I guess you're with us today to talk to you guys, give them a little round of applause.
Thank you so much.
How you doing?
Good to meet you too.
Hey.
Good to see you too.
How's everybody doing today?
Great.
Hey, don't real good.
Keep myself busy on the road.
Like it's always fun getting a chance to travel across the state then back on campuses
and back on the road just running my mouth talking to people about everything going on.
We got a whole lot of stake right now.
As you know about every single election.
I remember when I was younger somebody was like, why do people say that?
Like, well, every election is the most important until the next election.
And another person was like, well, every election is the most important because it might be your last.
And which kind of has a double meaning right now at this point as we think about the future of our country
and the future of our democracy, which is something that you certainly take seriously is exactly why you are here today.
So I am Mandela Barnes, former lieutenant governor, former state representative from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
And I'm running for governor.
And I'm running for governor because we find ourselves at a very critical moment in this country.
And because we find ourselves at a critical moment in this country, our state has been filling the impacts in a very real way.
Whether it's tariffs, whether it's the rising cost of health care.
Or at the same time, the declining prospects for employment, for jobs, for being able to earn a living,
for being able to truly consider a future beyond the next five to 15 years.
And I think about when I finished college 2008 was probably a time where it felt as close to this level of uncertainty.
It was a real rough time.
And I remember in 2009, I actually got laid off from a job that was to help people find jobs.
And just to give you a picture of how tough things were at that point.
And I don't want to be fear-monger, but it does feel a little bit worse right now than it did back in 2008, 2009.
And I'm going to go reverse a little bit because I just want to sort of set the stage and really pinpoint exactly what that challenge is and why we are where we are.
So my grandfather moved to Milwaukee after his service in the Navy in World War II.
And he got a job as an union steelworker.
And he walked into factory one day, walked out 35 plus years later.
He was able to retire with some comfort, was able to retire with dignity and ultimately set a foundation that allowed me to be here standing in front of you all today.
My dad followed in his footsteps.
He worked on an assembly line.
He also was a union member, continues to be a union member.
He's president of his retirees locally, something he refuses to give up.
And that's also what helped paint the picture for me, learning right and wrong.
And learning what it meant to exist in a society that you value for the work that you do.
Now, I think about the fact that people even my age, I'm going to say my age now.
I got a link to State Rep. 25.
So I'm going, that could level with you all back ten.
But now it feels like I'm so out of touch.
That's a joke.
So I'm very much in touch.
It feels like the opportunity for people, even my age or your age, to go on to find long-term, gainful employment.
It feels like those prospects are fleeting.
You all feel that way?
I'm not sure if you all talk about majors or anything, but it just feels tough.
It feels like there's no end in sight.
It feels like there are people who don't get it, who don't understand.
And unfortunately, those are the people with the most power right now.
Those are the people who are making the decisions about our collective future.
And we need people who are going to be bold and stand up.
Now, yes, Donald Trump, terrible president, terrible for this country, terrible for us, even on an individual level.
But having established that, we need more than just to stand up to him.
The reason why Donald Trump was able to get the power that he has is because we haven't always articulated
the most clear vision of what we want for America.
We haven't always made the case very plain and very clear, regardless of where we are in this state or in this country.
And even as a state rep, as a young 20-something state rep, back in 2013, I made a point to travel all across Wisconsin.
Because, again, it was the story of my grandfather, my father, who got me to that place.
And I knew that there were other similar stories all across Wisconsin, but I guess I didn't really realize, like, how similar those stories are.
Not sure where people are from, but I think about the decline in family farms, the historic number of farm bankruptcies all across Wisconsin
that we continue to experience that have been accelerated because of tariffs.
Small businesses that have closed their doors because of tears.
They haven't been able, or they passed on costs to consumers, but got into a point where they had no one else come in and to shop.
And they had closed their doors because of the president's poor decision-making.
And the reason why the factory room, my grandfather, my dad, were the reason why those doors are closed or those buildings don't exist anymore
is because people at the very top made the decision to lower their costs so that they could increase their own profits.
And this is all corporate greed that's led to this exit.
It's not even an exit, it's a forced exodus of American jobs, of Wisconsin jobs in particular being sent overseas.
The same corporate greed that has consolidated our family farms.
It is the same corporate greed that has pushed our family farmers out of businesses, or excuse me, out of business because they aren't able to compete with these large entities
or taking losses at the same rate.
And we're all up against the same stuff.
And as I traveled this state as a member of the assembly, it was a constant reminder that these conversations are always left versus right.
It's who's at the very top, who's pushing everybody else down to the bottom.
And with that in mind, and having had that experience and having had all those very unique conversations with people, I ran for Lieutenant Governor in 2018.
One that race was elected in that primary, got on the ticket without Governor Evers, and we went all across Wisconsin because we had a point to make.
We had dealt with eight years of the worst governor of my lifetime.
And that wasn't even the only Republican governor of my lifetime.
We had Tommy Thompson who had his flaws, but he was nowhere near as divisive or as devastating as the former governor Scott Walker was.
And we've lost to him in 2010.
What do you first got?
We lost to him in a recall election, lost to him in 2014 for his reelection.
And I couldn't help but think, what were we even talking about as Democrats?
What were our candidates?
What were we even offered to the people of the state to say, hey, you should vote for us?
It didn't feel like it was much.
And I knew that we had to leave with our values.
We had to leave with our vision in order to win.
That's exactly what we did.
If people were saying, no, what do you talk about when you're outside of a walk?
If I talk about the same exact things as I do when I'm able to walk.
Yeah, I talk about the lack of opportunity.
I talk about the fact that everybody's looking for the same things.
People want to go to school to send their children to people and go to a doctor and not worry about a surprise bill.
People want a good job that puts food on the table.
One job should be enough, but that is not the reality that enough people are experiencing.
And that was back in 2018.
Eight years later, it is even worse right now because of decisions that are being made at the federal level.
People still want that same reality.
And I'm on the campaign trail now talking about, unfortunately, a lot of the same things.
It is about restoring opportunity to a place like Wisconsin.
I know it feels difficult.
Every person you talk to, especially people under the age of 25, they don't see a future for themselves in this country.
And it is important for leaders to understand the need for young people to be able to see a future for themselves in the state of Wisconsin.
That means fully funding, public education.
That means fully funding our university system.
It is a travesty that we are number 44 in state spending on our university system.
We need to make college more affordable.
We also need to increase opportunities for entrepreneurship.
We need to attract more people to this state.
We need to be able to keep our rural health care clinics open.
Hospitals are closing at an alarming rate because we are one of 10 states that has yet to expand our Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.
Once you get our college or once you get over the age of 26 and have to buy health insurance, we need to make sure health insurance is affordable.
Housing could die like early in this campaign and a farmer told me that he got a letter informing him that his health insurance premium is going to go from $275 to over $1,600 a month.
Crazy amount of money.
He said he couldn't afford it.
He said he ripped up the letter.
He would go without health insurance because of the high cost.
And that's because Republicans in Congress have failed to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
This is something that Tom Tiffany, Republican, right before governor voted against against the interests of the people that he already represents, which shows an inability to lead this entire state.
If he cannot even take serious the task that he already has a hand.
And as I said before in 2018, it wasn't necessarily about the current governor at that point.
This is about what we were going to do for people.
And I've made expansion of Medicare a priority in Wisconsin.
I've made a public option a priority in Wisconsin because if you don't have health insurance, it's not a whole lot you can do.
And people have dealt with medical bankruptcies.
The cost of a pregnancy through the roof, rural health care is evaporating rapidly because these clinics can't stay open.
We also need to raise our minimum wage.
It's been $7.25 since I was your age, which is crazy to believe, crazy to think of.
And not only do we need to raise minimum wage, we also have to do everything we can to lower costs, which means creating more things right here in Wisconsin, building more things here in Wisconsin.
Like we used to, we used to supply the entire globe, and I do truly believe that we can access a new era of opportunity.
But it means that we come together like we've never come before.
We put our best foot forward, our best minds forward, and that means investing in our young minds and keeping people here in Wisconsin.
We lose so many people to other states that offer more opportunity.
And I truly believe that based on what we have in terms of quality of people, in terms of quality of life, our natural resources, that people want to be here.
But there unfortunately isn't enough that keeps people here right now.
We need to do everything we can to attract and retain talent to value the people who are already here.
And to make this the best place to live, work, and raise a family, Wisconsin can be a state that is prepared for the future, but it takes leadership to do it.
It takes bringing people in an intergenerational aspect, people across all sorts of device, rural, suburban, urban, or otherwise.
And I have, you know, my own personal experience that I do bring to this race.
I've had my healthcare stories. I've had my challenges with an uncertain economy.
But I've also had my experience that I have brought to elected office that has prepared me for this run.
And we have been focused during my time as lieutenant governor on bringing people together.
I was chair of our climate change task force.
We put together the boldest plan ever in this state to address the climate crisis and also create good paying jobs as a result of it.
But that's the kind of work in prioritizing our future that we need, but it means bringing you all in as well.
No one person, I don't care what they tell you, no one person can govern on their own.
It takes ideas that come from all over the place to come up with the best solution, to come up with the best path forward, and ultimately provide that opportunity that we so desperately need.
So I just want to thank you all for having me.
I want to thank you all, also for the work that you do as college Dems, getting people out to vote.
In 2022, we had the highest you voter turnout in the entire country.
And it's because we live with those values, we live with that vision, and we are going to continue to believe with those values and that vision, except we're going to amplify it.
We're going to take it even more places. We're going to talk to even more people. We're going to out organize.
We're going to show up. We're going to be bold in the face of all this adversity we have been experiencing.
And we are going to put our future first.
Okay, thank you so much for that. I think I'm assuming our students have questions.
So if you guys want to raise your hand, there's not too many of you guys.
So you can probably just shout them out, but just be mindful of the other people around you.
I'm curious how you want to invest in our young people and keep people in Wisconsin.
Yeah, exactly. Like I mentioned, our K-12 funding is abysmal right now.
We have a constitutional responsibility for two-thirds funding from the state for our schools.
We have not met that. And a number of school districts, thankfully, have filed a lawsuit against the state legislature.
Exactly. Green Bay, I'll clear there's one outside of Madison. There's a couple others too.
I'm so grateful for it because they're taking on the legislature because they've abdicated their responsibility to fully fund our schools.
And when people are looking for a place to start a family,
people are going to go to a place that hasn't invested in public public schools are the first thing that people think of when they choose a place to live if they want to start a family.
You want to send your children to a school that has everything in these for that child to be able to get the best education possible.
And we have world-class schools here in Wisconsin. We have some world-class K-12 schools.
If we can have world-class K-12 schools in any school district, we have the ability to have them in every single school district.
And as far as also cultivating the future, again, it goes back to getting from 44th in the country for state support for university funding.
Even if we got to 35th, if we move up nine spots, that creates a world of a difference because we have a great university system in spite of.
But I think about what it could be. What could this university be with increased and additional funding with more support for programs that prepare people for the future in an ever-changing economy?
Because, you know, I can't even imagine, you know, what being in college right now feels like, especially with artificial intelligence being the big threat for so many folks.
I didn't have to worry about that. But we all have to worry about this. Like, this is still my concern, even though I'm not in school right now.
This is my concern because this is still my concern because, you know, what am I to do if the people who are younger than me, if the next generation have very few opportunities?
And I've seen what the decline of opportunity looks like. When people ask about issues of crime and delinquency, especially, you know, if people always want to point the finger in Milwaukee, Milwaukee system, I'd love to walk you deaf in the place to my home.
That is where I will be. And the reason whether it's Milwaukee, whether it's Chicago and Detroit, any other malign city in the entire country, is because of the opportunities that were taken away.
If you have communities without good paying jobs, you're going to see all sorts of things creep in, whether it's crime, whether it's addiction, whether it's homelessness, all these factors that creep in and make bad situations even worse.
And that's why it's important to invest in K-12, all the university system, because if you can educate people and these hosts go on graduate college, they can, you know, this is where innovation happens.
And businesses are created. New ideas are created. There's so many people who've passed through Wisconsin and are elsewhere and have created, you know, some of the most profitable businesses you can ever imagine, or even gone on to lead some of these.
Some of these organizations and companies, and I do believe we have a responsibility to be able to keep some of that brain power here so that money can be invested in so that the next generation and generation after that can reap the benefits.
And Wisconsin can remain a strong and ideal place to live.
Yes.
Do you understand some AI data centers? What does that look like if you become a governor?
Yeah, data centers is part of a longer conversation about tech accountability in general. And I say that because, I don't know if you feel like, you know, social media companies, big tech in general is just taking advantage of us, the feeling of most people, of all people.
And I've been on Facebook for like 20 years now. Think about it. I know it's crazy to think about, you know, just everything that has been fed into it that has been used by, you know, whatever other people in our data is being harvested.
It's being sold. We are products, essentially, in social media.
And the fact that we've been taking advantage of in the digital and virtual space, and now at the same time in the physical space, because these data centers are propping up, again, the largest, most profitable corporations, ever imaginable.
Some of the wealth that are unrealistic, like amounts of money, you can't even withdraw from a bank anyway.
With that being said, they're showing up in communities that have already been disadvantaged, communities that have experienced job loss, communities that have experienced a level of deterioration, and they're getting over on people.
And there are deals that are happening in secrecy, as sure you all know, these non-disclosure agreements that are taking place as governor.
I am telling you that in order for data centers to have any sort of presence in Wisconsin, there has to be community input, there has to be community buy-in that is actually respected, and there has to be community benefits.
And when I say community benefits, that means that people who live here, residents should not have to foot the bill for their construction, should not have to foot the bill for increased use and energy, and also have to have land and air protected and water qualities, especially protected.
If any sort of data center construction cannot answer the questions, because these are the questions that come up from everybody.
People are concerned about water, they're concerned about the land use, they're concerned about air quality, even like pollution, and if you can't answer those questions, we can have a solution for those issues that are consistently brought up, you can't go to the data center there.
Oh yeah, I forget about that.
So California passed a bill called the Physicians Make Decisions Act, and Arizona passed a similar bill.
It makes it so that a board certified physician has to approve any insurance claims that AI processes, because AI has been processing healthcare claims at an alarming rate.
Would you be willing as governor to work towards passing a similar bill?
I'll be willing to sign that.
Again, we got to slow that.
We got to rein in, big tech in general.
And the problem is, if you give them also, we let them get just inch by inch by inch by inch, and it is just completely not just taking over our lives, taking over our job opportunities, just taking away our autonomy in many instances.
And the idea that somebody can go bankrupts, you're talking about medical debt.
I did, somebody can go bankrupt because of an algorithm.
It's crazy.
And so, yeah, I'm all for putting these guardrails in place for big tech and AI.
I am all for reining them in, however possible, the impact on miners and mental health, like all these things.
Obviously, they're much better done at the federal level, but as a state, we can show some leadership.
And Wisconsin historically is a place that shows leadership.
Like, we have been on the right side of history so often.
We have done the right thing so often.
We have led the way so often.
We've had a few gaps.
We've had some setbacks.
But overall, we have truly lived up to our motto.
Overall, we have been a forward thinking place.
We've had some of the most progressive ideas come out of Wisconsin.
We have had some of the most impactful legislation.
We have had some of the most deliberate thought guiding the way in Wisconsin.
And I know that we can do that again.
It's why I ran for state representative back in 2012 because even then, at that point, I said, better was possible because I was frustrated.
And when I ran for lieutenant governor, I was like, all right, yeah, we can still do more.
And I never ran for office because I thought things are going well.
You know, if things are going well, I just go home and chill and do something else.
Like, it would be, this is very stressful in case you don't know.
It is very stressful.
If anybody's thinking about a career in politics, surely happy to help you, you know, with your decision-making.
Surely happy to give any of you to pointers that you want.
If this is something that's on your mind that you really want to do because I do encourage young people to get involved and run for office.
We need more voices.
We need diverse voices.
I want to say diverse.
I mean, all across the spectrum, age, race, gender, sexuality, whatever, all the things, right?
We need as many people that truly reflect a community and reflect our society as possible, but it's stressful.
And if things are going well, you wouldn't see, you wouldn't even see me here right now.
But things aren't going well.
And I remember even talking to people, you know, frustrated people in office.
And they're like, I am.
Well, you know, I don't feel like this is going well.
I don't feel like this.
I don't like this.
I don't like that.
I'll say, look, you're never going to agree with somebody 100% at the time.
You know, and if you want somebody to agree with 100% at the time, I encourage you to run for office.
I encourage you to put your name on the ballot.
I encourage you to, you know, go out, give your ideas, present your ideas to the public.
I think that is, I think that's what you should do if you are, you know, that passionate about a thing or a collection of things.
I remember first few weeks, first couple months, I would say, as Lieutenant Governor, a group of students came to visit me in my office,
and they were, you know, they were fired up about climate change and the climate crisis.
Like, well, when you do this, when you do that, when you do this, when you do that, I sat there.
I'll let them yell at me for like 45 minutes.
And I was like, y'all know I'm on your side, right?
We were literally talking about the same exact things and like, show them everything that I was, you know, trying to work on,
and everything that the legislature had stood, you know, firmly in opposition to.
And, you know, it ended up in a very productive conversation.
And, you know, one of the students who was there, like, once we created our climate change task force,
I had pointed her to it because, like, that's the, you know, that's the kind of firepower we need on this task force.
That's the kind of idea and vision that we need. She was the youngest person.
And, you know, she was probably the most ambitious person on that task force.
And it was very necessary to have her there, to have her voice, to one, to be able to learn the ropes.
Because I have been fortunate to have people who've sort of lent me a hand in some sort of way.
After college, I was an unpaid intern in the mayor's office in Milwaukee.
But I got to learn about functions of government.
While I'm sitting waiting on people to call or knock on the door, I'm just doing all kind of research.
So I need to know how to answer the questions when I answer the phone.
And it was a great learning opportunity for me.
And I wanted to create that learning opportunity for her and so many other people.
So it wasn't just her as an individual, like, the group of students that she was with.
Like, I wanted them to be able to go to her and have a reliable source of information.
And that's what we should be doing. You know, not enough of that happens.
But that's also been a part of my commitment to bringing more people in.
I didn't see a whole lot of people, one, who looked like me.
But also didn't see a lot of people who shared my experience.
You know, I was born in, like I said, born and raised in the city of Milwaukee.
Born on the 26th in Locust. That's the heart of the 53206 zip code.
That's our state's poorest nation's most incarcerated zip code, places of real challenges.
And the reason why those negative statistics are the way they are
is because of one, lack of investment, two, lack of accountability,
and three, lack of attention being paid to by people who have that authority
and the power to do something.
And not only that I want to be a part of, you know, that decision-making process
that shifts the paradigm, I wanted to be an example for anybody else in a community like that
who felt like all hope was lost, who felt as if there was nothing to be optimistic about or felt
that they couldn't change things. I wanted to know that there were, I wanted them to know that
a path existed for them to not just address the issues, but to also be in the decision-making chair.
You're talking about one or two really fast.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No problem.
Okay. So you mentioned a bit about darker spots in Wisconsin legislative history
and you mentioned Scott Walker a bit.
Yeah.
Scott Walker's Act 10. You talked a lot about your father working unions and your grandfather.
Would you take initiative to act against acting?
Oh, I've already, I was out there marching.
I wasn't there marching before I was in office.
I got it.
I was, that's, that's honestly, that was like catalytic for me when acting was being debated
in the legislature. I was, I was out there and it was cold.
And, you know, that's truly, truly, that's, it was my state representative.
Like everybody, it's funny because like everybody was speaking out against, you know, acting
given these long speeches and like, my state representative, he did vote the right way.
But he was so silent about it.
And I was like, what are you doing?
And like, you know, what's going on?
And I ran against him, you know, the next year.
We are cool now, ironically.
He's a great guy.
He's like on a personal level.
The news, like he's, we did, we're, we're very cool now.
It was, it was time for him.
And he actually, it is funny because he, he, now that we were, we were somewhere before,
and like, we were together.
So like, how are we all friends?
And he's like, he's like, I needed to go.
He actually said it was crazy.
But, yeah, no, acting, because my mother's public school teacher as well.
And she's, she was very active in her union and the teachers union.
So like, I felt it was a personal front to me.
Like I said, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have had, you know, the upbringing that I had.
And by no means, we weren't rich at all.
I'm very still worried about the bills a lot.
But I was stable.
And I think about people in my neighborhood, people with a school with,
even family members whose lives were drastically different than mine.
And I look at what their educational journey was.
Because whenever I talk about education as well, like of course,
we need to fully fund our schools.
But we need to make sure our children are going to school on a solid and stable
footing.
And that just isn't the case.
And I think about a lot of my classmates that didn't have the same luxuries and
my luxuries.
I mean, we never had to worry about moving.
Never had to worry about getting addicted.
Never had to worry about being on the table or not.
But so many of my friends, either I knew then or have come to learn in adulthood.
They were dealing with some like real stuff.
Some real stuff.
And I didn't have those uncertainties.
And I say a couple of things.
Like one, I didn't, I never knew where my dad worked.
I just knew he was a member of the UAW.
I just knew he was a member of the union.
And I also say that, you know, my parents' employers gave them a job,
but their unions gave them real opportunity.
They gave them fair wage, health insurance.
It allowed them to be able to take off work.
If I got sick, they didn't have to worry about getting fired.
And it allowed them to be able, again, to have retirement comfort.
And again, I would not have been able to experience life the way that I did
if it were not for their union membership.
And I'm not sure if I've already said it,
but my focus is ensuring that everybody growing up in the state of Wisconsin
has at least the same opportunities that I had.
Last question.
Oh, wait, 30 seconds.
Yeah.
Cool.
Well, thank you all.
Really, really appreciate the time.
Y'all have been great.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Of course.
Yeah.
Did you guys want to jump in?
Yeah.
Yeah.
How are you doing?
How are you doing?
We have to eat.
You guys want me to take you?
Yeah.
That would be awesome.
Thank you.
Awesome.
Perfect.
Hey, nice to meet you.
How are you doing?
How are you doing?
Yeah.
We'll get everybody up.
Hey, everybody.
Thank you.
Sure.
Thank you.
Hey, you too.
Awesome.
Yeah, we do.
Yeah.
And you guys want to be a good teacher?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you've been in half a big row.
You're going to do some rows?
Yeah.
We're going to follow up.
You can follow up.
Yeah.
We're going to follow up.
Yeah.
We're going to follow up, right?
Yeah.
We'll switch.
We'll meet you next week.
Oh, yeah.
We should switch.
Oh, yeah, maybe.
Actually maybe.
All right.
We're good.
Let's make it look like we're good.
Hey.
Uh, smile.
Thank you.
All right.
Oh, thank you.
Oh, thank you.
Hey, thanks again, everybody.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Sorry.
Okay.
Yeah.
Great.
Thank you guys so much.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate you.
Thank you.
Oh, yeah, of course.
Thank you so much for having me.
No, this has been great.
It's been great.
Appreciate you guys.
It's been great.
Appreciate you guys.
It's been great.
Appreciate you guys.
It's been great.
Appreciate you guys.
They involved.
Getting more involved.
If you got questions, happy to answer them.
I'll run it.
Yeah.
Go for it.
Take some pizza.
I don't want to have to take them home.
Go.
I'm per second.
We'll grab you.
Yep.
Take care.
All right.
So, give me an update.
How are you feeling?
Feeling incredible.
A few months in, actually.
Incredible response all across the state.
We've been traveling now.
Stop.
The response has been incredible.
We see the momentum continue to grow.
We see support increase all across Wisconsin.
So we've seen the first poll come out.
A lot of people still making up their minds.
How do you work that with supporters who are like,
why aren't your numbers so much higher?
Are you trying to just slow down?
People are just.
Oh, as I said, even before, Mark,
hit poll came out.
Poll numbers are poll numbers.
It doesn't change our program.
We're showing up all across Wisconsin.
We're talking to people.
When there was a poll that came out two days before,
showed me within eight points above the next person.
So polls are polls that are always scattered all over the place.
What matters is the response of the people that we have been
talking to.
Very confident about the support that we have.
And even more confident about the road ahead.
How are you seeing that your campaign can emerge
at Chris Taylor's Supreme Court elections?
People are tuned into both coming into April.
Yeah, people are, you know, obviously we're, you know,
I had the idea.
We know for sure, you know, people that are going to be
focused on the spring election.
That's the way it goes.
And people should be focused on the Supreme Court election
right now.
So that's to be expected.
But we also expect to be nonstop as soon as that race is
concluded.
And there's got to be a chance to build momentum from
April to August, November.
Oh, absolutely.
So we look at this race and the organizing that we have
an opportunity to be a part of the conversations that we
happen to be a part of as well.
Encouraging people to get out and vote for Chris Taylor.
So we get to, you know, chat in communities that may even
have lower voter turnout.
And people in communities that may not even show up in a race
like this.
And we talk about why this wasn't, this one is as important
as the November election.
So it gives us a chance to even just talk to more people.
Cool.
That's all we need for me.
Thank you.
Thank you.