In 2024, we are confronting a major election year with history and the rights of marginalized communities on the ballot. The disparities that Black and Brown people confront in this country are significant and growing from housing and employment to access to health care and access to capital. The Sundial Group of Companies which includes ESSENCE, the Global Black Economic Forum, Girls United, AfroPunk, BeautyCon and New Voices Foundation are coming together, along with our partners, to mobilize and ensure that we educate, mobilize and register voters to take action this November and into the future.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. My name is Alphonso David. I am the president
00:11and the CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. I'm also a civil rights lawyer.
00:17And I am Ebony McMorris, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Network. And I'm
00:24so pleased to be here tonight for Paint the Polls Black. Alphonso, are you ready?
00:30I am ready. I am ready. And for everyone, as you may know, this November, we are confronting
00:37a major election year with history and the rights of marginalized communities on the
00:42ballot. The disparities that black and brown people confront in this country are significant
00:48and growing, from housing and employment to access to health care and access to capital.
00:55Tonight, the Sundial Group of Companies, which includes Essence, the Global Black Economic
01:00Forum, Girls United, Afropunk, Refinery29, BeautyCon, and the New Voices Foundation are
01:09coming together, along with our partners, to mobilize and ensure that we educate, mobilize,
01:15and register voters to take action this November and into the future.
01:20Look, to support this work, we are launching the 2024 Paint the Polls Black campaign.
01:28This campaign is tailored to provide information, address misinformation and lies, and register
01:35voters for one of the most consequential elections in our lifetimes. We will be joined by a few
01:42special, amazing guests, and we'll be answering important questions from all of you about voting,
01:49elections, and the issues affecting our communities. So we got a few housekeeping rules. First,
01:56this is a nonpartisan call focused on voter registration and mobilization. Further, this
02:03ain't a fundraising call, so you can keep your money in your pocket for now. There are other
02:07events for fundraising. We will also be answering your questions, so please put your questions in
02:14the chat, and we'll try to answer as many as we can before the end of the town hall.
02:21Also, please see the link for voter registration. If you have not registered to vote, please do.
02:29Go to www.paintthepollsblack, hashtag paintthepollsblack, and please register to vote.
02:36And finally, sit back, relax, and enjoy this town hall.
02:42All right, y'all, we're gonna get right into it. Y'all ready? This is gonna be a wonderful
02:48conversation. How excited are you, Alphonso? I am excited. We have two fantastic members
02:53of Congress joining us, but I'll let you take it away. First, please welcome Congresswoman
02:59Jasmine Crockett from the House of Representatives for Texas, 30th congressional district,
03:06great state of Texas. Also joining us is Congresswoman Chantel Brown from the great
03:12state of Ohio, hailing from Ohio's 11th district. Thank you both for joining us today.
03:19It's good to see the other two. Look, before we begin, I think it is only right for us to
03:27pause just for a moment and remember the life of the late, great Sheila Jackson Lee. There's
03:36memorial service being held today for her, who's hailing from the great state of Texas. But I think
03:44we would be remiss if we did not stop for a second, just for a couple of seconds,
03:48and think about this Shiro. Thank you all for that. Sometimes I think we just have to stop
04:00and sometimes think about what we are missing, and we are missing her so much right now.
04:07And before we begin the conversation, actually, Representative Crockett, I wanted to
04:13just ask you, let people know what this line is, who she was, and how we will miss the work and the
04:22legacy that she has left behind. Yeah. What's interesting is that we were reminded that
04:29she is of Jamaican descent. And one of the jokes that we would always talk about when it came to
04:36Sheila is that she was always in 50 meetings at one time, right? So her body would physically
04:42be in one meeting, and then she'd be on Zoom with somebody else with the headphones. But listen,
04:49as much as we joked, this is a woman who worked all the time. Even when she was sick on her death
04:57bed, she never stopped working. She believed that the people, specifically the people of Texas,
05:02deserved better. And when it came down to representing people, while she was elected
05:08to represent Texas 18th Congressional District, that is famously known because Barbara Jordan
05:14held that seat as the first Black woman to ever go to Congress from Texas, she also made sure that
05:20she never, ever lost sight of the fact that she was a Black woman in America. And so being able
05:26to celebrate Juneteenth is because she never gave up. She was the fighter at all times for reparations,
05:32as well as the George Floyd Policing Act. I mean, this is a woman that never stopped and never lost
05:41focus of community. And community wasn't just her district, but it was Black folks. So definitely
05:48she will sorely be missed. But I can tell you, as the next generation is trying to do our part,
05:54Chantel and I will continue to fight and make sure that her legacy continues to live on,
06:00and that her legislation doesn't die with her, but it continues on until we finally get to the
06:06promised land and actually start to see a United States that really starts to respect and love us
06:14wholly, not just in word, but also in legislation.
06:19Congressman Brown, I want you to also talk about what her life meant and what she has
06:24represented for you. She was just a powerhouse. I grew up watching her on C-SPAN and on
06:32MSNBC, the news stations, and she always spoke with such command, such confidence. And if you
06:40heard her, she had this booming voice. It just came through, and she just commanded the room
06:46no matter where she was. And so I was, to my surprise, when I first met her, I'm like,
06:51this little petite powerhouse. I imagined her to be this tall woman, but she might have been
07:00five-something, but she was six, seven in spirit, okay? Because she did not back down from anything.
07:05She was fearless. She was a fighter. And she really just, as Jasmine articulated, always,
07:13always showed up and put people first. And we joked about her being never shy from a camera.
07:23She would always be in position, but it was a historical context to that because
07:28she left an imprint of what we could aspire to be. Had I not seen her in those images growing up,
07:37I would not know that this is a space and place where I could be. And so I'm just honored to be
07:45able to say when the history books are written that I was able to serve with her.
07:51Ooh, that's so powerful. That's so powerful. Well, look, we are here to not just carry on her
07:57legacy, but to talk about issues affecting Black America and to mobilize and talk about voter
08:02mobilization. I just want to quickly get your reactions, and Alfonso and I talked about this
08:08a great length before, about the NABJ conference where we saw three Black journalists interviewing
08:16former President Donald Trump. And the controversy ensued whether or not she should have been there
08:20or not. But then after that, some of the comments that were made, Representative Crockett,
08:27what was your reaction to that town hall, that panel discussion?
08:34Hotmess.com. Hotmess.com. That's all I got to say about it. But listen, regardless of where
08:40you stand about NABJ and how they handled Trump showing up and how they handled the VP and that
08:46kind of stuff, I think that it was important for us to have this moment because, number one,
08:52I think that Trump has not been pushed as all candidates should be pushed when you are trying
08:57to be the leader of the free world. You should be asked questions, and when you don't answer
09:02those questions, you should be redirected. And what's interesting is that it's almost like—not
09:09almost—he took offense that there were Black women journalists that were basically trying to
09:16get him to do what journalists are supposed to always do with him, which is to get him to answer
09:21questions. Instead, he decided that he was going to insult them as well and call them nasty and
09:28talk about how rude they were and things like that when all they were doing is actual journalism,
09:32which, again, Project 2025, which is a nonpartisan thing allegedly because it comes from the Heritage
09:39Foundation, which is 501c3, but it talks about things such as the media and basically, as far
09:48as if I was to summarize it, getting rid of the free press. And I feel as if we've seen a
09:53consolidation when it comes to the media in general because he's not been pressed. And now that he
09:59actually was like—had journalists that wanted to do their jobs, he didn't know how to handle it
10:04because when he went to do his debate on CNN, they didn't do their jobs, that's for sure.
10:09I saw the text that you put out on Twitter, on X, and you said,
10:19shut his BS down, mid-sentence. But there was also this question, and Representative
10:23Brennan, I want to ask you about this, about challenging Blackness in America. And that is
10:28something that is not just subject to that, but we have seen over and over this challenge of
10:34Blackness, having to prove Blackness. What were you thinking as you were watching,
10:39or were you able to even watch that panel? I caught some of it, and I was—I mean,
10:45my text, I was flabbergasted. I mean, but a zebra doesn't change its stripes,
10:49and leopards don't change their spots. This was typical Donald Trump. I mean,
10:53when he can't speak or answer a question, he defaults to attacks and name-calling.
10:59And it's really petty, and it's really immature, and it really is lackluster leadership on his
11:04part. And it was on full display for all the world to see. And I really love the fact that
11:10it was Black women, once again, holding him accountable. I mean, from the prosecutor in New
11:15York to the prosecutor in Georgia, to now him having to deal with a prosecutor as his candidate
11:23to face to hold the highest office in the land, Black women have been his greatest adversaries,
11:30and really holding him accountable for his dastardly deeds. And so I was really
11:38grateful for the women who were on that stage, who kept their composure, who held their own,
11:45made sure they were confronting him with the facts. And he just tried to bulldozer them,
11:51which is something he's always done. So that should not have come as a surprise. But I was
11:56pleased with the representation that we had on that stage, however difficult that interview would
12:01have been, because he is not the type of person that you're going to get an easier interview out
12:06of regardless. So I do believe when it comes to folks like him and his MAGA minions, they have no
12:14bottom, they have no boundaries. Just when I think they can't get any lower, they prove me wrong.
12:20And he did just that yesterday on the stage.
12:23Congresswoman Crockett, I had a chance to interview you when a Global Black Economic
12:30Forum had an event at Essence, and in that we quickly spoke about Project 2025, and you just
12:36mentioned that. I don't think people really, or maybe they're really beginning to understand
12:42the depth and seriousness of Project 2025, and how this is not something that we are just seeing
12:49now, but it has been in the works. When we see some of the reform that has come down from
12:54the Supreme Court, that is a part of the Project 2025 playlist. So when we talk about
13:00voter mobilization, ordering on why people need to get to the polls, I just want you to double
13:05down and let people know what this is and why this matters in their decision.
13:12Yeah, so a couple of things. Right now we see that the campaign that is most closely aligned
13:18with Project 2025 is trying to run away from it with their hair on fire. Like, wait a minute,
13:22we didn't know, we didn't know. Yeah, okay. So many of these people worked in the previous
13:28administration, and supposedly were going to work potentially in the next administration
13:34if Trump was to win. And so basically they decided that they were going to play in our faces,
13:39and basically thought, well, we'll just hide it in a thousand pages and they'll never read it,
13:45but we want to make sure that our sycophants are able to see in detail exactly what it is that we
13:51are trying to do. But as you already stated, as someone who came from the State House,
13:56this is just my first term in Congress, when I was in the State House last session, we had to
14:01deal with things such as CRT, where they basically commandeered and changed the definition of CRT,
14:07and decided that they just did not want Black history taught in our schools. Well, that's a
14:11part of Project 2025, and making that a nationwide situation. When we look at these
14:16six-week abortion bans that started to go into place, what we had was we called a vigilante
14:22bill, they called it the heartbeat bill, but that bill was something that they handed down to the
14:26state of Texas, they handed it to Florida. We know that Iowa just got their six-week ban. So the
14:31Heritage Foundation has been coming up with this legislation and has been passing it through to
14:36Republicans in mostly Republican-controlled houses to try to push this legislation through.
14:44And then we get to the Supreme Court, where we know that the previous administration stole some
14:51kind of seats on the Supreme Court. I mean, it depends on who you're talking to, how many of
14:55those seats were stolen. But nevertheless, the whole point was to get a court that would not
15:01necessarily adhere to the Constitution nor court precedents, but would do basically what Project
15:072025 wants to do, which is to consolidate power within the presidency or the executor.
15:14And so we've got things such as getting rid of the Department of Education is one of those things.
15:18Department of Justice, which we know is separate and apart from the president, as we've seen the
15:23current president's son has gone through the justice system, has been convicted. That would
15:28not necessarily happen because this power would be consolidated, not to mention all the work that
15:34we did for the Affordable Care Act. They know that it's not popular to decide that you want to roll
15:39that back and get rid of preexisting conditions being an issue that you don't have to deal with.
15:45And all of the things that we have, we still know that there's a long way that we need to go when it
15:50comes to health care, when it comes to economics, when it comes to our overall prospects in this
15:57country. But instead, everything that is in this playbook is more so reminiscent of the 1950s and
16:04the 1960s. And so it is important that you understand that this is dangerous and it's not a
16:09game and it's not just politicians out here just talking our heads off. You need to read it for
16:15yourself. Don't trust what I say. Just go ahead and Google, because I get that it is tough to trust
16:21politicians nowadays. But I'm going to tell y'all, like I tell everybody else, my life was a little
16:27simpler before Congress. I didn't have death threats before Congress. And I actually dealt with real
16:33life murderers as a criminal defense attorney. Like my life was a little simpler. A lot less
16:39people knew my name. It was a lot simpler. But I am here because I care. I am here because I believe
16:47that we specifically as Black folk deserve our fair share. And Chantel and I serve as only one
16:54of less than 60 Black women to ever get a seat at this table. And when we take up that seat,
17:00we understand that there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that came with our ability to sit at
17:06that table. And we don't have the luxury of trying to pretend as if we're not Black. We don't have
17:12the luxury of trying to pretend like we don't know how we got there. We are there to do the work. So
17:17I'm telling y'all because I love you and I care. But I'm also telling you, like, trust but verify.
17:23So go ahead and get your own receipts. Y'all know I'm the Congresswoman that's already
17:26always got the receipts. But like legitimately, just Google it and don't just go out and vote
17:32yourself. Make sure that you tell somebody else in your circle who doesn't want to listen to a
17:37politician and tell them why it matters to them and that it's important that they get out and they
17:43vote as well. Afonso, when you were, when GBEF was putting together the panels for Essence,
17:50um, one issue I know you wanted to make sure we talked about and hammered on in addition to
17:55everything else was really digging into Project 2025 because you really had a passion for people
18:01understanding what's at stake here. It's incredibly important because, um, you know,
18:08this is a hashtag that people now know about, but unfortunately don't have a lot of information
18:14about what it is. But I think to what the Congresswoman was saying, this is a framework
18:20for redefining government, for really redefining how we operate within government and potentially
18:26removing fundamental rights that Black and Brown people have. So this is an important topic that I
18:32think all of us should be very, very aware of because it should inform how we think about
18:37voting, how we think about registration, how we think about the rights of our communities,
18:41because it will be directly impacted by whether and how you vote. So for some of you who are
18:46joining us, this is Paint the Polls Black, which is a town hall, uh, led by Essence and the Global
18:54Black Economic Forum and Afropunk and Girls United and a bunch of other organizations,
18:59companies that are coming together to make sure that we mobilize voters, that we educate voters,
19:03that we provide the tools that you need to make sure that you can exercise your constitutional
19:09right to vote. We will be joined by a number of other special guests. We're joined by two
19:15fantastic Congress people right now, Jasmine Crockett and Chantelle Brown, who will also be
19:20joined by Pekari Sellers and others coming up very, very soon. So we want to make sure that
19:24you all stick around, but I'll turn it back over to Ebony, who has a few more questions
19:29for both Congresswoman Crockett and Congresswoman Brown. I want to switch just a little bit because
19:35we mentioned reproductive rights, but I really want people to understand what's at stake when
19:40it comes to that. Since Roe was overturned in 2022, 14 states have enacted near total abortion
19:48bans, while four states, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Iowa, have banned abortion past roughly
19:54six weeks of pregnancy. Others we see enacting laws or held ballot referendums to protect abortion
20:01rights. And I'm glad we have this on here. For me, this was such an important topic because
20:06I was telling Afonso before this, as someone who might have been labeled childless cat woman,
20:12I am raising a niece whose mother died before I got married, been trying to conceive, have not
20:20been able to, had a miscarriage, and I am sitting in a hospital room because my body could not
20:28expel a child, but I was in such pain. I'm watching another black woman, because I know the
20:35pain, have a miscarriage at the same time while her boyfriend or husband is trying to figure out
20:40how he can help her. What was going through my mind is how many women in Southern states are
20:46going through the same thing, but they don't even have the ability to get the help that they need.
20:52And many times, their families end up burying them because they could not have access to any
20:59type of care, any type of abortion pill that would have helped. And so this has had massive
21:05and devastating consequences, especially when we talk about black maternal care.
21:10Congresswoman Brown, I want to get your take on why reproductive rights is definitely on the table.
21:17Well, thank you. And just my sincerest regard, relative to your situation, so many black women
21:27deal with infant mortality, maternal mortality issues. Before coming to Congress, I served on
21:33Cuyahoga County, and during the times of the pandemic, we started to recognize the disparities
21:41specifically as they impact black communities, and that conversation was only elevated by
21:45the tragic death of George Floyd. I bring that up because that was the foundation for
21:50me leading legislation to declare racism as a public health crisis, but the foundation was
21:56tied to infant mortality, the infant mortality crisis that we experience here, particularly in
22:02my district where we have some of the best hospitals, I mean, first-class, world-class
22:06hospitals, but we also experience third-world infant mortality rates. And so these things just
22:11did not make sense to me. So this has been a long-standing personal passion project of mine.
22:17So when we talk about reproductive freedom, when we talk about reproductive justice,
22:21when we talk about women being able to have the right to make their own healthcare decisions,
22:25I hail from the state where the evangelist of Trump's 2025 project is now the VP pick,
22:33J.D. Vance, right? And this is a person who believes in having a national abortion ban
22:38with no exceptions for rape or incest. We are the state where there was a 10-year-old child
22:44who was a rape victim who had to flee the state to get the care that she needed because abortion
22:50care is healthcare. And so we're also the state where a young woman, Brittany Watts, a woman of
22:55color, had a miscarriage in her bathroom, lost a child, and because when she was in her restroom,
23:02in her bathroom, on the toilet, and the body of the fetus was stuck, she was charged with
23:08misuse of a corpse, abuse of a corpse. Those charges were eventually dropped, but because
23:15people, that was only because people showed up in Ohio in November and in August for issue one
23:23both times. And this is the diabolical nature of the people that are putting forth this type
23:30of legislation. It is inhumane. It is insensitive. It is inconsiderate. It is dangerous. It is deadly
23:40in some cases. And so this is a serious component that is also in Trump's project 2025, part of the
23:48thing that they want to institute if they get their hands on the levers of power during this
23:542024 election. And I think it's also important, if you'll allow me to circle back, we started
23:59talking about project 2025, but this work, as my good sister Representative Crockett talked about,
24:06started long before this. There was a project 2017 that got no attention, and what they did
24:14is they implemented nearly 60% of those policies in 2017, and we're dealing with those ramifications
24:22right now. We can talk about 2016 when we were, many folks were unsure about what they were going
24:31to do, and so many people didn't even exercise their right to vote. Alfonso and Ebony, they thought,
24:36well, one candidate who was the most qualified candidate in our nation's history by the name of
24:41Secretary Clinton was on the ballot, but oh, but her emails. And then another guy who people thought,
24:48oh, he would never win. Well, because people stayed home, because people played games in this
24:52binary system and voted third party, we ended up with a Donald Trump presidency, and he was able
24:59to appoint not one, not two, but three Supreme Court justices who are overturning decades of
25:05precedent. Roe v. Wade was overturned on my birthday, June 24, 2022, worst president I ever received,
25:13so I'll never forget the day. And so these are the ramifications when we talk about that
25:19cliche, elections have consequences. This is the real life situation of elections having consequences.
25:27Because people didn't show up in 2016, those consequences didn't immediately hit us in 17,
25:3318, 19, 20, 21 even, but we are feeling them now. June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned,
25:42immediately followed by the overturning of affirmative action, the overturning of the
25:46Chevron case. And these are things that are outlined. It's not just a framework, Alphonso,
25:52it is a blueprint. It is a true roadmap of how they're going to really try to end democracy as
26:00we know it in this country. I mean, we heard Donald Trump say himself, if you vote this time,
26:06you'll never have to vote again. Now, I don't know about y'all, but that is very,
26:12very concerning for me. And because I know that when it comes to power in this country,
26:20that whether you are black, white, rich, poor, gay, straight, Democrat, Republican,
26:27everybody gets one vote. So we need to make sure that we are taking this power back and that we
26:33are using it and that we're not being selfish in that and that we're spreading the power and
26:38empowering young people, empowering our community to make sure that they understand the power that
26:43they hold, because this election is truly going to be the most consequential of our life.
26:50These people aren't playing games. One of the things that I respect is that they are relentless
26:54about their pursuit of power. We have to vote from the top of the ticket to the bottom because
26:59every position matters in this game called politics. If we win the presidency, but we
27:06don't have a House or a Senate to support that presidency, then we're going to be in big trouble.
27:12So we have to make sure that we are crystal clear about what's at stake and what we need to do to
27:18preserve this fragile thing called democracy. It is not a guarantee. It is a gift, but it is
27:24not a guarantee. Church. I know we're not raising money, but can we pass a plate on that one
27:34a little bit? The doors are open. That was a word. That was a word.
27:40So I know we only have five more minutes or so with you both, and I think there are a few things
27:46that we want to get to. So, Ebony, maybe we can just shift to D&I. So everyone's heard about
27:53diversity, equity, and inclusion, which has become now a target by some who oppose it.
28:01This is a nonpartisan call, so we'll try to just focus on the facts. So for both of you,
28:07and I think I want you both to answer this question, how has the term diversity, equity,
28:12and inclusion been weaponized to fuel misinformation? And what impact does this have
28:19on genuine equity efforts that we're seeing, whether in corporate sector or in government?
28:26Yeah, so real quick, I'll say that basically they're using DEI as their new racial slur. I mean,
28:32I'm just saying it's the new N-word as far as I'm concerned. And what I need people to
28:37understand is that Chantel brought up the affirmative action decision, and part of
28:44the catalyst for that has been this whole kind of anti-DEI movement that we've seen,
28:48where they are pulling money out of our institutions, whether it's the colleges or
28:53whether it's other governmental agencies. But more importantly, we got to bring it back to
29:00the economics, right? So they are trying to translate this into everything that they can.
29:05This is where we've seen the attacks on the Fearless Fund, when you have Black women trying
29:10to raise capital for Black women, and they're saying, no, you can't do that. Well, they ain't
29:13ever told the white men that they couldn't do that. And that's the whole reason we've needed
29:18DEI, just to be clear. It's because there's not been space made for people other than white men
29:25in this country. And as has been pointed out recently, the facts are that white women have
29:30benefited more from affirmative action than anyone. And so what it's always supposed to be
29:36is a matter of, hey, look at me too. But as we can look at this election, and while I'm being
29:42nonpartisan in this moment, let me just point out the facts. The best way to explain how there has
29:49been a level of privilege in this country is to look and see that you've got an orange man
29:54on one side who literally was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and somehow we have a race
30:01that is tied between him after his 34 felony convictions and a Black woman who has never been
30:07to jail, who has been elected to multiple spots from DA to attorney general to U.S. senator to
30:16vice president, and she is the one that they are alleging is unqualified because she is Black and
30:23because she is woman. That is how DEI has been weaponized in this country, when essentially
30:30it would just give her an opportunity to sit at the table, and right now we have a race that
30:35is tied. So that's my summary. So DEI, we're going to take it back, has definitely earned it. That's
30:42what I heard somebody say. So she has definitely earned it. And when we come to DEI, DEI is
30:50supposed to level the playing field when all things are equal, because they want to pretend like,
30:55again, as Jasmine said, you're lacking qualifications, and the only reason you're
31:00getting these opportunities is because of the skin color or your gender, which nothing could
31:04be further from the truth. When it comes to our vice president, she is, she's far more qualified
31:12than Trump and JD Vance and many of those Republicans that are questioning her qualifications
31:19combined, okay? So if they put all of their little qualifications together,
31:24it wouldn't equal Vice President Harris's pinky finger, as far as I'm concerned. So these people
31:30are just, they're flamethrowers, they're gas lighters. This is something that they have
31:36been well-practicing and they have no relationship with the truth. This is what they do. So for me,
31:44I don't want us to run away from DEI, because I am DEI. I am diversity, equity, and inclusion
31:49all day. I fight for us to make sure that we are getting those needs. I fight for us to make
31:55sure that the playing field is leveled, and that is what DEI is all about. But the fact that they
32:01are underqualified and questioning the qualifications of the most qualified person in this
32:07country's history to run for president is laughable, and I'm gonna just leave it there.
32:13Thank you both for that. And now for the final question. You are both, of course,
32:19elected to Congress. You, Congresswoman Crockett, was elected in 2023, if I'm not mistaken, and you,
32:25Congresswoman Brown, in 2021. So where this town hall is about voter registration,
32:31it's about voter mobilization. What do you want to leave people with when they are saying,
32:38I'm not going to vote, or my vote doesn't matter, or this is all noise, or I don't
32:44understand all the key issues? What do you want to leave them with on this town hall?
32:51So I'll jump in, I guess. For me, my very first, I would just
32:57tell people my very first race that I ran was for city council. And when the polls closed,
33:04I was literally down by six votes. And I thought I lost that race. But for what's this thing called
33:12provisional ballots, which I call them just in case, so just in case you requested an absentee
33:17ballot, or just in case you moved and you didn't update your voter registration, or just in case
33:22you got married and didn't change your name, you will still get a provisional ballot and vote. But
33:26these votes aren't counted immediately, they're counted 11 days later. And in my race, there were
33:3123 of them. And that shifted me being down from six votes to winning by seven. Now as a child of
33:41faith, seven represents perfection, completion, and God. And while I was okay with the outcome,
33:48if I had lost, I was okay with that. But I trusted God's infinite wisdom. And winning by seven has
33:55been my moral compass, the guiding force, and really the foundation of how and what I do as it
34:03relates to this work. I got into this because I wanted to help people. And I knew that serving in
34:12a public office could help me help a lot of people at one time. I need people to know that
34:22we have a chance to make history. We are on the precipice of change in this country.
34:33And it is critical that we use this power, call the vote. Because like I said previously,
34:41when it comes to power in this country, it doesn't matter your party affiliation. It doesn't matter
34:47it doesn't matter whether you're black or white. It doesn't matter your gender. From GED to PhD,
34:53everybody gets one vote. And people don't try to take things away from you that don't have value.
35:01They know that the vote is the way that we can truly make real change in this country.
35:11So I am just humbly, respectfully, but with bold expectations, pleading with people,
35:19do not sit these elections out. None of them. And make sure you vote in every election and every
35:27race, up and down the ticket. Because this is truly a way for you to exercise your power
35:35in this country. And if we don't do it, the threat is real that they will try to take it away.
35:42And with that goes away our freedoms. Many of the freedoms that we are taking for granted.
35:48The freedom for us to decide how we take care of our bodies, when we decide to start a family,
35:55who and how we choose to love. That's all on the line. So you don't have to do it for me.
36:03Do it for yourself and the future freedom and fight for this fragile
36:07thing called democracy. Because again, it is not a guarantee.
36:14Yeah. So God bless Chantel for only being down by six. When I was running for the state house,
36:20baby, I came up 700 votes down. So you know, polls, polls, we have been voting for three weeks.
36:28We had tons of early voting because it was in the middle of the pandemic. And I had hustled.
36:34When I tell y'all I hustled, y'all don't understand. Like, I've actually just started
36:38sharing this story about the fact that I went and registered people at the trap houses. I did.
36:43I did. Okay. A vote is a vote is a vote. You know what I'm saying? And I was like,
36:50I knew where I wanted to go with some of my legislation. Because I understand
36:54that when you end up with drug convictions, that means that you don't have opportunities
36:58for education. That means your housing opportunities go away your job opportunities.
37:02Like I understood what sometimes cause people to kind of be in this cycle where they feel like
37:09they can never get ahead because I had done criminal defense work. And so I was like,
37:13listen, I'm fighting for y'all. I need y'all to fight for me to get in there and fight for y'all.
37:17So I went everywhere. So anyway, I was down by 700 votes. So I thought my thing, yo, we didn't
37:22loss. You know, we tried, but three weeks later, we, it's, you know, 700. Somehow,
37:28I ultimately won my race by 90 votes. So I tell everyone that every single vote counts. So it
37:36ended up being the tightest state house race in the entire state of Texas that year. And I went
37:42from barely getting there, one of the thank you lotties, then made it into the state house to
37:49then becoming only the fourth black woman ever elected to Congress from the state of Texas
37:53in the very next term. So what I want you to understand is that there is great talent that
37:58is out there that has a heart, but listen, they can't get anywhere. If y'all don't do y'all
38:03research and decide that you're going to show up. And, and the reality is this, would you ever
38:09own a business and pay somebody every month or every week or however frequent you're going to
38:17pay them and never check in on them? Never decide to play a role in their hiring or firing.
38:24You would not, but that's essentially what you do when you give up your vote, because listen,
38:28you have to pay taxes or they come in to get you, right? So if you're paying taxes, then why is it
38:35that you would not want to say so? And who's going to decide how your tax dollars are spent
38:40and where they're going to prioritize those dollars? Like you should, like, like elected
38:45officials run everything in your life, everything, whether it is, um, the, the police that are on
38:52your streets, whether we're talking about whether or not you got good streets, whether you're
38:57talking about snap benefits, which both Chantel and I serve on the same two committees, oversight,
39:03as well as agriculture, where right now we are fighting. It's never a sexy headline to put out
39:09there, but we don't have a farm bill because there are people on the other side of us that have
39:14decided, you know what, $6 a day for people to eat is just too much. We want to cut $30 billion
39:20when people are already struggling. Like you should know this stuff and you have access
39:25to this information because y'all got the internet. When we had the likes of a John Lewis
39:30that literally did not know if he was going to live or not, guess what? He didn't have access
39:35to that information. So I'm just imploring y'all to say this ain't about Chantel. It ain't about
39:41Jasmine. And frankly, it's not about Kamala Harris. I need y'all to be selfish and say,
39:45this is about me and mine. And so what that demands of me is that I'm going to show up
39:51and make a decision about which direction my life is going to go in, whether I'm going back
39:56or whether I'm going forward. And I'm telling y'all right now, I'm trying to go forward. So that's it.
40:02Okay. So we have two sermons, Ebony.
40:05Do we have any last words?
40:09Three seconds. I just really want to end. First, let me just say, thank you. Thank you,
40:13ladies. Thank you for the work that you've done. Thank you for the ground that you are laying.
40:16I just want to end by just even quoting representative Sheila Jackson Lee,
40:21who said that voting is not just our right. It is our power.