The Suburban Women Problem - Season 2, Episode 46
Jasmine Clark: Hi everyone. Thanks for listening. I'm Jasmine Clark.
Amanda Weinstein: I'm Amanda Weinstein.
Rachel Vindman: I'm Rachel Vindman.
Jasmine: And you're listening to The Suburban Women Problem. So we're back together for the first time since the midterms, and there is so much to talk about!
Amanda: Yay. First, Jasmine, congratulations! That's the most important thing. So excited.
Jasmine: Ah, thank you!
Amanda: I was so excited to hear that. So I think, I think we found out about yours a little bit after my husband. So my husband Casey won too, and then I was just like, yours was the next one. I was just like waiting, I was like, “Come on Jasmine. Come on Jasmine.”
Jasmine: I know. It was actually a really long night.
Rachel: My friends were texting me like, “Have you heard from your... from Jasmine and Amanda?” We were in London, so we went to sleep and then we woke up and we were watching it and it was good, but we didn't get the really good information until the next day, I think.
But we were, you know, Alex and I have talked about it so much, and both of you, Jasmine and Casey, you put in the work. I mean, you went out and talked to the voters. You impressed upon people how important that was. And I know, like, the day before the election, I was phone banking for Georgia. And you know, I mean it seems silly, you call and you're like, “just wanna remind you, tomorrow's election day.” And you know, even my daughter was like, “Really? Who doesn't know that?” But you know, and people were, they were nice. I only talked to a few people cause most people don't answer, but I just… that's what I'm most proud of, is just that example of you guys putting in the really, really hard work and it's such a privilege to be able to watch you do that.
Amanda: And I think Jasmine, you– and I know Casey– changed a lot of minds just by meeting people. That you don't have to change who people are, but you connect with people and how you connect with them, that maybe changes who they vote for.
Jasmine: Yeah. We exceeded all expectations. You know, we were really expecting it to be a lot closer than it was, and I think a lot of that can be attributed to, number one amazing, amazing, amazing volunteers and grassroots efforts.
But also, as you said, just one on one conversations. You know, when I would talk to people, I will say this, when I would talk to people, there were lots of people that said, “Oh, I know who you are because you have been in the community,” or “I know who you are because you tell us what's going on on Nextdoor, or Facebook, or this or that.” And so I think some people just wanna have a representative that talks to them. That isn't just sitting on a hill somewhere like a king, but that's in the community, just talking to them.
Amanda: Oh yeah. That's such a good point. You show up for us and we'll show up for you.
Jasmine: Exactly. Exactly.
Rachel: It makes sense. It doesn't sound that complicated.
Jasmine: I mean, it really does make sense, but a lot of people don't do that.
Rachel: No, of course.
Amanda: I mean, so we have a lot of good news, like we have good news all over the place. I don't think anyone was prepared for the level of, or I'll say I was not prepared for the level of good news we would have from this. Not a red wave, more like the mid cycle spotting.
Rachel: Can I confess something? My head was telling me, you know Rachel, you went out and talked to all those women and you met all those women at events and no literally zero people said, “Hey Rachel, the most important thing to me is the economy.” No one said that. It was extremism of some kind is what every single person said.
But I was like, you know, my heart was still pretty nervous. I was still pretty like, “I don't know!” Because of all the polls. And I know I kept preaching that we shouldn't listen to the polls, but it was there, you know, and it was just,
Jasmine: It still looms.
Rachel: Yes. Yeah. And everyone kept talking about it and, and I just, it's better than I could have imagined, but also it is exactly what the people told me, and I'm sure it's the same that people told you, Jasmine and Casey, as they were out talking to people, that this is the case. But it really, it's hard not to let it get into your decision.
But the thing is, no matter what, we all hold that power to vote. Like when you see something like Ron Johnson and that, you know, three or four billionaires gave 29 million to spend on his race and, and I was very disappointed that Mandela Barnes lost. But that is so much money, right?
Jasmine: Right.
Rachel: But it doesn't buy anything. I mean, it buys a lot of advertising.
Jasmine: It buys ads, yeah.
Rachel: And yes, they did win the race, but I'm just saying that it's still, the people who voted still determined that. And I think we really lose sight of the power that we have. And I really hope that this election reminds people.
Amanda: Right. And I've already seen, I've already seen some bad takes where people are even like, “It was maybe the economy and reproductive rights,” and I already don't like that take. And here's why. Because it comes down to, you know, that “It's the economy, stupid.” Here's my thing. Reproductive rights are the economy stupid! And I, so I'm already like, no, I don't like that take. Like I think women know that when you're talking about reproductive rights, they are absolutely the economy for us, right?
And if you look at some of these super competitive races, so I love to peek in, especially the competitive races, like what did they do? So one of them was Pat Ryan, who is a veteran and won a really competitive house seat in New York. And he said that his message was consistent the whole time. They talked about freedoms, reproductive freedoms, voting rights. They talked about safety, fighting for democracy, and fighting extremism. And guess what? He won.
Jasmine: He won.
Rachel: I got a phone call from the CEO of Vote Vets, who Alex works for, and he was like, I have to tell you, “I didn't believe you. And I didn't, I thought you were probably not right, but I trusted you.” But they saw in this special election when Pat Ryan ran all the ads and talked so much about reproductive rights and how that resonated. So they were able to see that it really did matter. And so when Pat Ryan did the general election after the special election, he just again stuck with it.
That's what I kept saying. When you're running a race, what do they tell you? Like, don't turn around and see where people are. Run your race. Don't pay attention to other people. As I often talk about on the pod, and in life, my dad always told me, “Taking care of Rachel is a full-time job.” I don't need to see what other people are doing. It's true, and as we tell our daughter, taking care of Ellie is a full-time job for like three human beings. But the thing is like, don't look and see what other people are doing. Just do what you need to do and then you won't get distracted by like, you know, these wild hares and chasing things and having discussions that don't need to be had.
Jasmine: Yeah. I would also say I am really excited or proud of our younger adults. They showed up. They really, really did. And I, I think, you know, I, people will try to split hairs and be like, “Oh, well in some places they didn't break records.: And I'm like, you know what? We need to continue to encourage them. And I think one of the ways we continue to encourage them is to say, “You've shown up. And you are now a voting block that cannot be ignored. And so we will not ignore you. And you will get things that you want because you vote.”
Rachel: This is so important.
Jasmine: And so I do think, one of the things that we as Democrats must do is make good on promises that we've made to them. Because they came out for us. And so I would love to see that continue. I know in my area, I absolutely love my high school students, some of them that can't vote yet, but they will be voting soon. But also the younger adults in my area, they really showed up for this election. Like in early voting, they actually beat out my age range, and I was like, “What?” The younger people beat the 30-39 block in my district during early voting, and I was just like, that is a message that they're paying attention to the people in power and they want to actually see things done for them.
And that is a promise that I made to them. And you know, I can't promise what bill will get passed and what bill won't, but I can promise that I will work and fight for them because they showed up. And they showed up for the election. And I was doing it anyway, but like I want to, I really want them to see the fruits of their vote so that they encourage their friends and they say, “When we voted, people were bringing us to the table and they were asking us what we want and that's the power that we have in voting.”
Amanda: Yeah. And elections are a numbers game. And we as Democrats have to know where our most likely numbers are coming from. And rather than ignoring those numbers or discounting those numbers as a given, we should never assume any number is a given. We have to play to those numbers. And what we saw is that our numbers were strong in urban areas, and they were strong in suburban areas. They were strong with young people and they were strong with women.
And rather than discounting, say, suburban women, in the words of Cheryl Sandberg, you need to lean in. Lean in here. So we want to see the results of us showing up for you. We wanna see things like universal lunches, child tax credits, universal pre-k, paid maternity leave. It is time for the Dems to lean in to who their voters are.
Rachel: I sent you guys the article that in Colorado they voted to have free lunches for all, for all public school students.
Amanda: I love that. Yes. Clap, clap, clap. Good job, Colorado.
Rachel: I knew you guys would love it. Paid for with a tax on the wealthiest people in Colorado. So, look, no lawmaker has to get blamed for this cause the voters voted for it. It was such a popular program that Amanda often talks about that was available during the pandemic and then they stopped it.
But I think it's very interesting cause Colorado is infamously a purple state and that that was voted in by the voters is a really important thing to me because, you know, I think so many times people don't want to vote for these things. They don't wanna be responsible for raising taxes, right? But voters show time and time again, they're willing to pay for things, they're willing to raise taxes when they have some agency on, you know, where, what exactly, what that's going to pay for.
Jasmine: Yes. And a tangible. I think it's very different when someone's just like, “Hey, I'm raising your taxes,” and you're like, “Why? What the heck? Why are you raising my taxes?” But that's very different than saying, “I'm raising your taxes so we can feed children.” And then, and I'm not even raising everyone's taxes. Only a few people's taxes are gonna get raised. They're barely gonna probably even feel it. But at the same time, all the kids get to eat. And I can tell you, Even people who are middle class and upper middle class enjoy not having to pay for school lunch.
Amanda: I love it. It's such a convenience, it’s saved so much time for me.
I mean, so this is also a great time to talk about all of the ballot initiatives that did so well, and yes, progressive ballot initiatives win for maybe some of the reasons that you're mentioning. You know, it's easier for the voters to vote for it. I don't know what the reason is, but when we put things like reproductive rights on the ballot it wins, and it even wins in– or talking about like banning abortion did not win– in states like Kentucky. Kentucky. Right? This is no blue bubble here in Kentucky.
These ballot initiatives, when we're talking about protecting reproductive rights, like we need these ballot initiatives in more states than the five states we had them in. We need them in every state. However, I know Jasmine, we can't do it in Georgia.
Jasmine: We can't do it in Georgia. I know, it's really annoying.
Rachel: Why? Why can't you?
Jasmine: It's against the law in Georgia. So right now our, I wanna say, state constitution doesn't allow it. It might be the law, but I believe it's actually the state constitution. So it would, it would take a constitutional amendment, which takes a two-thirds vote in order to get it onto the ballot. But then after that, the voters would choose, and I'm pretty sure the voters would choose it.
Amanda: Yes. Oh yeah, they would for sure. But we need more of these ballot initiatives, whether you're talking school lunches, reproductive rights, minimum wage, a lot of these ballot initiatives win across the board, even in red states.
And here's the thing, they help with turnout. I would love to see more investment in these ballot initiatives in the states where you can do them.
Rachel: I think it's just a really unique approach to voting and self governance.
Amanda: Which also makes me think of the polls that all were saying like, Biden's super unpopular. There's gonna be a red wave cause Biden's so unpopular.
Jasmine: Oh my gosh.
Amanda: Lots of polls were wrong. Like lots of them. So we did one poll in Casey's race and his poll was spot on. He won by eight points and that's what his one good poll and that's what his one good poll said. And that's all we have money for is one good poll.
Jasmine: They’re expensive.
Amanda: So some of it's like all the polling at the end that was coming out like, “Oh, let's poll 100 women and see what they say.” Like, come on, like this is not a good poll.
Jasmine: It was ridiculous.
Rachel: It's so, this is so silly, but what the, what the analogy I have in my head is, I've talked before about my pregnancy with Ellie. I was on bedrest for nine weeks at home and nine weeks in the hospital. So every week I would, like, before when I was at home, I would go in and have a very invasive ultrasound. And then when I was in the hospital, I would have three ultrasounds a week. And the long ultrasounds. I mean, I had nothing else to do, so it was fine.
What we learned is like there was this place where she dipped down and they thought there was a real problem cause like where she was on the growth chart, like really took a dip. Guess what? She is within 5% of that number that she kind of leveled out at still today. Like, and she's almost 12. But we don't have the data for everyone's pregnancy to know that because we don't do a growth scan for all babies, right, all pregnancies, like every week or two. So the data just simply does not exist. So when we do this polling. We have to think of what are we doing?
Amanda: No. Which is why you have to listen to people. So with your analogy, my OBGYN was so good. She was like, “We've been here before. You measure small, your babies are fine. So technically it says, you know, we should be worried. I'm not.” And like, because she knew me and she listened to me and she knew my past experience. Like we have to listen to people.
Jasmine: I think that was where the media messed up though, because I think the media–
Rachel: Ugh. Because they wanted to.
Amanda: Oh yes, completely.
Jasmine: The media took something and just said, “Oh, this poll says this,” and I'm like, “this has an N of 150 people and it's supposed to be about the national trends.” Like no self-respecting person would actually think that this is statistically significant. I did a poll in my district. My district is only 60,000 people, 40,000 registered voters. We had a poll sample that was more than 150 people, and it was still considered statistically insignificant.
Amanda: I saw that and I was like, I was literally at a soccer game the night before where I saw more than a hundred women.
Jasmine: Exactly!
Amanda: So I also wanna point out though, speaking of women, we need to give serious props to Michigan...
Jasmine: Oh my gosh, I'm so excited.
Amanda: Completely turning their State House and Senate blue. They elected so many women. So I have a, one of the quotes, I think it was Matt Dowd said that “Women are in a place of power and voters love it.” And I was like, “Yes, they do!” Gretchen Whitmer, she's a star, Jocelyn Benson, also a star, and of course Mallory McMorrow who we've had on the podcast. Women can win and they can win both women and men, right? Women are doing very well in Michigan. Like this was a huge, huge win in Michigan.
Rachel: One thing that I, I'd like to point out… my home state of Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, I know they were really disappointed with some of the results on, you know, last Tuesday. And I just wanna give a little shout out and a comment to them. Places like Michigan, when I visited Michigan and I visited Ohio and Ohio had some mixed results, but some good results on, on several different issues. Even though on some bigger issues, it might look like there were some losses, they've made a lot of improvement.
But one of the things I learned when I was talking to people was that the most successful places were the ones who really organized and started those grassroots movements the day after election of 2016. And you know, that's not to say… like, so everyone starts somewhere and if you didn't get the results you wanted this time, keep at it. Keep working.
Do you remember way back a long time ago when we had Mari Yepez and she talked about defeating Joe Arpaio? They lost and then they came back and they registered voters and they worked at it for four freaking years without stopping. Dreamers, people who couldn't even vote, they worked and worked and worked and it was so inspiring to me. And it continues to be.
But guys, it doesn't happen overnight cause we didn't get in this position overnight. But the people who did have success worked at it for a long time. So if you're one of those people in one of those states and you weren't celebrating instead of, you know, just being sad for your results, look at what other people have done and see that it is possible. But it's work and all of them would tell you it is a hell of a lot of work.
Jasmine: Yeah. I'm one of those people though.
Amanda: Jasmine knows.
Jasmine: You know, Georgia, you know, they showed up for me and my race. And there were a lot, there were a handful of competitive races in our state because after redistricting, they didn't really draw that many competitive ones. And of the competitive ones about 50/50 won or lost.
But our statewides, I mean, the entire slate of statewide Democratic candidates did not prevail on election night. And it's really easy to get really bummed out about that. I mean, it really really sucks watching those numbers come in and, you know, not getting the result that we wanted. Especially because the early vote starts, like they start with the early vote and so you have like, these huge leads, and then all of a sudden, you know, it just gets smaller and smaller and smaller. And it was the same for my race as well. We started really big and it just kind of dwindled until we got to our set number.
But what I will say is this, to Rachel's point. We keep fighting. We do not stop. Yes, I understand, we lick our wounds. We, you know, we re-strategize. We try to figure out what went wrong so we can do it better next time. But we don't stop. We still have opportunities in the future. Georgia is trending blue, but the truth is it's not so simple. It’s purple.
Amanda: Work gets you blue too. Like I think people, I think we tend to think like it will just happen. And like we will, you know, I think it's a little bit like the MLK quote, like “history bends towards justice,” but it only bends that way when you work for it.
Jasmine: You have to work for it. Yeah.
Amanda: And I think, I think Ohio is pretty similar where we had, we were very disappointed to see Tim Ryan lose to JD Vance. And I understand that disappointment, but we need to also look towards who won. And what can we learn. Also, who lost and what can we learn? There's so much to learn from all of this. And part of what we ended up seeing with Tim Ryan is that he overperformed in 83 counties. That's a lot. Unfortunately, the 83 counties were our lowest population counties.
But Ohio is still sending one Democrat and one Republican to the Senate. No change from there on us. But when we look at Congress, we're now sending one additional Dem and two fewer Republicans from Ohio. So Ohio held the line, and if we look at why, we see Emelia Sykes, suburban areas and urban areas, she held strong. We see Greg Landsman. So there we see suburban and urban areas in Cincinnati, he held strong. And if we look at what Greg Landsman ran on, he ran on a platform centered around making it easier to raise a family in Cincinnati. That platform won and it won pretty big in Ohio. Which, similar to Georgia, our statewide races went more red. So we had losses, our governor, our Secretary of state, we lost ground in our state house and state senate. That was Michigan, I think eight years ago, and here's where they are now. So put in the work like Michigan did, and we could be in a different place with the right strategy, the right message, and knowing where our numbers come from.
Rachel: But not to be like rain on anyone's parade, but if you did win, and you're in a good place, the work is not done.
Jasmine: Oh, no, not at all. Like literally not at all.
Rachel: The attacks will keep coming. The misinformation, the disinformation and all that, the training, everything that we've been working on, those are like life skills now. We cannot go back to not having these conversations. We must keep having these conversations and normalize them.
There was an NPR, the White House NPR reporter, she tweeted that the president was going to do, she literally said “another,” like she emphasized “another speech on democracy.” Hmm. Yeah. I wonder why. Because that was important to people.
Amanda: I will say extremism lost, in my opinion. Extremism lost.
Rachel: Totally. People showed up for democracy. They also showed up against extremism and this is what is on people's minds. So I think as we continue to have these conversations, it's really important to know this is not just what we are thinking about, others are thinking about this too. So these are very authentic conversations to have with people. And this is on people's minds. So it's not weird. It's what we're thinking about right now.
Amanda: I mean, I think that's a good point. We have to continue the same conversations with our friends and family that we were having during the election, whether it's about a bill, whether it's about starting a ballot initiative, right? So if there's one thing we saw ballot initiatives that protect reproductive rights work.
Jasmine: And I just wanna say, if you're listening and you live in Georgia, we still have an election to go. And, you know, I, I really get frustrated when people are like, “Oh, well Nevada clinched the Senate. And so we're good now.”
Rachel: Oh my gosh. Can you explain why that's not right?
Jasmine: I mean, so for so many reasons, but let's already start with the fact that we just went through two years of a 50//50 Senate and it freaking sucked. Because it gave two people on the Democratic side way too much power.
Amanda: Manchin and Sinema.
Jasmine: Yes, Manchin and Sinema. If we get another seat, we really chop the legs off of that and at least one of them, we only need one of them to play ball and one of those two people are in a much more competitive position than the other.
Amanda: I know! Sinema, shee should be worried right now. So Warnock means that Sinema has to be extra worried and if there's one person I want shaking in their boots right now, it's Kristin Cinema,
Rachel: Like her white, tall leather go-go boots…
Jasmine: Haha, I was literally about to say that.
Rachel: Whatever funky, I mean, you know, she wants to be the pretty pretty princess and she wants to be the people that everyone is talking about. Everyone is talking to and courting and it would like, it would be, so amazing if she just had to vote and be like a normal senator, one of 100 people in the United States, that's about as exclusive as it gets. So just be happy with that.
But you know, Jasmine, I was texting with you guys on the plane on the way home and and then I was explaining to Alex about Robert E Lee's birthday and how that is going to affect early voting. And he's like, “Oh my God. Robert E Lee's birthday is a holiday in Georgia?”
Jasmine: I've been talking about this a lot.
Rachel: The whole thing is bizarre. The fact that you celebrate it in November or observe it in November so that it doesn't conflict with Martin Luther King's birthday in January is like, takes it to a whole new level. But can we talk about how it's going to affect early voting and maybe some ways how we can help Georgia?
Jasmine: So this is a big deal. So right now the law in Georgia states that you cannot have advanced voting in person, advanced in person voting the Saturday after a holiday. And so the Friday after Thanksgiving is Robert E. Lee’s birthday celebration. His birthday is actually January 19th, but we celebrate it the Friday after Thanksgiving.
We totally celebrate the Confederacy here in the state of Georgia, and right now, that celebration is actually disenfranchising voters. And how does it disenfranchise voters? Because students, especially students who are home for Thanksgiving, will not be able to vote in person. They're not gonna have that Saturday.
Amanda: I mean, I think something important there is when we see the outcomes of an election, we often assume something about that state or about its people without thinking about the systems in place and the rules in place that guide the outcomes that somebody wanted. So even if we think about Kentucky, we might think about, right, that's a super red state. If you voted for this person, clearly you are fine if your reproductive rights get taken away.
And that's not true. Because they voted not to take away reproductive rights. So you can't assume something about someone based on their policy elections. But it also means we have so much work to do on changing these rules, and we can, these are things that can be changed, right? But it takes time to change our systems to have a better democracy, which I think in this election, we all showed that we want a better democracy.
Jasmine: To your point, Amanda, right now, the race for the majority of the United States House of Representatives is probably going to come down to just a couple of races, but there were several states that got sued because during redistricting they drew maps that are technically illegal.
Amanda: Like here in Ohio!
Jasmine: So if we are only within a couple of seats, you can argue that we're not within a couple of seats because of the will of the people. We're within a couple of seats because of partisan or racial gerrymandering. And that means they didn't win a majority. They drew themselves a majority. If they get a majority. And I think that's really important for people to understand. We’ve talked so much about why redistricting was so important. This is the outcome.
Well, I think now is a good time for us to transition to our Toast to Joy. This is the part of the podcast where we talk about the amazing things that have happened or just something positive in order to round out the episode. And so, Rachel, let's start with you this week. What's your Toast to Joy?
Rachel: I'm glad I'm going first. My Toast to Joy is to all of our listeners and all of the women out there who got out of their comfort zone and showed up to have the hard conversations. To make a difference, to keep their heads down and not listen to the polls, and not listen to the doubters and just, it is such a tremendous privilege. And I was once again so proud of my country, to be overseas and to say we didn't like the way it was going, and we decided to show up and change it. And that's why we live in just an amazing country, an amazing place. And so that's my Toast to Joy, to all of you. To all of you who didn't stop, who didn't let the detractors dissuade you from doing the work and putting the time in because it mattered, it absolutely mattered. And of course, to Jasmine and to Amanda and Casey, who are definitely a team, and all the work that you are doing at the state level, which as we have learned is so critically important to our everyday rights.
Jasmine: Yes. Thanks for voting down ballot, guys.
Amanda: I love it. Women showed up and we proved, I think, a lot of people wrong. I think we said “see?” Like we showed up and now it's time for a lot of our representatives to show up for us, and I'm very excited to see what that looks like.
Rachel: Absolutely. It was really awesome when I saw Lindsey Graham say, “This is no red wave.”
Amanda: No! Suburban women problem: confirmed.
Rachel: I know! Yes, Yes. Fact check: true.
So Amanda, what is your Toast to Joy this week?
Amanda: All right, so my Toast to Joy is our big annual conference for North American Regional Scientists that is always right after the election, which is really nice because I get away, I get out of it. But also, my head is still kind of in it. So part of my time there, I'm like trying to dig into the numbers and figure out for myself what happened. But I do love this time ti meet with other people in my field, talk with them, and they're all kind of geeky numbers people too. So it's a fun place to be digging into the numbers and what happened.
So my Toast to Joy is for these conferences and getting to meet people, but also getting to dig into data, whatever it's about my research or about what happened in the election. It's just a lot of fun. So that is my Toast to Joy. Jasmine, your turn!
Jasmine: Well, I think my Toast to Joy is pretty obvious.
Amanda: To State, I should say, State Representative Jasmine Clark. What is your Toast to Joy?
Jasmine: You know, honestly, election day was full of anxiety, you know, full of uncertainty. It was like anxiety all day. But even on the day, all the way up to the hour, you know, we're crunching numbers and we're calculating things and we're looking at spreadsheets and you know, everything. But it all boils down to the voters.
And the thing about it was I had literal national people with lots of money looking at my race and, you know, just trying to figure out like where we were, what we needed to do. And they were feeding me that information, so that made me even more nervous.
But, you know, we knocked on thousands of doors, about 7,000 doors. We called several thousand phones. We sent 23,000 mail pieces. We posted ads on pretty much every social media platform. We, we just, we gave it our all. And this is not to say that those who did probably did similar things and didn't prevail, that it's, it's not to say anything about them. But just to say, the work has to be done in order to win races.
We had an opponent that was doing those things as well. And so, you know, I was running in a race… I was a little jealous of some of my peers who were running against people who just basically put their name on the ballot and walked away. And I'm like, I'm so jealous. My opponent is like out here, like, I get a sign and then like two days later my signs are gone. You know, things like that. I had an opponent that was, you know, really, really, really competing with me.
But I think when you have someone like that, who put all their blood, sweat, and tears into their campaign, and then they don't get the outcome that they were expecting, I hope it sends a message that you will not draw me out of a community that has looked up to me for the things that I actually do in the community. I don't just talk to them at election time. Me talking at an election time is extra. I talk to them all the time. And I think that's what's really important. And so that's my Toast to Joy to just a hard fought battle and an amazing win.
Amanda: And can I just say, someone who wins a competitive race like you did, Jasmine, this is someone the Democratic party needs to look to. It is easy, well, you know, it can be easy to win in a not competitive race. In a competitive race, you have had to talk to people who aren't just like you. You have had to convince people and introduce yourself to people who aren't like you, and convince them to vote for you. To me, the representatives in those super competitive races, those are the ones Dems need to look to right now and say, “how did they do it?” Because our nation is competitive whether we like it or not. And that's how we win the nation as well.
Jasmine: Exactly. I agree. All right. So thank you so much to everyone for joining us today for our election recap. Next week is Thanksgiving and we'd love to hear from all of you about what you are thankful for. Personally, I am grateful for, as I just said, all of the outpouring of support as I made it across the finish line in my election. But also I'm grateful for this podcast and I'm grateful for my family and just… you know, running an election is tough. And it's really nice to have those support systems and you guys are counted as my support system through all of this.
Amanda: Aww. Heart emoji.
Jasmine: I’m very grateful for you all.
Amanda: There is a lot to be thankful for, even in difficult times. So we'd love to hear from you, our listeners. You can leave us a voicemail at 614-600-2480, and we'll play your replies on next week's podcast.
Jasmine: We'll be back with those messages of gratitude next week. Thanks again for listening to the Suburban Women Problem.