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Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, wel hey.
Fam You're about to hear a replay of one of our interviews from our live stream at the Democratic National Convention.
Now.
If you want to listen to or watch the full stream, be sure to check out links in the episode description. You can also find a full list of all the guests we've interviewed. Welcome home, y'all joining us now, I'm really excited to bring to the show Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester. She is Delawyre's member of Congress. And what makes it so amazing is she is poised to become a thank you, She's poised to become a black woman in the Senate. Now.
When Senator Ben Senator Kamala Harris was there, it was lonely because she was the only black woman in the Senate. And now we're poised to have potentially two in this it you, of course, and Angela also Brooks, who is running for Senate out of Maryland. So, congress Woman, So I'm gonna call you, senator because let's just speak into it.
Yes, yes, call.
Me what you called me.
Well, I want to ashorge you your respect because you have to be Senator Lisa Rochester.
So we're so happy to have you.
Angela has been talking about having you on all day, so I'm let tossed the mike to her to let her ask the first question.
Well, you didn't need to do that, but I'm grateful.
You know.
The thing that's funny about this moment is you guys just talked about it being a family union.
It really is.
Y'all are my family. She is my family too, And and I will say the thing that we talk about the most. Can I tell him go ahead, fashion and make up.
Now?
And I love you casual comfortable.
Because it was so important.
Literally, Angela was trying to help me because I had to do my speech up on the stage and you know, we're mailing stuff and everything.
Ended up wearing something I already had in my closet.
Is that what you did? And I'm sorry it.
Was something that was comfortable. Yeah.
And then tonight, like right before I got on the plane, they were like, we're gonna wear white.
I said, Nobody said, who had this suit?
I wore on my sixtieth birthday from dinner sixty ware girl.
Sixty two.
That went this year, but I had it, and I said, we're gonna put this on and put on some sneakers so that I could be comfortable.
Yeah, Verresh, I love that you have. So first of all, I love that you said you were sixty two, because it made me think of when Donald Trump was talking about President Alex Harris and he said, well, apparently she's sixty.
I thought she was a lot younger.
I think this is a time where America is gonna learn a lot more about black women.
On how we age.
Right.
Well, they gonna see a lot more because I would not have guessed that you were sixty two at all.
This past year, I got the best title I have ever had, not Secretary of.
Labor and I see O of the Urban League, none of that stuff.
Grandmother, I'm fighting for reproductive freedom because my granddaughter is here because of IVF, and for me, this is an important time.
Yeah.
So right, give us a sense of the race so far. How has it been. I mean, obviously, you're a congressman from Doulwa. Your people love you everywhere. I mean, you don't have to be in your state to know it. By the way, your work speaks for itself, and it speaks beyond the borders of any state. Give us what you're feeling. How do you feel about the race. What's the prognosis? We already know you're going we claiming the thing.
I am glad people are claiming it. But and y'all know, I'm a person of faith. I believe that faith, you know, basically, faith without works is dead. And so for me, one of the things that is probably the biggest challenge is that a lot of people sleep on Delaware. They think, oh, it's a blue state, but it's only three county and
they vote blue, purple, and red. We literally are urban, suburban, rural, and coastal, and so those farmers in that part of the state a lot of times they're not looking at us and just being a Republican, you're gonna get forty percent of the vote in my state.
So yeah, jump.
So last time, my opponent had no staff, it was him and his girlfriend running around the state. They had no platform, they had no money until dark money came in at the very end and did an ad about me dancing, because y'all know I love to dance. I'm in the beehive.
But he showed.
A video of me dancing and they covered up who I was dancing with.
It was John Lewis before he died. Wow.
And so that guy with nothing got forty four percent of the vote.
Wow.
And so for us, we want people to understand, don't sleep on Delaware. We got to get the turnout. And that's true for Kamala and Tim as well. Turnout is everything. It's everything. When we turn out, we win. But people have to connect their vote with their life. So for me in Delaware, we've got these unincorporated areas that didn't have clean drinking water. I mean, this is not the nineteen twenties or forties or the sixties, this is the
two thousands. And so for me to bring clean drinking water to those communities, that is the kind of work we do. Maternal mortality we know, as black women, you know we're three four times likely to die. And so to be able to do the work on maternal mortality and menopause and.
Jobs, jobs, job, jobs, I said.
If I had another middle name, it be Lisa Blunt Jobs, Rochester.
I love.
I love the economy and jobs and building wealth.
And that's why my speech yesterday.
About bright Hope was about entrepreneurs and growing black and brown businesses as well as growing our strong communities. So I just want people to not sleep on Delaware. We are a very moderate state. I'm so happy you.
Brought up water insecurity. I think a lot of people don't realize they're over one hundred and forty million people in this country without access to clean drinking water in this in these United States, and most of those people are people of color. So that's a crucial issue. And I think it speaks to why Delaware matters. Even if you don't live there, but have you in the Senate would certainly help tilt the scale for innumerable Oh.
Yeah, well we need black representation in the Senate too, beyond Delaware.
Right, absolutely, this is very true.
I mean for me, the other thing is democracy sounds like some you.
Know, ambiguous this thing.
But for somebody like me who was trapped up in the gallery on January sixth when that insurrection broke out, like I felt and saw and.
Heard how close we were to losing it.
And so you know, Jim Clyburn said, everybody says this is the most important election.
He said, this isn't the most important. It's the most consequential.
Yea, the consequences of this election for the next decades or generations.
Yeah it, you know.
So for me, I recommitted to this work after that insurrection, and so.
I'm fighting for my seat.
I'm fighting to flip the house hold, the Senate and get Kamala Harris and Tim Wallas into the white How are you nervous.
About people accepting election results?
Oh, let me tell you. I forgot.
I asked somebody for the stats because we have not just doubled or tripled the number of lawyers that we are going to have on hand for this election, because we know they're going to try to challenge it.
If they win, they're going.
To steal it.
Still, I'll say, I'll say that we know.
Well, speaking of incredible, incredible, incredible, Hello.
The Senate, we have Senate, we.
Have Senate candidate Angela also Brooks joining us. Now we're gonna ask you to put on your headphones and and get situated. And you got some fans fan some fans.
She's running in Maryland.
Absolutely, Okay, that's a personal friend.
I know.
Flan takes his fan out the bag, welcomes. One thing I'd love to ask you both while you sit here, is how do you feel about tonight? This is history in the making, not just for Kamala Harris. I know you've been a longtime supporter, a part of the initial transition, the you know, the even the v vetting team. Yes, so you've been there a long time. He's a personal friend of Joe Biden's. How does this feel for you all tonight?
Oh?
Yes, as absolutely incredible. You know what, the electricity in this building crazy. I think it is crazy, But you know what, it is well deserved. This is a person, and let's just say this, who deserves so much the moment that she's in. That's right, a person who has served honorably as district attorney, attorney general, senator, vice president. She has served our country so honorably over these years, and she deserves this excitement.
And so do we, y'all. We deserve as a country.
We deserve as a country to have a leader who inspires all of us cross generationally, from the youngest to the oldest.
We deserve this moment.
Yeah, well, I was saying you deserve it too, as the woman who is about to join the ranks of the United States Senate God Willing. We're claiming it on this stage, however, your own experience as an elected official, people who believe in you, who trust you, who count on your service as having advanced their lives in Maryland and in Baltimore and then the greater Area. I just want to know how you're feeling about the state of
the race and what do you need. And I'd love to hear also before we get out of what you need.
You know what, I feel really good about the race.
This has been a hard fought race over the last year and a half. We started in a primary with an opponent who spent more than sixty five million dollars of his own money to compete in race. And you know what, and the voters deserve all the credit that they were able, nonetheless to hear a positive vision for our state and for our country that resonated. I'm the nominee,
and we've continued working. We've built a coalition across the state that I know will show up on election day because they know like I do, that this election is about the kind of state that we deserve to build for our kids and grandkids.
We're not accepting anything less.
And you know I talked about this a little earlier today, but I want our kids not to live on the origins, but to be able to know that they can achieve their wildest dreams. And this is what this is is really about for so many of us. And so what we need is Lottie, Dottie and everybody to come. Let me just tell you something. When the Democrats show up, and I know that they will, We're gonna win up
and down the ballot across this country. We're also going to elect the super bad Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware. My sister sitting here, and this Senate has never seen two African American women on the floor of the Senate. They at the same time, though they should. And you know what in this year, like you said.
God willing, Yes, God willing.
So really quick and Angela, I hope you can stay with us, Lisa, so we do not get ever cussed out by your staff.
Let you go.
Yes, you.
Don't know. They know. I've been waiting for this moment. I was like, how we're gonna.
Make this and first of all, again, you know, like to be with some of my good friends. I was just telling them when Tiffany's book came out, I'd send her a selfie to me. I mean, I just I'm so honored to be and with we are going to be calling each other sister, Senator, I am just so honored and and and just I'm just you know the theme of my talk last night was Bright Hope, the name of the church my grandmother attended for seventy years in Philadelphia, and this moment demands it. And bright Hope
isn't always happy. Bright Hope is having that expectation even when you can't see it. And so the fact that I call sometimes I call my soon to be hopefully sinster Senator DaVita, because she was like David with Goliath.
She's played that ding.
And so I'm so thankful for the platforms that you her by as well and educating us. And even when it's tough love, you just say that I leave on that. But even when it's tough love, we are greatly appreciated and I appreciate.
Thank you so much.
And so we have at least one more question for you. We know you have to run as well to not jump in. I didn't have heard of you.
I like the message that both of them are delivering because you know, I think after this, everybody really does have to get to work, because you know, this is a coronation, but the big win comes in the fall, and that win's not gonna happen without the work. So I like that. You know, you'all are both scressing that everybody has to get to work.
Yeah, we gotta get to work.
It's gonna ask you a quick question. Our mother is a resident of Maryland, and so she's thrilled to be able to vote for you. One thing I think is so important for our viewers and listeners to hear. You're running against former Republican or current Republican former governor Larry Hogan. You know, something like colleague co host Andrew always says, is we have to stop calling it the Republican Party because it is now the Maga Party is one and
the same. He has said that he you know, he's been ambiguous about his answers on how he would move. But we have not seen a Republican in the Senate buck this unhinged former president. What would you say to people who are on the fence about who they're going to vote for, considering the danger that exists on the other side.
Yeah, thank you for that.
Well, you know what, So you said he's been ambiguous, let me tell you what has not been ambiguous his actions. Yes, he's a person, first of all, who was selected by Mitch McConnell after he spent months and months saying he was uninterested in the Senate and then said, oh, you know what, Mitch McConnell convinced me to get into the race.
We know this is the same Mitch McConnell who refused President Obama, stole the seat and refused to give President Obama the opportunity to appoint Merrick Garland and set us up for this crazy Supreme Court that we have in place right now. And so what Larry Hogan says about being ambiguous, his actions tell us everything we need to know. He vetoed abortion care legisla in the state, and then when it was overridden, he refused to release the funding
until Governor Moore came into office. This is the same guy who didn't support paid in family medical leave. He's the same guy who also vetoed legislation to have a waiting period for guns, knowing that our children right now are dying. The number one way our kids are slaughtered in America are with guns, not by car accident or by illness. And so there's nothing ambiguous about the way
that he has moved and behaved. And so in this day, to bless his heart, he waited till he was sixty eight and a half years old to become pro choice.
It's not credible. None of it's credible.
And we know that he maybe he's a nice man, but he's a Republican through and through, and he's a.
Part of that party now.
That if we gave them the majority, we'll control the agenda for our country, and it is controlled by Donald Trump, who by the way, endorsed him, and not.
Because they love each other, but because they share a goal.
They want to have this majority so they can take our country backwards. And we're not having you. Let's get used to it. And I can't wait to see you. I'm the next one with black women call. I'm so excited that even when you're not asking for anything, you show up.
So I appreciate that too, since I see.
But thank you for showing up, and thank all of you for having me today. Listen less rock and roll, and I agree with the work we have to work seven days a week until this is done.
We have seventy four days. What does the governor say? Seventy four days and a wake up? There we go before it's done.
Thank you so much, so.
Much, thank you absolutely man.
She ready, y'all, absolutely ready. And I just love it. I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled.
Well, I just I love the question you asked Tiffany at the end there, because they you know, they unfortunately like us to believe that quote unquote moderate means that when they're gett there, they're going to have an ear for a potential Democratic president when it comes to to to making things happen, and it's a it's a mythology. They are walking lock step. And if Trump gets in there and he's got a Republican Senate, they're gonna move a a throwback agenda that we can't afford.
Thanks for listening to you, guys. Please please please remember to rate, review, subscribe, and tune into our regular episode on Thursdays. Welcome home, y'all.
Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio and partnership with Resent Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.