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 Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sent out a fundraising email where he lamented the number of queer kids in America. We have such a great show today. Former Congresswoman Debbie macarsole Powell tells us about her Senate run against one of the most unlikable members
of the Senate, Rick Scott. And then we'll talk to Voto Latinos Maria Teresa Kumar about how Democrats can reignite voter enthusiasm from Latinos. But first we have the host of the Focus Group podcast, the publisher of The Bowork, Sarah Longwoll. Welcome to Fast Politics, Sarah Longwow.
Hey, thanks for having me.
It's great to be here.
I'm so excited to have you because I had a Republican thought yesterday. No so yes, I did. I had a moment of like, I mean, I am very much not a Republican and I very much do not agree holicy wise with anything Nikki Haley is selling. But again, last night you watched that debate and it feels to me like there are people in the Republican Party like Trump and De Santis who are really authoritarian, right. De Santis is like, you know, his whole thing is like Trump is not authoritarian enough.
And then the.
People like Nikki Haley, who's like and then that sort of is like more normal. And then you have Chris Christy trying to like stop the train almost. I mean, I am defending Republicans. What is wrong with me? Help me?
Well, you're not defending Republicans exactly. I mean, so, I mean, here's the thing Chris Christie is it was his swan song, right, he is gonna probably drop out here not too long and hopefully, you know, Indorse Haley and all the polling indications I've seen, and just my gut says that the Christie people are going to go to Nikki because she
is more normal. The thing is the reason that Chris Christy, for all of his attacks and all of his truth telling, the voters, Hay, Republican voters hate him, right, Like when you say you have a Republican thought, actually what you mean is is it's nice to watch Chris Christie attack and Trump and tell the truth about them. And so it's not quite a Republican thought, and look, yeah, Nikki Haley is funny because there's a world in which she looks like the future, but we don't live in that world.
In the world we live in, she's a throwback. And for voters, you know, she is basically a pre Trump politician who they view as a rhino and an establishment candidate who they and actually, I think people don't hate Nikki. I think that what I've seen from voters is that they're like, she's fine, but like, I'm not going to vote for her. She's not what they're interested in.
It's not red meat, right, Yeah.
I mean she's up there talking about policies and foreign policy, and also she still believes in American leadership in the world. And I got to tell you, though, some of the weird stuff I hear in the focus groups, I would have told you actually maybe before this whole thing out. In fact, lots of reporters ask me, do you think that the Republican Party will take Nikki Haley seriously because she's Indian, because she's a woman, And I was like, yeah, I don't.
Actually think that's going to be a huge deal.
I actually can't believe how many voters I've listened to say they wouldn't vote for a woman, like just in the focus groups, they're like, and their reasoning is a lot of the people who say it are women, but it's women who say it oftentimes, and they're like, I don't think that a woman can stand up to these either stand up to these world leaders, or that they wouldn't be respected by these other world leaders.
I don't know. These guys have never heard of Margaret Thatcher or many of the other women world leaders.
I mean, how do you feel when somebody says that to you.
I don't care for it. I think it's not great.
It's like an internalized misogyny. That's like kind of insidious to have women saying that about other women.
So this is something that when you do the focus groups all the time, you start to see as a real pattern in people's thinking, which is that they sort of don't own the thought themselves.
They put the thought on somebody else.
So what these women are saying, and it's not just women, but I hear plenty of women say it. They say, I'm worried that those other world leaders won't respect this woman. And so what they're saying is is not that they are misogynistic, but that they believe these other people are so misogynistic. And I usually hear this from Democrats more unlike I don't think that the country will elect a black woman, I don't think that the country will elect
a gay guy. What they're doing is really just they're projecting their concerns onto their saying other people won't do this. But here's the thing though about Nikki, she is the most qualified person. I mean, Chris Christy I think is too, but she is I think the most qualified person to actually be president. And in a world where Donald Trump chokes on a cheeseburger or has like a major health event, I would be much happier if she were in second place than Rondo Santis.
And Wall Street.
Journal has a new poll out this morning, a national poll in which she has edged out Ronda Santis. She's at fifteen, he's at fourteen. Together, that equals twenty nine. Trump is at fifty nine, which means that if you double what and DeSantis get together, Trump is still twice that. And so, in some ways I am a political nerd, and so I love to watch the debates. There's a
whiff of futility in it all. What's the point because it doesn't say anything about the current race, nor does it really say anything about the future of the party. Well that's not true. It does, but like Nikki and Christy are not the future of the party.
They're just not.
So. When I was watching that debate on news Nation last night.
How did you find news Nation? I ended up watching it on YouTube on the Blaze, which.
To have Glenn Beck.
They're already talking over each other, then Glenn Beck's talking over them. I was like, this is the most miserable viewing experience ever. But sorry, you found news Nation somewhere.
Let me let me preface this with being forty five, I still own a cable box and it took like a good ten minutes of like trying to figure out how to find it. But I did eventually find it by starting at two and clicking all the way up. I hit it eventually because I couldn't you know, you goo use Nation what channel? And nothing comes up? And it is like the Land of Misfit Toys over there with Chris Cuomo kicking it off to Bill O'Reilly, I mean,
what are we even doing? And Hogan Gitley with the hair all slipped down, so you did miss a little bit of the characters from season one. But I was struck by how much there is a really scary part of the Republican Party that is no longer like in twenty fifteen it was Trump. Now it's authoritarianism.
Yeah, it's the whole thing. And sometimes I'm not debating that it's not authoritarian or.
It's anti democratic.
Of course it is anti democratic. There's one of the things we always say at the bor Charlie says, this is like a clown with a flamethrower, like still has a flamethrower. And that's sort of how I think about these guys, because they are such idiot clowns, all just following in Trump's footsteps, like Vivi Gramaswami on the stage last night being like, yeah, you know, January sixth was
an inside job and nobody's jumping all over him. You don't have debate mod you know, like we've got Megan Kelly, the podcast host, and they were all doing like this anti vax nonsense, like and it was like, how could you defend the vaccine? I mean, the whole thing. I tweeted this after the debate, which is like even if Trump's gone, just the whole party's lost. It's all gone down this insane rabbit hole. And like what is the News Nation thing?
Anyway?
Like with the R and C weird debates to News Nation, which nobody watches because guess what else we You and I suffered through that debate last night, but I think most of America did not.
People doing intense analysis.
Over who won and who lost when Trump's up at you know, sixty points, like it's all it's all just sort of meaningless.
Yeah, we lost because we had to watch it.
Yeah, Chris Cuomo I called BS on this thing that he said where he was like Biden and Trump are the same and neither one of them is Jesus.
Did he say that?
Yeah?
Yeah, he said that it was either Biden would be equally dangerous or Trump would be just as dangerous as Biden, like whatever. There was some equivalency that was idiotic, which I pointed out was idiotic on Twitter, and like immediately got a call from his producer with Amman debate me.
No way.
I was like, I got COVID, I got we'll fuck with you later, but also like I don't could go on News Nation. I got to have a debate in the forest with no one listening.
I recently declined a news nation head. But yeah, no, I agree. I mean that's the thing is, like I do not miss seeing him on television because he's very un smart.
I never watched him before, Like, I didn't really have him so much on my radar until all the Cuomo qua Cuomo stuff happened. Like I don't know, he got me too right, It was like where he wasn't disclosing about his brother and then it was a me too thing and the brother and then you know, the mayor of New York former hair.
Also, it all just doesn't sound that great.
Yeah, that's right, it's not great. In case you're wondering, none of this is good. We would like to have a mayor who is not in what seems like real legal pair all for any number of possible things he may or may not have done. So I did watch that, and it is clann with the flamethrow. I think is absolutely right. The question of like Trump has sort of rigged some of these debates too, rit like he can't lose.
Iowa, Wait, what do you mean he's rigged the debate?
He has like consolidated some of the caucuses and done some machinations behind the scenes making it easier for him to win the nomination.
Sure, the infrastructure in the Republican Party belongs to Trump, that doesn't mean he couldn't lose Iowa. I don't think Iowa was right. The rules are structured as such where they they absolutely help him. One of the things that's ironic is if you go back and look, there were a bunch of changes that were actually made to try
to make the Republican primary less contentious. Where so basically like if you go into Super Tuesday, it's winner take all, winner take most in many of these states, and it's meant to lock up the primary faster. The R and C after could have changed those back and they declined, which is fine, I mean, and whatever they left them, but that is going to all of It's gonna make it a lot easier for Trump to win. Can we go back, though, to the bate for one second, I said,
and I really want to make which is about Chris Christie. Okay, so obviously all of us who hate Trump were watching Chris Christi and were pleased at his performance, and he went hard. But Chris Chrissy also like it's so over, you know, like his negatives are too high, it's never gonna happen. He should back Hayley. But he did this thing last night that really really made me angry. And I wonder if you had a similar reaction, because I'm
not sure people did. There's this part where he goes in to defend Niki, right Vivike is saying observed things into Santis is attacking her because now she's the front runner in their undercard. They're all after Nikki. Last night, Chris Christie does this, I've known this woman for ten years, and Vivic's over there. He's saying she's not smart. He's saying she doesn't know anything, and he just repeats and really hits hard Vivic's criticism of Nikki before White nighting
in to you don't tell a woman that's this smart. Yeah, and he kind of does this big defense and she's standing there awkwardly as he like White Nights for her and defends her. And I think that that was her worst moment that and I don't and I think Chris Christine knows exactly what he's doing. He's repeating the slams against her. Emphasizing them and then acting like he's coming in to save the day. And I actually found that kind of gross and didn't like it one bit.
M It's so interesting that you said this, because I was talking about this with Mika this morning, and like, I'm conflicted because I thought she did really well for herself, but they were so hard on her, Like everyone was like, oh, you know.
Yeah, well, she's trying to be president of the United States, And I just think there's nothing worse for like being the only woman on stage to have big bully Christy come in on your behalf and the reason Nikki Haley has been going up in the pulse, the reason they're all attacking her. I'm sorry, it's welcome to being the front runner. This is what happens when you get out in front is people come for you, and you got
to be able to handle that. And you know you're not going to have Chris Christy on the stage next to you. And I thought that she needed to do her own fighting, but I think he put her in a tough position by coming to her defense that way.
One of the brilliant things though, that she did, which I thought was amazing, was when the Vek went after her. She said, I'm not going to respond, and it made him look like an idiot. That timing. I don't know. I just thought like wow, because you know, he was like and she was like, Okay, I'm not going to respond, and I thought that was pretty impressive.
Yeah, Listen, she has been really, really good in these debates, and I was disappointed last night. You know, I think she wasn't quite ready for what it means to be at the center of the stage and having everyone come for you, because that's what they've been kind of doing to DeSantis. She has had some of her best moments
actually responding to VIVC. I agree that last night not responding to him also looked pretty good because he's such a loathsome toad, but he's been a good foil for her, and I think engaging with him has ultimately been to her benefit.
Yeah. No, I agree. He really sucks, Like I don't know how else to explain it, Like, he does seem like a really a bad person. Last night, they were booing him. I counted four separate times where they just started booing him.
Yeah.
I mean, here's the thing, though, when I was just doing a focus group with young conservative voters.
Do they love him?
There were only three candidates that they were interested in, Trump, DeSantis, and Vivic And I think that there's this new part of the coalition that's this like groy Techie. It's like now a part of the Republican Party, and I think that they find Vivid appealing.
And I also think that Vivike's.
One of the things that you talk about him being a bad person. He is not stupid, but he really thinks these voters are stupid and he plays to that all the time. Like the level of contempt that these once serious and smart people hold these voters in is real.
I think that's absolutely right. That's kind of the secret of a vague is that he really thinks these people are dumb, and so you know, his foreign policy is basically nothing right, like let them all die. I think that a lot of people are under fifty because my husband does not feel this way, and he's a lot older than I'm or not a lot, but he's a
little bit older than I am. I think America should be less involved overseas, not the way that he does, because I'm not insane, But like I think a lot of younger people do not like American intervention because we grew up through nine to eleven and through the multiple golf course and he's sort of trying to milk that. But he doesn't have a plan. I mean, he just his plan is like get in there and figure it out.
That's exactly right.
And I remain kind of an unrepentant neo con in the sense that I still believe that American leadership in the world matters a great deal. But I also agree with this point that like, we have seen a lot of not so successful intervention over the last several decades, and there's no doubt when you listen to young voters left right center, that there is no interest in boots on the ground anywhere else in the world basically forever reason. And people are pretty split on how much aid we
send and how much we involve ourselves generally. But I do think that there's like a world for grown ups, right, and grown ups have to understand the world and understand that it's dangerous and weigh the costs and benefits, and you just you want somebody who's a grown up and has a real understanding of things and his whole like move fast, break stuff, shirk people out, you know, con people into giving you millions of dollars, selling it off
to private equity. Like none of that has prepared him to have the remotely serious thought on foreign policy.
Yeah, And I think that's the thing is he's like gotten away with that, and there's so much of that, like having gotten away with it despite not knowing anything, you know, And that's what Trump was too, right. I mean, he basic got away with that to a certain stan and you know, he didn't cause World War three, and he really good. But I think that's a really good point. Should they have even had debates if Trump wasn't going to be part of them?
Yeah, No, I definitely think they should have.
Look, I think that there's a I don't know, it's less than ten percent, but it's not a nothing chance that something does happen to Trump. I don't think he's going to jail, and none of the fantasy politics stuff, but like keels over during a rally or something. And I thought that DeSantis knew some debate was stupid and unnecessary, but like we should have a Republican primary, And besides, it's really good for the National Review guys and those types.
They really need to like be able for a while to live in their fantasy world of like, oh no, look, this is what's happening, but like it is an earth too situation. I don't think we shouldn't do it. I just we should recognize what it is that like, this isn't reality. There's a reality where there's another guy with sixty percent. These guys are fighting for a little bit of conversation, a little bit of a book sales future, maybe a VP slot. I mean, Vivick's going to be
in Trump's cabinet, so prepare for that. These are the end days for someone like Chris Christy long while.
Thank you so much.
Hey, thanks for having me.
Debbie macarsoal Powell is a former congresswoman for Florida's twenty six congressional district and presently she is running against Rick Scott for the United States Senate. Welcome too fast politics, Debbie.
Well, thank you, Mollie for having me. I'm a big fan. I love how you keep them honest. Glad to be on with you.
Well, I'm so happy to have you. So you are running for Senate against Rick Scott, the least likable member of the Senate. I actually think there are less likable members of the Senate, but he's high up there. So let's talk a little bit about why you are the person to win this Senate seed in Florida.
Yeah, Mollie, it wasn't long ago that this community here in South Florida elected me to be the first South American immigrant to ever serve in the House of Representatives. And that happened at the time I was the associate dean at the medical school. I was trying to expand
access to quality healthcare and the community needed change. This was at a time and now they continue to say that they want to repeal the Affordable Care Acts, but at the time they were very much focused on doing that, and so when I was in Congress, I expanded Medicare coverage. I worked on reducing the cost of medicine. I'm really excited to see that finally we have that cap on insulin costs, which really affects a lot of Latinos and
black voters. And I'm doing this again because the state is ready for change again, and everyone listening, I really need you to join me and support me, because I am telling you Rick Scott is vulnerable. He's an extremist who supports a national abortion band. He's the one that wrote the plan to end Social Security, Medicare and now the ACA, and he's never won a raised by more than one percentage point. I need everyone with me and
to hold the Senate majority. It starts with Florida. Please visit Debbifoflorida dot com and support this race.
It's funny because you were a medical school dean, and Rick Scott made his money on Medicare fraud ish, so you know you both are in medicine. Let's talk about what Florida looks like, what your state looks like, and how you might do it.
Yeah, you know, the state is a bright purple state. It's not a red state. There's this misperception and it's because it's been a very very strategic move by Republicans here under rondesscentists who make people believe that this is a red state. This is a voter suppress and a gerrymandered state. And that's why in twenty twenty two we saw that anomaly were really our voters did not come out to vote, and that's why you saw all these different races go to the Republicans. But we have a
third of our voters or Democrats. A third of our
voters are independent voters. And when we reached out to them and we communicate with them, we tell them that they have a choice between someone that's going to reduce the cost of healthcare, someone that's going to protect their care, including Obamacare, someone that's going to ensure that women's rights are protected, someone like myself that cares deeply about the environment and making sure that we take action on the climate crisis that's affecting our state and the coastal communities
around our state. They will vote for that person. And I've been traveling around the state Molly already. I've had so many conversations with different voters that are very excited that they have a candidate that's going to speak for them, that's going to deal with the issues that affect them personally, and not someone like Rick Scott that has used that seat and the Senate for self enrichment. His wealth has grown by more than fifteen million since he got into
the Senate. And isn't it interesting that he puts sixty four million dollars of his own money when he was running in twenty eighteen so that he can buy the seat basically, and it's a job that pays one hundred and eighty thousand dollars and you have to ask yourself why is he doing it? And we should all know that he's doing it for self interest and self enrichment.
Florida is a really interesting state. I was just talking to someone about Latino voters in Arizona. One of the things that really helped flip Arizona blue probably before it should was Sheriff Joe Arapaio. Do you see a similar phenomenon happening with Ron de Santis in Florida?
Oh?
Yes, I've talked to that would never vote for Ron DeSantis again. They felt the attacks under his leadership. He's been attacking local municipalities, He's been attacking LGBTQ communities, He's been attacking students, teachers, immigrants.
There is no group that he has not attacked.
And I can tell you that as someone like myself who's Latina, who knows how to speak directly to our communities, I've been very in here in South Florida across the state talking about issues like gun violence. This is an issue that's personal for me, Molly. I had lost my father to gun violence. And I've been working for the past few years with Gabby Giffords on trying to reduce gun violence in the state and across the country.
But this is one of.
The top issues for Latinos here in Florida and across the state. We suffer two of the worst mass shootings in the state of Florida at polls in Orlando and at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. And it's an issue that drives people to the polls, whether you're Latino, whether you're a black voter, a woman who is dropping her kids off at school every morning and is always worried that something could happen. And so when we talk about these issues, it doesn't matter. They put partisanship aside. And this is
a state that does that. We've seen it time and time again. It's a state where the races are always very close, but Floridians are independent, They have an independent street, and they vote for the candidate, not for the party per se.
I'm really interested in that. It seems to me like the kind of effects of being in Florida, Like if you think about what happened in Kansas under brown Back, why don't you when you talk to voters on the ground, because you are talking to a lot of Florida voters on the ground, what don't they like about the d scientists because d Santis has pretty much used his governorship as a way to audition as a as a Republican
presidential nominee. So explain to us what that looks like on the ground for voters.
Yeah, Molly, Florida has right now some of the highest inflation rates in the country. We have an affordability crisis. People cannot pay their rent, they can't pay their mortgage. Homeowners insurance has skyrocketed. And this actually started under Rick Scott when he was governor. He took away money from the public option here and gave it to private insurers that were making money and also of course contributing to his campaign.
And here we are.
People to think about whether they're going to be will continue living in the state because they can't afford it. This is a union problem in the state of Florida under dessientists, something that started under Rick Scott, and that's the top issue when you talk to anyone here living in the state, that's the top issue. And that includes business owners because imagine if you own business in the state.
Your prices for that mortgage or for the cost of property insurance, all of that has gone up, and yet wages have not gone up. Right here in the state, in Florida, we sale pay our teachers less than the national average.
Young Americans who graduate.
From college, they look to leave the city. That's the top issue, That's what we're talking about. And I think that's also going to reject a lot of the Republican agenda here in the state.
So one of the things Rick Scott has done is sort of trying to take control of the Republican Party in a very kind of weirdly ham handed and stupid way. And you know he has this Remember he and Mitch McConnell really clashed over this plan for America, which was to basically be Paul Ryan. What do you think about that. I mean, clearly Rook Scott has higher aspirations.
This guy is a political opportunist, right. I mean you mentioned it earlier, but when he was CEO of a healthcare company, he oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the history of our country. They had to pay out one point seven billion dollars from that settlement for Medicare fraud, and he continues to just go to wherever he can be to make the most money for himself. And he oversaw the National Republican Senate Committee in the last selection. He actually spent all the money that they had and
they lost every election cycle. That plan that he wrote to sunset Medicare, social Security, the Affordable Character also includes raising taxes for Florida families and everyone in the country. And that plan would affect my own mom. My mom lives with me. I've had to take care of her. She's had a lot of health issues, and if it weren't for those programs that her life saving care, I don't know where she would be and where she would be if I wasn't able to also help her and
take care of her. And that's something that I also want to focus on because young people are not thinking about this, but there's so many of us that have parents that we need to take care of, and the cost of taking care of.
Them is really, really high.
And here you have this man.
Who wants to hut and actually sunset these programs that would take away all the coverage for seniors in a state where the majority of the Floridians we have a large number of seniors that live here in Florida that rely on those of that, so he is the most vulnerable Republican in the country. Mitch McConnell actually kicked him out of the Commerce Committee. I don't know if you remember that. There is no love between Mitch McConnell and
Rick Scott. Mitch mcconnald. The one thing that I agree with, I agree with him on one thing, and he said that Rick Scott is going to have a very hard time in his reelection in his home state.
Yeah. I think that's really an important point. You know, you do have a lot of older people in Florida. Funny because I'm going through that with my parents now, with my mom and my stepdad. It's unbelievably expensive too. The whole situation is so badly set up and shockingly expensive. Florida also has really felt the effects of climate change in a way that I think a lot of states
have not, with the algae and the hurricanes. I mean, what are you see in climate wise on the ground, and our voters concerned about that are now.
One hundred percent.
And here's something that I think maybe people don't realize. When Rondo Santis ran and was elected, and part of his popularity at the beginning was that he talked a lot about the environment. Now, when I was in Congress, I actually led the effort to bring to Florida two hundred million dollars for Everglades restoration, and of course DeSantis and Republicans took credit for that.
That was under a House Democratic majority.
I had done a lot of work here with Choral Restoration Foundation in protecting our choral reefs. The state of Florida has the only living reefs in the entire continent United States. And we have seen that the warming of the oceans really affects growries, and of course that affects all of the sea lives and the fisheries and the businesses that rely on a healthy environment. And Rick Scott, when he was governor, he actually banned the term climate change to be used in any of the state agencies.
This man will never ever deal with the issue that we're facing in Florida, which is stronger storms, destruction and coastal communities, businesses that are affected that have yet to receive the relief that they deserve from these storms. And this is happening all over the state. And we've been lucky, Molly here in South Florida. We haven't had a severe storm in the past few years. But there are people that have been talking about the effects of a storm, of a hurricane five of it.
If it hits Miami, the economic impact.
Would be disastrous for the economy of the state and also for the country.
Right, I mean, let's all remember that we're all connected.
Florida is the third largest state in the country, the third largest economy that contributes to to America's economy. We have to pay attention to this and we have to make sure that we protect the state from the extremism that is under Dessantist Scott and so many other politicians here.
Yeah, I mean just really scary stuff. As the temperature goes off, we will see more storms, right, We will see more storms, more volatility was weather, more flooding, more danger. And Florida really is a state where, I mean, you have big cities like Miami that are already seeing real problems from flooding.
Yeah.
And part of when I talk about Everglades right and investing in that restoration project, is because we haven't had fresh water flowing down to the bay, which is critical for the health of our environment, and so that's why we've seen so many those images of fishkill. And that happened a lot under Scott because he actually also repealed protections for the Environmental State Agency here when he was
got and so you see the results of that. That fishkill is because they can't breathe underwater because they're not getting fresh water. The everglade serves as this filter for water to flow south. And you know, I can go on and on. It's an issue that I'm very passionate about. Actually, before I worked at FIU as the associating at the medical School, I worked at the Zoo. At Zoo Foundation, I worked with Ron McGill. I did a lot of work on conservation projects. And so it's coming from Ecuador.
Being born in my home country of Ecuador, we really pay attention to our environment and how it affects our livelihood.
And it's something that I'm very passionate about.
And it's also a factor that will motivate voters in Florida and particularly young voters. I've been talking to students already about this, and their top two issues is the environment and gun violence.
Talk to us about one of the things we have seen a lot of. Is this anxiety about Democrats winning over Latino voters. What should they be doing?
Well, look, only in a state like Florida.
Was it possible for me, an immigrant that came here at fourteen, to go from a working at a minimum wage shop, working at a donut shop, then graduate college, become an associated at the largest public university here in the state, one of the largest ones, and then be elected to serve in Congress.
And just recently I was talking to this.
Fi used student who was interviewing me for the paper, and he ended the interview saying, my mom came here also like you, when she was young as a teenager, she was thirteen, and she's so excited about your candidacy, and she is so excited to be able to vote for someone like herself that will work to lift up our voices in Washington. And I hear that all the time, Molly.
I've been influent in Spanish. I've been talking all over the state to whether it's Puerto Ricans in Central Florida, whether it's Venezuela and Colombia and Cuban Americans down here in South Florida, and they understand that Our values are the same, protecting our families, security, making sure that they can just have opportunities to work and make against me. That's what we care about, and that's going to be critical.
And Latino voters, by the way, continue to vote more for Democrats than Republicans and aim it to Florida two to one. We cannot ignore that fact, and we need to be ful about the fact that we continue to do the work to vote for the right candidates. It's about talking to them, meeting them where they're at, which is what everyone always says.
But I'm here.
I want everyone to come down here, meet my people where they're at, and they're right here in the state of Florida, ready to keep the Senate majority and ready to continue to protect democracy.
Such a good point. Thank you so much, Debbie. I hope you'll come back.
Thank you, Molly. It's always a pleasure anytime.
Maria Theresa Kumar is the leader of Voto Latino. Welcome to Fast Politics, Maria Theresa.
Thanks much for having me. Molly. This is such a tree.
It's such a treat because here's the saying, I am always thinking about what you do at Voter Latino, and then I also really like you and we're friends. So it's like it's not so often that like there's someone who's like exactly someone I need to have on the podcast to talk with right away, and who I also want to talk to because we're friends. So it's very
delightful for me. I've written about this extensively. We've talked about the socially like polls are not real, but also what are Democrats going to do in order to not lose the presidency and also democracy in states like Arizona, Nevada, Florida discuss so much.
So, first of all, Molly, I have to say I'm thrilled around your podcast because you are officially my very first Twitter friend that I met a human.
For and that I had mutual This is.
The challenge that I have right now with the Democrats, I'll be honest, Since twenty eighteen, since since the rise of the Autocrat want to be fascist in Trump, Democrats, not necessarily the party, but Democrats the progressive movement have known how to communicate and mobilize folks to participate in our elections in record number, and we keep winning.
Right most recent.
Example is that we just won in Ohio. Not small but big, and it was the passage of supporting a portion. And then people get back into the room and they start ringing their hands. They're like, well, what do we do now, Well, continue investigating in that coalition, don't gart an experiment with something new. We actually have a winner among us, and that is the majority of American When you start talking to them and communicating with them and you share with them what is on the line, they
get it. But what the Democrats have historically done is they wait until the very last minute, and in doing so, you have an opposition not just in the extreme right of the Republicans, but increasingly nefarious actors from across the borders, through the Russians and Chinese or actively trying to get people to solidify themselves not for either party, but for not believing in democracy and institutions. And that to me, Molly, what I take a back is what concerns me the most.
We are in an information presidential warfare, and we as progressives haven't even started to engage in those conversations.
Yeah, we had John Ralston on the podcast from Nevada. You know, that's a state where Democrats are hanging on but are imperil can you explain to us a little bit about what's happening there and what needs to happen there.
Investment, malle I will share with you. In twenty twenty two, the Nevada race was closer than it had to be because there was this idea that Latinas were defecting to Republicans. Actions speak louder than polls. If you look at the returns that happened to Nevada, if you look at the returns that happened in Arizona, if you even look at the returns that happen even in Texas. In the twenty
twenty two midterm election, there was no defection. If anything, there was a solid base, but there was a lack of investment. So give you an idea. Everybody was it was saying, you know, Georgia was the election to watch. That's not We're at Votalta where we were watching. We were watching Nevada in Arizona because we learned in the middle of September that fifty percent of Latino voters had not been contacted in Arizona alone.
Fifty percent.
Why Molly, It's because the majority of the voters, a third of the voters in Arizona are under the age of twenty nine. By Democratic progressive math, the way people run elections is that they only contact voters who have a history of voting five times. So someone who is twenty nine years old, they haven't voted five times, they don't have a history of voting. But are they aligned with democratic values? Are they aligned with women's agency over
their body? And are they aligned over LBGQ issues and you know, gun reform and environment.
One hundred percent.
But if you don't call them and you don't tell them what's happening, and you don't tell them what's up, they won't participate. So we actually at VL we actually had a transfer close to four million dollars in an investment in Arizona and Nevada alone, even though we were supposed to do it in five other states. Long story short, Molly, we did a post back of the napping analysis of
what happens in Nevada. Basically, in Nevada we lost the governorship the top of the ticket because of seventeen thousand They were short seventeen thousand votes, Wow, more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And you know those voters were local Pency.
Latino youth. They just right, I'll tack them. So it's not like we're.
Not talking about millions of dollars in certain cases, We're just talking about attention and nurture.
I think that's a really good point. If you don't get out there, people don't know. And college campuses are so are so interesting too. It's funny when you're talking about these results. I think about Wisconsin right where people told me Mandela Barnes had zoo shot in the end. Had the polls been a little closer to what it actually was, he could have met he could have beat Ronan On Johnson. And so I feel like this is
the discussion we're having this discussion about. Like we started this discussion with me making an excuse for polling, for saying, like, I know, polls are stupid and a lot of times wrong, And now we were as we're in this conversation, we're talking about how wrong these polls were and how these inaccurate polls actually rob Democrats of victories that they should have had.
Well, well, Mollie, and you hit the nail and had these poles. Oftentimes you have to see who is often behind the first wave of polling. I say this because remember when the last year during the midterms, everyone was saying that there was going to be a red wave, that majority of it came from GOP operatives. They actually have skin in the game to prevent people from participating.
What we know now, Mollie is that.
The biggest thing that polls do is try to suppress low propensity voters who think that their vote doesn't matter to begin with. And this kind of solidifies it, and so it makes our work harder. And so I would just encourage newsrooms to just be much more cautious and actually look at historical participation to see when initiatives come in. I mean the fact that they thought that Ohio was going to be close, but abortion was on the ballot, they learned nothing from Kansas or any other state that
casst it right. It's almost we're living in a moment where information is dynamic or constantly they are engaging, whether in your podcast or on TikTok or what have you, finding information in real time, and that actually serves a lot of voters in a way to be well informed and concerned when they get the information that they need
in order to make the best decision. For themselves. And frankly, when people talk to me about pulling, I just I mean, we need to vl we need to understand pulling as well. But oftentimes the wave of pulling that is first announced in the media does not coincide with even internal pulling among organizations. And I wonder if it's because they are
pulling older voters that are still landlined. They're not actually looking at a diverse demographic on younger demographic that does have a different true north when it comes to this country, and in that is like, you know, climate change is very real. I give a damn.
I think that's right, and I think that that's a really good point. And you know, it's funny because it's like I was watching CNN as those off off your election results came in, and I thought for sure Democrats were going to lose in Virginia. They flipped a state house, Andy Bursher and Kentucky got re elected by a larger margin than the first time. And I'm watching this thing where they're talking about Biden's poor poll numbers.
Yeah, so you know, I want to go back to, you know, the article that you wrote. I think that is one of the things that got you know, got us mind melding again, Molly. And the challenge with polls is that it looks at a moment in time, but in a myopic sense, right it's almost giving to the public that we are doing elections and running elections as if it were scenarios of business as usual. We are
not in that moment in American history right now. Democracy absolutely on the line, our access to agency, of our bodies on the line. Just being a citizen in America is on the line, and we do a disservice when we just do something that is a point in time and not to the bigger call to action of we need every single American who is a patriot to participate, to toe the line, because otherwise we're going to be
in much tougher straints down the line. And I think that that was the essence of the article that you wrote that I think so resonated to me, is that somehow, when Trump was in office, we were constantly sounding the alarm of his dangers, and now we're almost romanticizing him. And now it's like a collective movement of does he even have a shot? He shouldn't have a shot at all.
If the American people were reminded of what he did last time and how he has already given to us agenda of solidifying his power at the moment he steps into that office, and there is not enough concern or staying to the very look that we are right now in code read in twenty twenty four, if we have a repeat of a Trump administration, right.
The whole idea that we're going to have the freedoms of like the free press. I think Trump gets re elected. I mean we saw him the first administration stripping you know, he stripped a cost of his hard pass. I mean, you know, anyone who he didn't like he just kicked out. So I think that's certainly true. It's not even a question in my mind. But I think it is important. Like the voters since Trump has been elected have showed
us really they don't like this. Yes, And I think a lot about like so much of twenty sixteen's coverage was like Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president, and here's what she's going to do, and so little of it was like this would be what happened if Trump got elected, because it just seemed like it would never happen.
Right.
I remember going into you know, Cock deals with different reporters in DC, and they were like, Oh, I have to finish this drink, but I'm gonna go cover Trump.
And everybody thought it was funny.
And I remember Detepely telling them he's telling us what he's going to do, and people kind of batted it away because they thought that they he was the side circus, and in fact we became the circus, and he became the one that was orchestrating how he wanted the country. You know this the latest news of you know, Univision giving him a softball interview is a perfect example of
what happens when a foreign entity owns our airwaves. Molly, Foreign entities in Latin America understand how to play ball with autographs. This is their wouse. What they have a hard time navigating is America in laws, institutions, and norms. We had to take him at his word. When he did go after journalists, he would throw them out, but he would also I mean, I remember, do you remember during the George Floyd when he want send it in the National Guard. Yes, that is what you experienced in
other countries, not in the free press here. And I have friends that were reporting, and they felt like they were saying. In one case, one was like, I was in Latin America during you know, during insurrections reporting. That's what I felt like in that moment in time. That should be chilling for all of us. It's not going to be that he's going to pinpoint a sector. It's going to be anybody who is on the wrong side
of him. You know, when he had asked him, as a softball question, are you going to be an autocrat and a dictator? He said, no, just the first day. You just need one day.
Yeah, that was an incredible bit. I mean, watching Kennedy just try desperately to make Trump sound less terrible and Trump was like, no, no, I'm going to even sound more terrible. It's amazing. What you're saying is really important.
I mean, I actually think this autocratic streak, I actually think it's gotten scarier because in twenty sixteen it was just Trump and now you're looking at a debate stage where you have look, I mean, I don't love Nikki Haley, but I don't think she's going to be our last president, Whereas like the Vague and Ron DeSantis are both like on that same kind of autocratic path.
Yeah, and Mollie, they're both the vet I am sworn is auditioning for the vice president. He's basically saying, don't worry, I am not Mike Pens. I will fall in line. Whatever you need me to do, I will follow that script. It's but it's not just the people running for the highest office. It's the fact that the GOP leadership mainstreamed
and extremist in Speaker Johnson. And one thing Molly that folks haven't realized is that because he is now technically de facto one of the largest fundraisers for congressional candidates across the country. For Republicans, even if you have a state GOP that is not aligned with extremism, by default, they have to fall in line and their candidates have to espouse his agenda.
And that is right.
I want to know, like Florida, Texas, Arizona, any of them or all of them, what are you seeing? What is important? Give me good news or bad news?
So Florida is going to be tough.
It's I was just in Florida three weeks ago, and I was talking to local leaders, young leaders, bright leaders we've been working with. We were speaking with some folks of the Florida Alliance and just grassroots folks that really believe in the progressive movement and more importantly building up base. They were telling me that what they're seeing now is going to take ten years to Florida ten years. Well, so that is a different calculation.
Not good.
But then there's opportunity.
In Arizona and even a place like Texas, because I'll give you an example. In Arizona, where Biden won by twelve thousand votes, We're expecting one hundred and sixty three thousand Latino youth to turn eighteen and over seventy percent of them voted for Biden last time around.
And these are people who lived through Share Joe a pie Brow.
Yes, they're the ones that we ended up knocking on the doors and talking to them digitally and everything in the twenty twenty two midterms that had just registered because they hadn't been contacted, and they overwhelmingly voted for Democrats. This is a fun fact, and I'll share this with you.
But we basically, you know, we did a post election analysis and the more concentrated a neighborhood was a princinct was in the Latino community, the higher rates that Senator Kelly received, of course from them, and the more white those districts were at Arizona, the less participation he received. Conversely, Molly, the least investment came out of densely populated Latino neighborhoods.
Shame on us, so crazy, it is shame on us. But also Shareff Joe really did make people know what a Trump presidency means. But they absoluely did all of the scary stuff that Trump dreams about doing, he actually did to these young Latina voters.
And that's what they were right for mobilization. I mean, we went in right when Sheriff Ourprios started doing his Shmier paper laws and proposition win in eighty seven, and we expected that Arizona was going to flip in about twelve thirteen years.
It flipped in eight.
In twenty twenty, we registered thirty two thousand folks. Of those nineteen thousand were first time voters. Molly, the appetite of young voters in Arizona cannot be underestimated. And the same thing is happening right now in Texas. The reason Texas has an onslaught of voter suppression laws against young people is because they're participating, and we're expecting close to a million Latino youth alone to turn eighteen since the last election Biden lost by less than six hundred thousand votes.
I mean, there's so much opportunity there. I mean, when I tell you there's opportunity, if you were to ask me what state is most akin to California when it flipped, it's Texas.
If Texas flips, Republicans will I think abandoned the electoral college model immediately.
Yeah, no, day, well, no, no.
The thing is like, if you pay close attention to what's happening in Texas and they are trying to close the access to the voting booth as quickly as possible, because the moment they do that, we will never be able to get Texas back because they basically have prevented
the millions of eligible voters for a participation. But at the same time, you have a whole slate of incredible talent, whether it's Selena Hidalgo or a great Kasar who's now a member of Congress, that is running the state with empathy and understands what people every day people are facing
and the opportunity in Texas. I have to. You know, drill down is not so much the top of the ticket, but it's Cruise himself running up for reelection and nobody likes him, Molly, His partn't like him, his family doesn't like it, you know, like nobody likes him, and that creates a unique opportunity in Texas to flip the Senate.
So true, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope you will come back.
This is so good, lightful, Molly, thank you for having me.
You are an absolutely light Molly.
No moment, Jesse.
Cannon, Molly Jong Fast. You know when they say about predators and toxic men is when they tell you who they are. Believe them. But I think Donald Trump's not fully selling himself here, what do you think?
So pretty great moment. Sean Hannity is trying to promote Donald J. Trump and he gets in there and he says, so, you're not going to be a dictator. Right, Here's a moment where all Donald Trump needs to do is say, yeah, of course, I'm not going to be a dictator, and instead he goes except for day one. Except for day one.
And we should point out that when he did this, he did that in the way that like when he thinks he came up with something really witty, he just looks like he's so happy with himself.
Well, and I also would say, like I heard someone on CNN last night saying, well, he was obviously kidding. No, he was not kidding. Do not stop giving the benefit of the doubt to a guy who did an armed insurrection. Okay, stop it, stop it. Don't give him the benefit of the doubt. There is no place for the benefit of the doubt with Donald Trump. We live through one season of the Apprentice presidency. We don't need to live through any more seasons. Stop it. He's telling you what he's
going to do. Believe him. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to hear the best minds in politics makes sense of all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks for listening.