sort of extremist agendas. There have already been numerous people here out here, Republicans running for office who have talked about, you know, wanting to
be an abortion altogether. And you know, if you think about it, it makes sense. If Youngkin wants to run for president, he still has the issue of trying to win over all of those MAGA supporters and pulling them from Trump. There's one way to do that, and that's by running on a MAGA agenda. We expect that those bills and those things that haven't put forward, that have been stopped by the Senate will now would then proceed forward and that Virginia would become the next Florida.
That would mean abortion access. What else would that mean?
Yeah, I mean abortion access is huge because Virginia is the last state in the South that does not yet have a ban on abortions, and so we have seen an uptick across the state and folks who are coming here from states in the South relying of virgin as their access to abortions. So it would mean that and we've seen what that means for women who are separating miscarriages, doctors fleeing the state, women being sent out to their
car to bleed out. It also will mean Democrats made great strides in extending ability to vote through early voting, through no fault apps and tee voting, so we would see a rollback. We expect to see a rollback on all of those things, which then, of course could have further impacts on the presidential election next year when people are unable to get to the ballot box and to vote.
We expect to also see environmental impacts. Governor Youngcan has already tried to pull is trying to pull Virginia out of the Regional greenhouse Gas initiative that was a something put in place by Democrats whenever they had control to reduce carbon emissions here in Virginia, and so we expect that we will see it in a number of things. Certainly, book banning has been big here in Virginia, and of course in the schools, we expect that we will see
funding diverted away from public schools through vouchers. You know, we've seen rewriting of history here in Virginia and a rollback of what kids learn in school.
If young Kin is able to flip both the House of Delegates and keep the Senate, will he be able to turn Virginia into Florida.
I think if he is able to flip the Senate and keep the House of Delegates, yeah, I don't there won't be anything left to stop him from turning Virginia into Florida. Democrats won a special election in January of this year that gives us one cushion seat, but because of redistricting. I should have mentioned that all of the seats here in Virginia were redistricted, and this is the first year after redistricting, and so really all of this comes down to what happens in my race in this
seat this year what direction Virginia ends up taking. And Virginia is always a bellweather state.
Right, if Democrats don't win, will be subjected to some of the worst pundentrary known to man.
Yeah, I think that's right.
Sorry, But also you guys will lose all your rights, so that's also bad. But I'm more importantly for us on the national level. No, I'm just kidding. No, there's nothing funny about losing all your rights. And it really is scary that Virginia, which is very much a purple state, could become Florida, which is very much now a complete cryptocracy.
Talk to us about your opponent.
Yeah, so my opponent moved into the district to run for this race. He is the son of a billionaire. He has no ties to this district and moved in here at the end of last year, right before the deadline to move in one week. He closed on his house one week before the deadline.
Amazing, at least he bought a house.
I mean, he is not to be flippant, but we've seen Republicans run with lass I'm looking at you, Josh Hawley.
But yes, continue, well, I will say he has a little bit of a cashier uanity. He's the son of a billionaire his father to be, so he bought a house here to run for this seat. He is very much pursuing the Youngin model. When Youngkin ran in twenty twenty one, almost from day one, he bought house here.
I guess I should say, I don't know where he stays at night, and immediately sued the school board and has been seen on you know, parents rights, parents rights much less like Youngkin has, even though he doesn't have any children in Latin cutting public schools.
So your opponent is suing.
The schools despite the fact that he does not have children in the schools.
That's exactly right, first order of business. That's exactly what he did.
Incredible stuff.
Explain to me this parents rights thing, because it's pretty interesting. It seems to me as if Republicans saw that parents were upset about COVID wanted to run on that.
Then COVID.
Unfortunately for them, COVID restrictions ended, so they had to find something else to fill in this idea of parents' rights, and they picked books.
Yeah, I think that's roughly accurate.
Right.
It's interesting. There's been a lot of writing here lately about where this idea of parents rights, where it came from. And it actually came out of a very conservative evangelical movement that was originally intended to try to, you know, put forward this Christian agenda and to get funding out of public schools so that kids could be you know,
get money at homeschool or in schools. You know, Republicans have been able to successfully use it with the COVID mandates, and of course, like with books and education and what's being taught. And of course parents matter. I am a parent. I'm a parent to two children who actually attend Lend County public schools and have for their My father was a public school teacher, my mother was as well. Parents matter, of course they do. I don't think anyone thinks parents
don't matter. The question is in education. Really you're looking at a multi light stool. Parents matter, kids matter, teachers matter. To sort of use this to sort of come in here and stir the pot when you don't live here, and then sort of walk back after you've thrown that grenade, and I think is disingenuous at best. And our kids are depending on us, as the adults in the room, to do everything we can to make sure they get the best education and that they are protected at school.
And I think that should be the focus, and it seems instead that we just are seeing politics injected here into Ladin County public schools in particular.
Why do you think your district is such a hop ad here?
I think that part of it is because it's a purple district. I think part of it is Louden is a suburb, right, and so my district includes Loudin and Fakier County. But Louden is a suburb, and we have a lot of educated parents, you know, who, of course, much like myself, care very deeply about their children. I think that what has happened here is a little bit politics of fear. Of course, parents want the best for
their kids. I want the best for my kids, and I want them to have the best education, and so coming in and talking about and saying things that are true, and of course, you know, all of us get sort of that mama been air instinct to protect our kids. But I think they've been able to spin that in a way to make parents afraid of what's happening. And you know, there have been other mistakes that have been made right by a variety of entities. It's not totally unwarranted.
But I think what's happening here is just continuing to stir the pot, as opposed to sitting down and having actual conversations about where mistakes were made, where things could be done better, and seeking to correct them, as opposed to sort of what's happening here, you know, which is just causing teachers to leave, you know, they're getting treated terribly, and just a variety of other things, as opposed to actually sitting down and trying to solve some problems.
Okay, so early voting starts on September twenty second. If you're listening to this podcast, what do you need?
The biggest thing I need right now is money. I'm running against the son of a billionaire and the force of the Virginia governor. The governor we're talking about my opponent. My opponent is heavily backed by Governor youngkin Es here
in the district campaigning for him. Going back to the more extremist stuff, my opponent has given a lot of money to some of the abortion extremists that we have seen, who you know, say abortion is similar to the Holocaust and other just really egregious statements and has donated to Rixiyan Tum, who doesn't believe in contraception. But what I need is money to make sure that voters are informed this is an off off year election, no governor's race,
no presidential race. To get people out to the ballot box to vote and make sure they know exactly what's on the line, to make sure that they know that this is not some sort of a moderate play at something, that they look at the actions of what people are doing and are aware of them. And so the DC media market is incredibly expensive. We're up on TV right now. We have been since Thursday with an ad. I'm a
former prosecutor. I started out in domestic violence and sex crimes and was a prosecutor for about ten years here in this district and also served over the Central Intelligence agencies for several years. And it is just about making sure we can get our message out and making sure we have people hitting the doors and we have money to stay up on television and send mailers and get up on digital ads as well.
Thank you so much for coming on this podcast. This is one of these races that is going to be incredibly important and meaningful. It could end up being a question of whether or not women in Virginia are able to get the medical care they need.
And that's incredible stuff.
Yeah, not just here, but there are women across the South who are depending on us as well. That's exactly right.
Thank you so much. I hope you'll come back.
No, thank you so much for having me. If I can just put my website out there for folks, it is Russet Harry are u s set just like the color, just like the potato, Perry p E R R Y all one word dot com and there is a tab on there you can click donate.
Now.
We have folks who have contributed and dug deep in their pocketbooks from all over the country, and we're incredibly grateful as we try to preserve these rights, not just here in Virginia, but send a message to the country about how people feel about people coming after politicians coming after their rights.
They're no, no.
Jesse Cannon, my junk fast. You know what, I didn't have my big good card, Robney godwild Listen. We love it. We love it for the we love the quotes. We love it.
I'm just going to read it to you because it's so good I had to highlight it twice. I don't know that I can disrespect someone more than Jady Vance, Romney said. In twenty twenty two. Romney said he imagined confronting Vance and telling him it's like, really, you're selling yourself so cheap, and for that, Jady Vance is cheaply selling of himself. That is our moment of fuck Ray. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to hear the best minds
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