Transcript
Alexander Clark: Most families argue about politics around the dinner table. The Early family put in two names on the ballot. Justin Early, an Army veteran, cybersecurity architect, and Democrat running in Texas's 31st congressional district, is challenging longtime Republican Congressman John Carter.
Alexander Clark: Boo.
Kate Rumsey: Boo.
Alexander Clark: justin ah Justin's 21-year-old son, Matthias Jonah Early, is running for Texas House in District 20 against Republican incumbent Terry Wilson. Also, boo.
Kate Rumsey: Boo.
Alexander Clark: These two candidates are part of a very engaged political family. And this is not only a story about father and son. It's ah it's about the family labor behind the campaign and whether this family can persuade two Republican-leaning districts to try something different.
Alexander Clark: And just as a personal point of privilege, I will say that I've known in Justin for about a dozen years because back in 2014, when I was working on the Wendy Davis campaign, I got to stay at his house.
Alexander Clark: Small world.
Kate Rumsey: Wow.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Justin Early: Yeah, that's great.
Alexander Clark: So welcome. Welcome to Mission, Texas.
Matthias Early: I'm sure I was there at some point.
Justin Early: Thank you very much.
Matthias Early: I would have been 10. Yeah. ten yeah
Kate Rumsey: hu
Kate Rumsey: It's always a game of who knows Alex on this podcast. He's so the self-professed Kevin Bacon of Texas politics.
Alexander Clark: I'm the Kevin Bacon of Texas Democratic politics.
Kate Rumsey: So I love that.
Justin Early: That is phenomenal, though.
Kate Rumsey: yeah um But it's good to meet you I'm glad that I'm meeting y'all. It is such a family affair for politics and it definitely resonates with me. My family helped me in my race.
Kate Rumsey: So we wanted to hear about all your your races.
Justin Early: Yeah. Matthias, you want to kick off first or you want me to go first?
Alexander Clark: Well, before we jump into your races, I want to back up to the beginning.
Matthias Early: Yep.
Alexander Clark: So obviously I've known you for a long time, but let's back it up.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: That probably wasn't the first time you've ever been involved.
Justin Early: Okay.
Justin Early: No, it was not.
Alexander Clark: how How did you become a political person?
Justin Early: No.
Alexander Clark: Because political people are weird. We we are a rare group of people.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Hmm.
Alexander Clark: In a midterm like the one we're in right now, we're talking like nine out of 10 Texans don't even vote in a primary. So how did you become one of these primary people?
Justin Early: Yeah.
Justin Early: Great question. So, you know, i wasn't really raised a very political and a political family, um but politics was always surrounding us, you know. um ah You know, my my parents are black.
Justin Early: My parents are both in the military.
Alexander Clark: right.
Justin Early: And so things that affected us were always something that happened in policy that would affect us back at home. And that conversation would come up, but it wasn't really at the policy itself. It was more of the effect of what those things were. I joined the Army right out of high school.
Justin Early: um Well, let me back up a little bit. My father was stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen, which is actually part of the district. And right before Desert Storm Desert Shield, they moved away from Killeen down to Leander, which is just south of it about 45 minutes south.
Justin Early: and i don't know if anybody, you guys have ever been around a military installation when there's a mass exodus. um It is a ghost town. It is really, i joke, the only thing that open are liquor stores and pawn shops because it is just a ghost town.
Justin Early: And my father and mother didn't want us to suffer through those things. And so that was really, i would say, my first real introduction to understanding what could happen. But very shortly thereafter, i got a knock on my door.
Justin Early: Um, and, uh, it was JJ pickle. He was block walking my neighborhood and I got a little pickle. It was awesome. I thought I was the coolest kid in school when I went to school at 10 years old to explain how this happened.
Justin Early: Um, I joined the army and then right the army, mm-hmm.
Alexander Clark: Wait, sorry. Can I interrupt you for just just a minute? Did you just say a politician handed you a pickle?
Justin Early: A pickle, yes.
Alexander Clark: Like an actual edible pickle?
Justin Early: J.J. Pickle had these little – they were like not stuffed pickles, but they were tiny like – it was like a little campaign deal, right? um
Matthias Early: Like a little squishy thing?
Justin Early: Yeah, squishy pickle.
Alexander Clark: Campaign dill?
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Justin Early: Thank you. Yeah, dill.
Alexander Clark: Did you?
Justin Early: There you go.
Alexander Clark: Okay, sorry.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: I interrupted.
Justin Early: And so – no.
Alexander Clark: And then you joined the army. Go on. I'm sorry.
Justin Early: And then I joined the Army, yeah. But I joined the Army myself, and when I first joined the Army, it was very much you know the Republicans serve the the veterans, and if you want to keep your paycheck or anything like that, you want to vote a Republican in.
Justin Early: And so my very first election, I did vote for George W. Bush. And shortly thereafter, I recognized that that was probably not the right answer for the livelihood and everything else we were doing because those people who say they support the veterans from that perspective really support the people who make the weapons of war, not necessarily the people who you know actually serve in the military.
Justin Early: um
Alexander Clark: and And I'm sorry to clarify here.
Justin Early: So after, yeah.
Alexander Clark: Are we talking George Bush Sr., George Bush W., governor or president?
Justin Early: W, the younger, yeah. The governor who became the president, yes.
Alexander Clark: Okay, you voted for governor, but okay.
Justin Early: No, I voted for President Bush as when he became from governor to Bush. and So 2000, the 2000 election was my first presidential lettering.
Alexander Clark: Got it. So 2000, right? and who can Who can forget the the election of 2000? Oof.
Justin Early: Correct. That was my first one.
Alexander Clark: oh
Justin Early: And so um you know I realized thereafter that it was like – the The people who actually get the weapons of war were the ones were getting all the benefits from those who said support you know um the veterans and the warfighter.
Justin Early: So then I kind of flipped it up and said, hey, I need to do something that's more serene around people, centered around working families. And I started volunteering for the Democratic Party in various avenues. Yeah.
Justin Early: I did a lot of volunteering for a lot of campaigns. Wendy Davis' campaign, Beto O'Rourke's campaign. um i worked on other congressional campaigns in and around the Fort Worth, Tarrant County area.
Justin Early: And um then I moved back here to fort or to Georgetown. And I said, i want to be close to my parents. And Here in the area, i had recognized the same problems that I had seen in Killeen when I was 10 years old.
Justin Early: um It's still happening today. And for such a pro- pro-veteran, pro-soldier congressman, as John Carter purports himself to be, the policies that he signed or didn't sign really did not reflect that.
Justin Early: um He does a lot. He says he does a lot for Fort Hood, but that really just pays the contractors who build things on Fort Hood. you know He says he does a lot of things for veterans, and he built a veterans memorial, and But at the same time, he's enacting um laws and rules that actually allow soldiers to go to die. And he's not preventing that as well. And so I said, you know what, if somebody really wanted to stand up for veterans, who better than somebody who served themselves? I just want to make sure the voice got out there and I did my best. And now I'm sitting in front of you here today.
Kate Rumsey: right, Matthias, what about you?
Alexander Clark: Yeah. That
Kate Rumsey: Were you persuaded by that experience? What got you into your race?
Matthias Early: So my political life, I'll say I was eight years old. That was the first like political thing that happened to me, which was the run for, in 2012, Obama versus Mitt Romney.
Justin Early: Thank you.
Matthias Early: We a little mock election in my ah elementary school.
Alexander Clark: would have been like your third grade class.
Matthias Early: Yes, yeah. So I remember that.
Alexander Clark: Okay.
Matthias Early: and I remember being interested because I had one side of the family that was very, you know, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, they didn't know. Then one side of the family was like, absolutely, we're voting for Barack Obama.
Matthias Early: That was this side of the family fought with. So as time went on, I didn't really pay attention to attention until 2012. I got very sick. I became septic and i was very close to death.
Matthias Early: I was in the hospital for the next three weeks and then I had to have a permanent IV ball, PICC line it's called, connected to my arm for the next six months. And after all that was said and done, my father had told me about the cost of health care and how that hospital visit itself, not even the procedures afterwards, was well over a million dollars.
Matthias Early: And my thought immediately went to, okay, but what about the other kids who they don't have health insurance? Their parents, you know, aren't able to provide that life for them. How much different would my experience have been?
Matthias Early: And incidentally, whenever I was 12 years old, this was the first Trump run in 2016. So the experiences of one, my political life beginning really at the Trump term, and then also understanding what it was like, how politics had already affected my life at the young age of 12, I began getting interested.
Matthias Early: and everybody around you know me and school, blah, blah, blah. It was always, oh Hillary Clinton, brought ah Trump, they're both terrible presidents. They'd both be awful. And I didn't know enough to know what that meant.
Matthias Early: But as I've gotten older, I've realized that when people say it's just you know between two ah bad options, they don't realize how strong their vote is. They don' realize realize how strong their voice is.
Matthias Early: Because one, you have more options. It's not just the presidentials, it's the midterms, it's the city council races.
Justin Early: Mm-hmm.
Matthias Early: And your option for who you want to see on that ballot in November comes in the primaries. It comes in March. So the the vote, yes, but you also have your voice, you have time, you have energy, you have volunteerships. There's so much you can do.
Matthias Early: And that leads me to 2018, when my father was very excited about Butter Orch's first run. And they were out volunteering. helped out a little bit. And I started to become more aware.
Matthias Early: Every Sunday, my parents always watched Meet the Press. If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press. um
Justin Early: Yeah.
Matthias Early: My mother, my biological mother, my father lived an hour away. So every time my father would drive us to school, he would always play NPR, the morning show, morning news. oh So then as as that 2018 started to ramp up, I started to become more aware of what my father did in his everyday life and how what he did in his political life, what he did to try to help the candidates he believed in.
Matthias Early: And so now Beto O'Rourke was not only the first person I helped volunteer for at 14 years old, he's also the first person I voted for at 18, 2022. Yes.
Kate Rumsey: Oh, my God. How cool is that?
Matthias Early: yes
Kate Rumsey: Well, Justin, how do you feel listening to that and also seeing your son run?
Justin Early: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Like, is this this a proud papa moment or are you like, whoa, I want to protect ah my son from doing this?
Justin Early: All the above, you know, all the above. um I'm so very proud of him. You know, i could not be prouder. He's just making his own lane in life. He's doing the best he can.
Justin Early: um You know, he hears, I hear his story and he talks about what he's experienced with me. And my thought is I'm just glad he was there to absorb. Right. Yeah. parents teach you two things. They teach you what you want to do and what you don't want to do.
Justin Early: And I'm just very proud to hear that he's chosen so many things that he's liked but in his past for me to say, this is what I want to do. So I'm very proud of him. I'm very proud of that.
Matthias Early: I'll also say, i my father, he knows how to pick his battles. And I think he knows i would be doing something like this regardless. I was always going to be.
Justin Early: Yeah. Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Mwahaha!
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Couldn't talk him out of it, huh?
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: And my parents couldn't talk me out of joining the Air Force. And i will also echo this idea that like you you either want to be your parents or you want to be like 180 degrees. And so good on you for being the former.
Justin Early: Correct, yeah.
Alexander Clark: ah
Justin Early: Thank you.
Alexander Clark: Not everybody can say that as a dad. So that's great.
Justin Early: well, thank you. we've We've worked really hard with our children, and they're you know I'd say that there are varying levels of capitalism, um but I think they're all wonderful people, and they're all trying their hardest to make a difference in the world, and i'm proud of that.
Alexander Clark: It's amazing. Well, let's hear more about these races in particular. I mean, why, why why these, why now?
Justin Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: What, what, what, what got you jumping in and, uh, the midterms here in 2026?
Justin Early: Yeah.
Justin Early: Great question. So you know after 2024, I'm a hopeless optimist. 2016, I said people are not going to vote for Donald Trump.
Justin Early: I have more faith in humanity, more faith in the American people. um I was proven wrong. And then in 2024, I said the same thing, ah because if not, it's going to be detrimental to seniors, to healthcare, to women, um to minorities, to, I mean, you you name it, you know, it's going to be different. um And then again, it happened again.
Justin Early: and in 2024 in November, I definitely hit a slump. Um, I was in my fields. I didn't know what to do. And I said, I'm just going to take everything I have and try to make a change in my area and my neighborhood for my neighbors. Um, the doge cuts started happening.
Justin Early: Um, my parents received, um, over a seat, see about 80% of their income from the federal government. Um, ice was ramping up and, you know, picking up our neighbors off of the streets.
Justin Early: Um, Seniors were getting you know more expensive health care, and in the big, beautiful bill stripped all the protections away in the Affordable Care Act. And this was just something I think if – it would spurn almost everybody and anybody in my eyes to stand up and do something.
Justin Early: And I said, let me just take my talents, my blessings that I have, and at least get my voice heard to say we need to move this party. We need to motivate people um because Texas is not a red state. You said it was a very red or Republican district.
Justin Early: I believe it's a very non-voting state. And in my calculus of running for this position, i looked at all the past um candidates who ran in the Democratic primary for here.
Justin Early: And I said, very few of them were very motivational. Very few of them were talking to people to say, how can we actually be with you to make things better in your life? And so i said, that's something I can talk to because that's absolutely what I want. And looked at it, how can we move do move things around and then get it done? And then we had a 2025 redistricting.
Justin Early: And that actually opened up the race more for me. It made it more competitive because prior to 2025, Colleen, very um colleen which a very Black and brown ah community, very veteran heavy community was not in this district.
Justin Early: And once that was redistricted and Supreme Court said, we're just going to wait to the election. I said, what a better opportunity for a young you know veteran who is in this area, um who is a minority to run for this area in this district.
Justin Early: um I live in I work in tech. I live in the southern part of the district. um There's a lot of tech people who live here, and in they're concerned about their jobs. AI is a big concern for me as well, and happens what happens to people's jobs. um Veterans benefits, we have veterans hospitals in this area.
Justin Early: Very big concerns for me that I can speak directly to, and not just talk about these issues that we see on TV, but talk directly to voters and constituents on here's how we can make your life better. And I said, hey, you know what?
Justin Early: Let's just try our hardest and put everything on the table and try. And so today um yeah i did I won the primary, which is phenomenal. I'm i'm very glad this the voters heard my voice and my message and supported me. But I tell people it takes three things to win this district to flip it.
Justin Early: And that's the map, which the Republicans have made more competitive for us. um It's the math, which is the people who are here getting them out to go vote. and We saw that in the primary where we had 55,000 people vote in the Democratic primary for this district alone.
Justin Early: That was unheard of. That never happened before. um But also the mobilization. We've got to take that energy, that math and the map that we have, and mobilize people and get them out on the ground. And that's something I've been doing you know since before I met you, Alex, right? Just trying to get people involved.
Justin Early: and in politics and understanding how it affects their life. And so that is how we're going to win this district. And that is who I talk to. and That's what I talk to people every day about, about doing these things. And so far it's working. so
Kate Rumsey: I have a curiosity. i was doing research on this race, Justin, before we get into Matthias's. But what's going on with the Republican side? I saw a big primary. Like, what what the heck is going on in that side of this race?
Justin Early: Yeah.
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Justin Early: John Carter is a 13-term incumbent. He served for 23 years. And a lot of people on the Republican side feel that it's time for a change. It's time for somebody new in there.
Justin Early: um He actually himself, um I don't believe he wanted to run this term, but he was asked to run again. um So they had a very crowded primary. There were nine people that ran against John Carter.
Justin Early: And more people voted for someone other than John Carter than the people who voted for John Carter in the primary.
Kate Rumsey: Wow.
Alexander Clark: Another reason why we need ranked choice voting immediately, because it sounds like not John Carter would have won.
Justin Early: um
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Matthias Early: Yes, absolutely.
Justin Early: Absolutely. Absolutely. Not John Carter would have absolutely won.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Justin Early: And so that right there, that that math, that calculus right there would have really but boiled down to um a change, right? That's what it boils down to.
Justin Early: People want a change. And when you look at from the, you know, over high on from the you know whole system of the United States, like which races are competitive, they don't see this race as competitive because they don't see because the system is built for an incumbent.
Justin Early: But if we actually put the ground game in, do the actual work, he is one of the weaker Republicans here to go against because his own party thinks so. And so that's where I think it's important to to focus on this race.
Alexander Clark: Well, and Justin, ah from dad to dad, i have to ask, is part of your ground game plan to get them to vote on election day or to get them to vote early?
Justin Early: they Definitely vote early for Justin early, vote early for Matthias early. That's something we say a lot. So yes.
Kate Rumsey: Yes.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Matthias Early: I also like to tell people, voting election day is voting late. You should have already voted by now.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Well, here's a hack for all of our listeners.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: If you don't like being bothered during election season, vote on the first day of early voting because then that gets you off the list.
Justin Early: yeah
Kate Rumsey: Yeah, they stopped talking to you. Yeah.
Alexander Clark: It makes them more efficient with their time and it stops you from being bothered.
Matthias Early: Yes.
Justin Early: Agreed. People don't realize that we do watch when people do or don't vote. and it's like, hey, you're a voter and you haven't voted yet. Let's get a hold of you to make sure you go vote.
Matthias Early: Yes.
Justin Early: so yeah.
Alexander Clark: Especially if you consider yourself a ah safe democratic vote and you want these campaigns to spend their time more effectively.
Matthias Early: Oh
Alexander Clark: That's the best thing you can do is just go vote early.
Justin Early: Agreed.
Matthias Early: yeah,
Alexander Clark: And speaking of voting early, there's more than one early to vote for. So how about you?
Matthias Early: absolutely.
Alexander Clark: Tell us about your race.
Matthias Early: So my race, I got involved in 2024. I had already, I wanted to be a doctor actually since i was eight years old, side note. and Whenever I started working in the emergency room, whenever I started working as an EMT, as a phlebotomist in these different fields, I realized the issue wasn't that there's not enough healthcare care providers, it's that there's issue in our politics.
Justin Early: Thank
Matthias Early: There's too much money in our politics, there's too much corruption as far as the cost of healthcare or the cost of prescription drugs. So I changed my major political science and I started working on these campaigns. I started doing all this stuff.
Matthias Early: And i will say the likelihood I felt that Donald Trump would win in 2024 mirrored my mental health of all of 2024. And the confidence as after the infamous debate between him and Biden, I was just in the slumps.
Matthias Early: Then he won in 2024. I can tell you exactly where I was at, what I was doing, what time it was. And i just cried my eyes out. I was in my car and I was just sad.
Matthias Early: So whenever he gets inaugurated, everything started happening. Everything, everything, everything.
Justin Early: Immediately.
Matthias Early: Ramesa Ozturk, if you remember in the early 2024, she was the Muslim woman. Seven, eight ICE agents came out masked and kidnapped her. um And every every day I'm like, you know, calling my father, this crazy thing happened, this crazy thing happened.
Matthias Early: And then one day he calls me and he says, you know, I think I'm gonna run for Congress. So I know my father, you know, he does what he says. So I'm like, all right, well, I've been working on these campaigns. I've been, you know, political science major.
Matthias Early: I want to come down and support my father. So I come down here and I'm meeting with people. I'm also a very, you know, people person. I like going around. And I was very in tune with Texas politics.
Matthias Early: I saw the Texas voucher system um you know ramp up. I saw all the attacks on the transgender community, on the migrant community, and I wanted something to be done.
Matthias Early: But I was you know still 20 years old at the time, so was like you know I don't wanna step on any toes. i you know i felt I felt weird about getting into this space. And then so many other people have kept saying, you know I'll run for House District 20 if nobody else runs. I'll run if nobody else runs. I thought that's not a reason to run. You should run because you're passionate about what's going on in Texas politics, because you're angry about what's going in Texas politics.
Matthias Early: And my father, the ever supportive father that he is, said, you know, maybe you should run.
Justin Early: Thank you.
Matthias Early: And it was such a light bulb because it was something I didn't even consider. But then it was, yes, I need to run. I don't want to just... It wasn't about you know riding the blue wave to me. It wasn't about just trying to get this position.
Matthias Early: It was the fact that I am 21 years old. I know I can bring a new type of person to the polls in a year that we need more people in the polls.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Matthias Early: So that's, I didn't just want to be, it wasn't just about winning the election. It was about moving the democratic base, moving the younger people to see that there was somebody like them who stood up for what younger people believe.
Matthias Early: And that's kicked off this whole thing. And I'll say this is one of the most winnable districts in Texas. um Terry Wilson, my opponent, he's not, you know, the extreme, you know, out there Republican doing all this crazy stuff.
Matthias Early: But he is absolutely for the Republican policies. He voted for the gerrymandering. He voted for the school vouchers. He's voted against the migrant community. He's been very MAGA in that way, I'll say.
Matthias Early: And I can say the election has gone amazing and terrible at the same time. I met so many people. I've knocked so many doors. But i can tell you, fundraising is a headache and a half, which I'm sure is somebody who's run, is.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Justin Early: Mm-hmm.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah. No fun.
Matthias Early: It is no fun.
Kate Rumsey: ah
Matthias Early: But it's exciting.
Kate Rumsey: Well, I'm just curious, Matthias, I started jump in here, but what one of my fears is that there are a lot of candidates or future candidates out there who really want to run and yet don't know how. They don't even know how to start.
Kate Rumsey: And they're just like, how does one even begin? and so I'm wondering, was there a roadmap that your just your dad, Justin, was able to help you or provide you with? And are there any lessons learned that you'd give people to say, like, you can do it? Like, you you can get out there and you can run?
Matthias Early: Yes, I'll say so. My father, I feel like, and I have very much supported each other um from a, you know, I can get people interested with 21 years old. He's got different connections and meets new people being the congressional member.
Matthias Early: So the first thing is you have to be able to build relationships first with the other candidates who are running because they will have resources and they will fall upon things that you never knew were there. But also, I had worked on other campaigns, but I can tell you it was nothing like being the candidate.
Matthias Early: And people will tell you, you know raise money, raise money, raise money. People will tell you, you know this this is the best plan to win, this' is the best plan to win. And at the end of the day, you need to listen to yourself.
Matthias Early: You listen to know what you need to do, what you need what you need to work on And it takes money, but also takes time. It takes work, it takes effort. And it's something you never really know how to do until you do it.
Matthias Early: And thats that's the unfortunate side of it. but You need to, if you're going to run, I say my recommendation is to start running as soon as possible. So you get used to that feeling, you get used to those spaces, but also you won't know what's the best course of action until you actually get close to the election.
Matthias Early: So build up money and build up connections as much as you can before the November.
Alexander Clark: That's a lot. And, uh, you know, I think it's ah often a thankless job. So I'll just want to say thank you to both of you for stepping up and putting your name on the ballot. Cause it is, it is a lot harder than it looks.
Alexander Clark: I mean, just being on the, like you said, like being on a campaign, you can see it that it's hard, but to be the candidate, I mean, gosh, put your name on the line and to, no, I know.
Kate Rumsey: You're the only one that doesn't know what it's like, Alex. So the three of us.
Alexander Clark: Well, yeah, I've never been on a, on a real Texas ballot before.
Justin Early: yeah
Kate Rumsey: Despite being the Kevin Bacon. um
Alexander Clark: Despite, yeah.
Kate Rumsey: But you I had heard that.
Justin Early: There's always time. There's time.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah, I heard that in Sherman, Texas, you were asked to run. So was that right?
Alexander Clark: It's true. well No, no, I didn't.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: I wasn't asked to run. I wanted to run, but then i I realized that didn't make sense. So I got someone else to do it. And I was his campaign manager until I left.
Justin Early: Hmm.
Alexander Clark: This is before I started teaching for context for you two.
Justin Early: Hmm.
Kate Rumsey: See, i we have to mention Sherman, Texas in every episode. And so I won that.
Alexander Clark: I haven't yet.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah. I won that bet.
Alexander Clark: my shirt My shirt says it.
Kate Rumsey: I got to...
Alexander Clark: It's right here.
Justin Early: Nice.
Alexander Clark: It's Sherman right there.
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Justin Early: I tell people, you know, being a, you know, running a congressional campaign is you're you're three different, you three hats at least, but I say three hats. Hat number one, you're the candidate. That's what everybody sees, you know, speech, speech, speech, kissing babies. That's what everybody sees. Right.
Alexander Clark: How many babies have you kissed so far?
Justin Early: um I haven't kissed any babies. I try to stay away from babies.
Alexander Clark: Okay.
Justin Early: They're, you know, there's a germs.
Kate Rumsey: like germs post COVID.
Alexander Clark: that's ah That's an old...
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Justin Early: Yeah. Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: That's out now. No more handing out pickles.
Kate Rumsey: ah so
Justin Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: No more baby kissing.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Justin Early: Yeah, yeah.
Matthias Early: There's this old.
Alexander Clark: i want to know what the new campaign, like because Matthias, you're talking about like, we're going get the new people.
Matthias Early: Yes.
Alexander Clark: Like, I know what like cutting edge young people targeting looked like back in like 2008. Right. I have no idea what that looks like today. So what, what, how do you reach these people?
Alexander Clark: What, what are the, the tactical strategies here?
Kate Rumsey: Well, Before we go there, let Justin finish his three
Alexander Clark: Yeah. Sorry. I apologize.
Justin Early: oh Oh, yeah, it's all good.
Kate Rumsey: excited.
Alexander Clark: Your three hats.
Justin Early: Yeah, the three hacks.
Alexander Clark: Three hats first, and then I want i want to know.
Kate Rumsey: we're so excited Gen z yeah.
Justin Early: Oh, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Matthias Early: I'll say my, but sorry, actually to interrupt you, Papa.
Justin Early: So you're the candidate and things go for it.
Matthias Early: we There's this running joke we always talk about, because we're both candidates, and there's this old show called Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
Justin Early: Yeah, yeah i know what you're going say.
Alexander Clark: Yes! Yes!
Matthias Early: And yeah, and in one of the episodes, he becomes, he runs for president, and he goes shake hand, kiss baby, shake hand, kiss baby.
Kate Rumsey: but
Justin Early: Yes.
Matthias Early: But he gets it mixed up, and he goes, shake baby, kiss hand, shake baby.
Alexander Clark: Yes!
Justin Early: Yeah.
Matthias Early: Yeah. So sometimes we go, yeah, shake babies and kissing hands, that's what we do.
Alexander Clark: I love that show so much.
Justin Early: So we we do say, yeah, to to through each other, yeah, to each other we say,
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: You can still watch it on HBO Max, by the way.
Justin Early: Yeah, we do every once while.
Alexander Clark: Okay.
Justin Early: Yeah. To each other we say got to shake babies and kiss hands.
Matthias Early: Yeah
Justin Early: um
Alexander Clark: Please don't.
Justin Early: Yeah. The second thing is you're a business owner essentially, right? You got to build a team. You got to manage people. you have to know what everybody's doing, whatre what what the outcomes are going to be.
Justin Early: And then the third one is a fundraiser. You have to be able to go out there and grab money, you know, in order to do all these activities. um And a lot of people see the first one and like, oh, I can talk to people or they think, oh, I can i can get people around me and and do these things.
Justin Early: But it's difficult to wear all three hats and especially at the same time. And I think that's one thing that people should recognize is that you need to actually have a plan to do all three in order to be a successful candidate. I'm not successful yet. I'm still um still running. so
Matthias Early: I'll also add to that, the it's not just about being the candidate, but so much of our modern politics is about the attention economy.
Kate Rumsey: Lessons learned.
Matthias Early: And the more attention you have, the more attention you can hold on to.
Justin Early: attention.
Matthias Early: that's That's your power as a candidate and as a politician. And you have to be good at forming those coalitions. You have to be good at getting people interested or excited to even be the candidate, much less to be the politician.
Justin Early: and
Kate Rumsey: Well, skipping to Alex's question, I mean, I'm an elder millennial and I don't want to guess Justin's age, but I might be the oldest person here. But like how are you reaching folks in your from your generation, Matthias? I mean, is it through TikTok? Is it through Instagram? Like, how are you thinking that we should communicate to folks like you?
Matthias Early: So here's here's the secret people on the campaign trail, they always assume, oh, you're 21, you know, you know how to like reach all the TikTok and Instagram social media. I didn't have any social media before I started this campaign.
Kate Rumsey: ha
Matthias Early: So that itself was a learning curve, but
Alexander Clark: Do you think that's probably indicative of your generation though? Like, do you think people are opting out?
Matthias Early: It's possible. I'd definitely say i have friends who they're on TikTok or theyre like on Instagram, but a lot of it, because of the strength of the algorithm, it doesn't ever cross over to political stuff.
Matthias Early: They want to see, you know, cars and that's what they get cars, cars, cars, cars. cars
Justin Early: jokes yeah
Matthias Early: So for me, yes.
Alexander Clark: Marvel content.
Justin Early: there you
Matthias Early: Yeah. Yeah.
Alexander Clark: My algorithm is full. like Trying to avoid the Spider-Man spoilers, I feel like I'm i'm like doing my Spidey thing.
Matthias Early: Yeah. Yeah.
Alexander Clark: I'm like, I've got to use my Spidey sense to avoid all that stuff.
Justin Early: yeah
Matthias Early: Yeah. Spider-Man skit. I definitely will say it might be indicative of my generation and the people around me. I think the biggest part, so I try to get into the spaces of college and the like local community college in the area.
Matthias Early: But the bigger thing is whenever I talk to my friends, people my age, it's really about The touching in with the nervousness that they feel for their future.
Matthias Early: So right now with the new AI economy, with it changing so much, there's been a lot of reports that what's been falling are entry level drops. Nobody actually wants to take on the burden of bringing somebody into their company and then having to train them.
Matthias Early: Once upon a time, that's you know they said, I like your character. I'll bring you in. I'll train you. And then you'll go from there. But nowadays, I want you already trained. I want you already know how to do the job the moment you get in there.
Matthias Early: And that's really what I've been trying to talk about is right now our politics focuses on one demographic, which is 65 and up, the retirees. And whenever I try to represent the economy or whenever you want the economy represented, they see a completely different aspect of the economy than the people in the workforce or trying to join the workforce do.
Matthias Early: So whenever I go to these colleges, that's exactly what they're worried about.
Justin Early: Thank
Matthias Early: What am I going to do after college? My entire life, there's been this roadmap of go to high school, get good grades, go to college, graduate. What do I do now that I'm in a workforce that is failing younger people?
Matthias Early: So I think that's where most of my connection with the younger generation has been other than just being, you know, me, you know, look at me.
Kate Rumsey: ah Well, Justin, i have a question for you.
Matthias Early: But
Alexander Clark: How do you do fellow kids?
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Matthias Early: yeah.
Kate Rumsey: ah But Justin, I mean, i'm I'm looking at your website. You have whole sections on AI and data centers. And I don't know if I can go to a politician's social media speaking of without seeing what's going on with data centers and AI.
Justin Early: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kate Rumsey: So being somebody that maybe works in a space similar or around it or adjacent to it, how do we balance the use of what AI is bringing to some businesses while at the same time regulating or doing something with data centers.
Kate Rumsey: Is AI the enemy or is it something that we need to kind of like, you know, hold with a lot of like regulations?
Alexander Clark: great Great minds, Kate, because that was exactly what I wanted to ask him next, too because like you mentioned you brought up data centers as a campaign issue before the rest of the political class caught up
Justin Early: Great question.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Justin Early: yeah it's It's a huge concern, right? And for me, um so first, the first thing they question, is it the danger? The answer is no. And it is a problem, and it needs to be regulated.
Justin Early: But people will can so conflate data centers that we had for 20 years, you know Netflix, storing clouds on iPhoto or whatever, right? Those are all held in data centers. We've had those for decades.
Justin Early: They're confusing those with hyperscalers, which is what we're using today in order to just flood um information and data and processing power into computer systems in order to create thought.
Justin Early: That is completely different from what we have here. And then the outcome is going to be a system that will then essentially take our jobs from us. um This is going to be an imagination engine that human beings have held for ever since the dawn of time, they, those who own these systems want to own them.
Justin Early: And while we see that the data centers are coming in into municipalities, they're blowing through local control. They're, you know, paying or not paying. me not say that out loud. They're going to city councils. They're going to um individuals and getting um their, you know, their deeds, abatements, all those things in the middle of the night without any kind of public interaction.
Justin Early: with any kind of public consent. And that is very you know direct to us. We have been taught since ah young as long as you remember in school that you know the frontier is the West and we can go build where we need to be. And you can have your homestead and you can live your life on a peaceful, you know on a farm somewhere.
Justin Early: And now today, these data centers want those farms because that's where the water is at. That's where the land is at. And so they're not going to ask you for your favor. They're going take those things. So the people in those communities are very upset visually.
Justin Early: But underneath all of that is what they're using these systems for. And that's what touches every single person. And a proponent of hyperscalers, a proponent of AI will tell you, well, then stop using Netflix or so get off your phone because that's where AI is.
Justin Early: That is like saying, you know, save $5 in order for the US government to balance their budget, right? Those are completely separate things. And we can have innovation, we can have technology without just destroying our environment, going through and taking our resources and literally taking the value of those resources and sending them to Wall Street.
Justin Early: The last thing I'll say on this is that I love technology. I've been a technologist my entire career. I love innovation, but innovation without accountability or responsibility is completely wrong.
Justin Early: um We've seen this throughout time. The Gilded Age is the exact same thing where railroads are just going through areas and they had no responsibility. They were polluting the water, polluting the air. We had to build all these systems to protect land, protect water.
Justin Early: And now that these AI companies are figuring out in another way or ah to do the exact same thing, it's not a new argument. We just have to protect what's already there for human beings in their lives to continue in existing.
Kate Rumsey: That's such an incredible way of saying that, Justin. Thank you. i can only speak that my parents have a house on a lake and there was a data center going up right next to it, south ah east of Dallas. And ah they were able to successfully litigate and prevent it from actually coming.
Justin Early: That's great.
Kate Rumsey: And they wanted to take out millions of gallons of water a day from the lake, which would have diminished everyone's property and ability to actually access the lake and the water, which obviously impacts everyone's property.
Kate Rumsey: And so was just amazing to see this very rural community who are predominantly represented by Republicans, to be standing up.
Justin Early: Mm-hmm.
Kate Rumsey: I mean, everyone's got buttons, we got signs. I mean, it's like an incredible to see what that is. and And so I'm just curious how you see this plays out politically. I mean, is this the issue du jour of this campaign season?
Justin Early: Mm-hmm.
Kate Rumsey: It seems like it is. And how do we combat that with what's going on?
Justin Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Yeah, I just saw a clip of ah i just saw a clip of Gina Hinojosa speaking to some Republicans and what appeared to be, I think, they're like their living room.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: And they were wearing shirts and buttons that said, break rank. right people who had voted Republicans their whole lives, and they feel so strongly about this data center issue because it's making them sick um that they are going to break rank and vote for Gina and vote for Democrats in general.
Justin Early: Wow. Mm-hmm.
Alexander Clark: um And I feel like, Mathias, for you, I mean, it's so personal, ah the health and human safety element of all of this.
Justin Early: Mm-hmm.
Alexander Clark: I mean, you've you've supported... you know massive changes to the healthcare system. And in the Texas legislature that there's a really low hanging fruit in terms of like Medicaid expansion, but like, are there, are there other ways that you think about how we can prioritize, um, health and human safety?
Matthias Early: Yes, so I will say do believe in universal healthcare. I believe there is a much cheaper and better and faster alternative for the American people than for-profit healthcare system.
Matthias Early: But that is up to the federal government to decide. It is not something we have enough money or enough energy at the state level to do. But what I do advocate for is a patient outcome based health care system, as opposed to what we have now, which is treatment based.
Matthias Early: So if you go to the doctor and they say, oh, my back hurts. All right, let me give you an X-ray. Let me give you an MRI. Let me give you all these different tests. And every test I give you, you're going to get charged again, again, again.
Matthias Early: And that is because one, the healthcare providers make more money off of that. And two, it on the other side of it is the health insurance company saying, no, no, no, yes, ill I'll let you do that. No, yes, yes, no.
Matthias Early: Whenever at the end of the day, you as the person wanting to be treated, you're saying my back hurts, I want to know why, or my back hurts, I want it to stop hurting. That is the outcome I want. So then you should be able to work with the healthcare providers to say, this is the different issues that you know it could be caused by, and we will start on the outcome first and then go from there.
Matthias Early: And the insurance company, they should not be able to deny you based off of the treatment. They should be able to say, okay, well, you know, this is the outcome you want, you know, this is, i want to not die because if it's cancer or whatever it may be, then they should not have the right to say we will deny treatment because survival should always be a covered outcome.
Matthias Early: Now, if somebody wants to, if we want to talk about the Republican side of it, when they talk about cosmetic procedures, perhaps, then yes, the insurance company can argue with the person, the patient to say, is this an outcome we want to cover? Is it not?
Matthias Early: So it's really just about separating, removing this, you know, insurance company that that is between doctor and patient and bringing the doctor and patient closer together.
Alexander Clark: Yeah. And look, Republicans of ah individual Republicans can argue health care policy in good faith, but it's really hard for me to take elected Republicans seriously on health care anymore because we're still waiting on that Trump health care proposal.
Alexander Clark: i mean, how many years has it been?
Justin Early: There's plan somewhere, right?
Alexander Clark: Right.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Matthias Early: Also, just to add very quickly, also the the amount of money you pay for treatment is not close to the amount that you would say is the market rate.
Kate Rumsey: you
Matthias Early: It is exploitative at its nature. they It costs pennies to produce this medicine, and they you know sell it for hundreds. Insulin, for example, was $600 month. And then then now they've kept it at 30. That's a 20 times difference.
Matthias Early: So obviously this company was never, you know, oh, you know, this just the cost of insulin. No, they were always exploiting people. And this is happening at every level of health care. So we need to, as legislators, revamp it and say, look at every single thing and say, is this the actual charge or are you being a monopoly that is now exploiting people?
Alexander Clark: Now look, as an attorney who sues insurance companies for a living, you're singing my song. That's great.
Alexander Clark: And it's a bipartisan issue. I remember even, I certainly don't congu condone killing CEOs that you don't you don't like, um but you yeah you you you mentioned someone talking about a back hurting that made me think of Luigi Meggioni.
Justin Early: And we're there.
Alexander Clark: I remember when that first happened, like of all the like right wing podcasters were talking about, you know, look, look at these sick Democrats celebrating the death of a father.
Alexander Clark: and like in their comment sections, it was like, I'm a Republican and I'm happy to, and like, I'm, I'm as right wing as they come. And the insurance industry is, is crooked. And like all of these, like it was very much immediately clear like this is tapping into something that is not left or right it's a top versus bottom issue
Matthias Early: Yes.
Kate Rumsey: As Tyler Rico says, yeah. I mean, I'm wondering for y'all, are you both focusing on health care? Like, are you both, do you have synergies for your campaigns on the messaging or is it completely separate?
Matthias Early: and We definitely have such a change.
Justin Early: I'd say we're pretty synergistic.
Matthias Early: Yeah, absolutely.
Justin Early: Yeah. Healthcare is a big one. um Women's healthcare, technology and AI is a concern, just different levels and different perspectives um to try to get it done.
Matthias Early: I talk about AI from the perspective of the economy and the way it's changing, especially if, as you know these CEOs say, if they're really going to replace 80% of jobs, then we are looking at a post-labor economy, a economy a a world that has been built up by my ability to sell labor to a company.
Matthias Early: So what where are people at in a world where now a machine is cheaper than any sort of labor you could do, whether it be your mind or your you know physical body? What can you sell?
Matthias Early: How can you get money? And that question is not being remotely asked philosophically or economically in these legislative fields in these houses.
Justin Early: Yeah, and my perspective as well. I mean very similar in that. But also, I also talk about the perspective of surveillance capitalism, like these systems are being built to surveil us.
Justin Early: And that is real freedom at risk. That is real liberty at risk. um You have these billionaires who think that they can you know control us by knowing and understanding everything we do. And that is what they're putting the data into these data centers. That's what they're looking for is who do you talk to?
Justin Early: um Who do you visit? What do you spend your money on? Where are you going? Where'd you come from? um Part of it is to exploit more money out of you. But part of it is also to know and understand and control you.
Alexander Clark: Thank you.
Justin Early: And surveillance capitalism with Flock, Flock, you know, all the different social media companies that just store your data and then sell it to other people. That is a problem. And as a cybersecurity architect, as a data security architect, um we have almost non-existent data security laws or laws for security here in this country. Russia has stronger laws than we do on the protection of your data.
Justin Early: And I think that should change.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah. It's so interesting that you're bringing this up because I was, I'm a lawyer, I'm on the criminal defense side, and we've been talking a lot about flock cameras and whether they violate some of our constitutional rights.
Kate Rumsey: And yesterday I was in a training and we were talking about how Trump has appointed so many of these uber conservative judges so much so that they are like very like crazy originalists.
Kate Rumsey: Like they want to think about what we're doing now, but in terms of what they people would have perceived these things back in the 1700s, which is crazy.
Justin Early: Hmm.
Kate Rumsey: But what it's doing is that it's creating a very pro defendant set of cases in a world where, Now the Trump administration has to decide whether they want to be an originalist and think about things in that conservative way or be more pro-law enforcement. And it's a very like huge tension in what's going on that we, a lot of criminal defense attorneys are,
Kate Rumsey: putting things on appeal because we're saying, look, our client has been, you know, their rights have been violated according to your judges. So let's bring some things up. And it's very interesting to see that.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: But before we head into our next segments, I wanted to ask y'all, I've heard that other members of the family are involved in the campaign. Like, let's get some shout outs to them. Like, I want to make sure that they're brought into this conversation.
Justin Early: yeah Yeah. You first, Matthias.
Matthias Early: So of course the two people to, you know, beat a cliche to death, the two people that I have to thank for this campaign is my father and my stepmother.
Alexander Clark: Thank you.
Matthias Early: My stepmother, she's been able to balance both campaigns, jump back and forth, make sure we're on the schedule, make sure, you know, all the literature's in the car, drive enough to and fro. She has been a superhero.
Matthias Early: So absolutely. It's, you know, the three of us here in Georgetown and we're all colluding together.
Kate Rumsey: I love it.
Justin Early: She also speaks for both of us. Whenever we can't be somewhere, she'll speak for us. She gives her own stump speeches for the two of us. um Sometimes together, sometimes if I can't be one, she'll speak for the other or vice versa.
Justin Early: um Also, my daughter ah runs our social runs my social media. um She's been doing phenomenal with that. A lot of people give us lots of um kudos on that.
Alexander Clark: Thank you.
Justin Early: i don't i don't Just like Matthias, I didn't have a social media account before this. um I got off the Facebooks and all that years ago. But you got to reach people where they are. And that's where, you know, we want to connect it there. And it's to me, it's funny, because when our daughter, Kiana was ah younger, it was like, get off TikTok, get off Instagram, do more with this, do more with yourself. And now it's like, get on TikTok, get on Instagram and keep promoting me, you know. So it's, it's definitely a family affair. We're all doing something. And I'd say also, you know, um another son, you know, he's done some tech work for us in the background.
Justin Early: We've just, it's just been a family affair all around to help and promote what we can do for our democracy.
Matthias Early: or my brother's girlfriends. They were watching the other you know competitors' social medias for the primaries.
Justin Early: end Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Amazing. Yeah.
Matthias Early: each Each girlfriend had a different person had to watch.
Justin Early: Different person they were watching.
Kate Rumsey: Well,
Justin Early: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: I'm, you know, there's so many depictions of family businesses and pop culture and there's like the succession, you know, like they're not all getting along.
Justin Early: No.
Kate Rumsey: And then there's like other parts of it. Like, which spectrum are we on? i It sounds like y'all are doing pretty good. It's on the opposite side of succession.
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: ah
Alexander Clark: Yeah, it doesn't seem like the Logan Roy.
Justin Early: no
Alexander Clark: like yeah
Kate Rumsey: ah
Alexander Clark: I'm sorry, but you're not serious people.
Matthias Early: Yeah. Nobody's died yet. Yeah.
Justin Early: No, I don't think so. I think we, you know, just like any dynamic, you know, it's, you know, we're around each other a lot. And so we're, you know, we're frazzled sometimes, but at the end of the day, we know we love each other and we know we all have the same mission, right?
Justin Early: We're trying to make better for everyone else. And so, um, If somebody is feeling like they're getting, you know, a little bit overburdened, they will either say that out loud and say, hey, look, can we have some help here? Or they'll say, hey, look, maybe, you know, I need to pull it a little bit more because, you know, this is important. i mean, we've got 90 some days left till the election, right?
Justin Early: um
Kate Rumsey: Can you believe? Yeah.
Justin Early: it's it's it's a It's flying by, but every day we're talking to people. Every day we're connecting with people. And every day we lean on our support system to get us there. And we just have a great one to to help us along.
Alexander Clark: So at the end, we will ask for your last word, not only on how we're going to flip the state by 2030, but how are we going to get you you both past the finish line? 50% plus one.
Alexander Clark: But first, before we do that, a little detour into happiness.
Justin Early: Yeah. Hmm.
Alexander Clark: I want to hear some good news from everybody. Something that is just so good, you got to share it. Something personal, something professional, something completely random if you want.
Alexander Clark: But I think Republicans have gotten better than us at spreading their gospel, about letting their good news be spread. and We got to flex that muscle and get our reps in on that. So what's something in your life you'd like to share?
Justin Early: you know the first thing I think of, and I don't know if this is anything the Republicans will be talking about at all, but you know I love that my um summer garden, my flowers are doing really good right now. um Sundays, I take a little bit of time in the morning and I can piddle around in there clean things up. and It's my little Zen time and Zen spot. and so I feel great that some of my you know things are just popping in doing well.
Justin Early: um Even though it's hot, even though I'm tired, um I have a place that I can sit down and just center myself and just enjoy. And also every Sunday we all play cards together. My my parents, my my wife, we we do that every Sunday and, you know, I've been winning. So, ha ha, that's my good news, you know.
Kate Rumsey: ah
Justin Early: okay
Kate Rumsey: That's fun.
Matthias Early: um no I know. I'm happy every single day that I live very close to my father. um i go to his house probably like three times a day. he lives two minutes away.
Matthias Early: So I pop in, hey, where's the food at?
Justin Early: Yeah. Literally.
Alexander Clark: yeah
Justin Early: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: What a good thing to hear as a parent. Like, I'm glad I'm near you.
Alexander Clark: Yeah, that's amazing.
Kate Rumsey: i just am like, I hope my daughter says that. Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Goals, dad goals.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Justin Early: yeah
Matthias Early: It's funny, a lot of times on the campaign, as they hear that you know that we're father, son, they're like, oh, you're like do you agree politically? Yeah. I don't.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Matthias Early: I don't know.
Justin Early: It's kind of funny. It's kind of like, you know, and they also ask us, are we, are we,
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Alexander Clark: Well, I know this is like a mid-happy session, but I know i do want to know, like is there one item that you butt heads on?
Justin Early: Hmm.
Matthias Early: don't
Alexander Clark: you you can You can invoke the fifth.
Justin Early: So...
Matthias Early: i
Kate Rumsey: Yeah, well, let's go not political.
Justin Early: I mean, you want politically or not politically?
Kate Rumsey: I think that'd be more fun.
Matthias Early: Yeah,
Justin Early: Okay.
Alexander Clark: Anything.
Justin Early: Not political.
Alexander Clark: Anything at all.
Justin Early: we We both like anime. We just have a differing opinion of which ones are better.
Alexander Clark: Okay.
Justin Early: And i I don't know if you guys are familiar with...
Alexander Clark: Just like prioritizing it.
Matthias Early: yeah.
Alexander Clark: Okay.
Justin Early: But but but the anime Bleach, I think, is straight trash. And he disagrees with me. So... Yeah.
Alexander Clark: His face, as soon as you said that.
Matthias Early: I'm starting to come around on that, got that's the I
Justin Early: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: All right, Mathias, defend it.
Matthias Early: I will definitely say the action is there, the music is there, the story maybe not so much.
Justin Early: See, there
Matthias Early: I would say though, ah as far as happy figures.
Alexander Clark: I'm such an anime poser. You guys, I, my, my anime knowledge and ah background is like whatever Toonami was putting on front of me after school. Like I was like Dragon Ball Z, Gundam wing, Sailor Moon.
Justin Early: go.
Alexander Clark: That I feel like there was some Ronin samurai show where they all had different color armor.
Kate Rumsey: You guys have lost me completely.
Justin Early: It happens.
Alexander Clark: That's, that's all I really got.
Matthias Early: Seven Samurai?
Kate Rumsey: hu
Alexander Clark: <unk> I don't, don't remember the name of it. Well,
Justin Early: I will say they definitely watered those down for American children audiences.
Alexander Clark: you
Justin Early: The stories are very rich. They're very steeped in Japanese culture. And there's a lot of um betrayal for the right reasons. And you have a hard time understanding who the bad guy is sometimes.
Justin Early: um
Matthias Early: Deep relationships.
Justin Early: sometimes you you really feel invested in the character and you're like wow i did not know that's their motivations and then you have to really assess is this what happens but it's what human beings are and do and i think in american um pop culture we have these very black and white characters you know spider-man is a phenomenal character but you know he's always going to do what's right um the only time he did something wrong was when he was infected with you know this symbiote you know um but then in anime
Alexander Clark: Symbia, yeah. Well, it's in the contract. There's actually like a a no joke like selling the rights to Spider-Man from Marvel to Sony. like it's in It's in black and white.
Kate Rumsey: you had Oh, I didn't know that.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: He has to like do certain things and not do certain things.
Matthias Early: He also can't drink.
Justin Early: Yes, exactly.
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Justin Early: But and but even in the comics, he couldn't he didn't do anything in the comics at all.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Justin Early: Now, I will say, little diversion, if have you read Superior Spider-Man?
Alexander Clark: I haven't read it.
Justin Early: ira If you like...
Alexander Clark: i've only i only read comics kind of like
Justin Early: if you
Alexander Clark: here and there. um i didn't have like my own collection or anything. Okay.
Justin Early: Take a tiny bit of time, go find Superior Spider-Man. It is phenomenal. It's actually Ock, Doc, Doctor Octopus transfers his mind into Spider-Man's body and becomes Spider-Man.
Alexander Clark: Okay.
Alexander Clark: I've heard of this. I've heard of this storyline.
Matthias Early: Yes, and and it is good.
Alexander Clark: That's crazy.
Justin Early: And it is phenomenal. Yeah, it's good.
Matthias Early: So I will say and now that we talk are talking about this, I do have my moment of happiness every week. Every Friday, the new chapter of One Piece is released. I read the manga, my father reads the manga, and then we talk about it.
Justin Early: Mm-hmm.
Justin Early: And then we talk about it, yeah.
Matthias Early: Yeah, one of my...
Justin Early: And we have to do it coded because ah my wife, she likes to watch the anime when it comes out.
Alexander Clark: That's so cool.
Kate Rumsey: Have
Matthias Early: Oh
Justin Early: And she'll stack up and wait for time. So we have to talk in coded language. Like, you remember when this character did that? And then he did this?
Matthias Early: yeah, I'm happy.
Justin Early: We did that, right? That was cool, right?
Matthias Early: yeah
Justin Early: Yeah. you know so
Alexander Clark: ah Well, before we lose the thread, I'll just throw out my good news, which is I'm going to go see brand new day tonight.
Justin Early: Oh, nice.
Alexander Clark: um so I'm taking my wife's date night.
Justin Early: Awesome.
Alexander Clark: ah my my my ah My mom is watching the kids and I'm very excited. I really have been trying to avoid these spoilers.
Justin Early: Awesome.
Alexander Clark: i don't I don't want to know who Sadie Sink's character is until tonight.
Justin Early: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: No one should tell me.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Justin Early: That's great. Got
Matthias Early: I don't know anything.
Kate Rumsey: Well, it's funny mention that because my good news is going to be movie related to we haven't seen Spider-Man yet.
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Justin Early: it.
Kate Rumsey: And my husband definitely wants to. But we saw the Odyssey on opening night and it was not in 70 millimeter.
Alexander Clark: Hmm.
Justin Early: Oh, nice.
Kate Rumsey: It was in the like other IMAX. I guess they're calling it LIMAX. And so i just loved seeing it and talking about rooting for a character that is ah has troubled past.
Kate Rumsey: you know you're You're kind of struggling to root for Matt Damon in parts of the movie and the story of the Odyssey and just interesting to see the cultural reaction, even politically with people, like some of the right has come out against it with what's, know, how it's being depicted and, uh, Elliot page and all these other things.
Justin Early: Yes.
Kate Rumsey: And, and what a resounding counter just surgeons of people so loving the movie. I mean, and, And I love that it has brought people back to the theater. And i hope that people like Matthias can appreciate going to the movie theater just like I did when I was a kid.
Justin Early: yes
Kate Rumsey: You know, like it was just such a big part of my ah growing up that I hope that that is not lost on the future generation with so much streaming. So I thought that was pretty incredible seeing a full house like cheering for the Odyssey.
Justin Early: That's great.
Kate Rumsey: Did you guys see it?
Matthias Early: We haven't seen
Justin Early: I've not seen it yet. No. Been campaigning.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Justin Early: So, you know.
Kate Rumsey: Yes. Well, I remember...
Alexander Clark: You know, fun fact, Beto O'Rourke has a son named Ulysses because of the Odyssey.
Matthias Early: it.
Justin Early: Oh, wow.
Matthias Early: Oh. Interesting.
Kate Rumsey: Wow. Okay. Well, I guess.
Alexander Clark: A little bit of Texas Democratic trivia for you.
Matthias Early: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Well, I will just say that when I was campaigning, I didn't have time for anything and I never saw it. Like I didn't see a movie and I was like the first time that I went to a movie theater, but i was like, I'm free. Like, I don't know how I act now without campaigning.
Justin Early: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Kate Rumsey: But anyways, that's our good news. We wanted to give you guys the last word. Obviously, our podcast is completely about flipping Texas for the future for this generation and for 2030 before ah the next census. And so I want to give you guys both from your very different perspectives, what do you think it's going to really take to flip the state, flip your seats?
Justin Early: Yeah. talked a little bit about what it's going to take to flip my seat. Um, you know, i'm going against an 84 year old incumbent. Um, John, uh, Stewart had a piece on, uh, the age of, you know, people, members of Congress and specifically talked about my opponent and about his age.
Justin Early: And one of the things that he had, he did.
Kate Rumsey: Wow, I didn't know that.
Justin Early: Yeah. One of the jokes he made is that somebody talking about the modernization of military should not look like they're steam powered. And, you know, that's a funny joke, right? Um, But the unfortunate thing is is he is funded by these AI companies as well. Like if you look at all of his FEC filings, Sam Altman has connections to over $400,000 worth of money going into his campaign. So he's very pro data center, very pro AI. And um what we need to do is understand that some of these people who don't get out there and talk about data centers or get out there and talk about the things that we're frustrated about today, they may be funded by those same entities because the status quo is what these same entities want.
Justin Early: And so for us to flip this state, for us to flip these seats, you have to understand everybody who's there, who's keeping the status quo the way it is, needs to be voted out. This is the time that we need to get out and understand, research, know who is on the ballot.
Justin Early: Make a plan to vote and bring somebody to vote because it's not just about you getting off the couch and doing something. You have to get your friends, your family, and your neighbors as well. um That's the most important thing is going to get out to flip flip the seat. Once we get a hold of our democracy, once we get some things, some you know sanity back in our lives, we can start talking about the allocation of money. we can start talking about some of these other things that we like to talk about in politics.
Justin Early: Politics can then be boring again. But until we actually get up and do something and move, Man, it's it can it can only get worse from here. The last point I'll say about this is pick any dystopian novel that you've ever read, and we're in the first couple of chapters of it. This is how things happen. And if you don't want to continue seeing the slide into those dark things you want to do, that is the reason alone to go vote.
Justin Early: But also vote because of what you want. Not because of what you don't want, but vote for what you do want. And hold us, these politicians, these candidates, hold us accountable for what you do want. If you want health care, accessible health care, make sure that we do that and hold us accountable to it. If you want to make sure the voting rights is you know strengthened for everybody to be to write to vote, hold us to that.
Justin Early: Because our job is to write those bills, vote on those bills and make sure you get exactly what you want because government should work for you.
Kate Rumsey: Amen. Matthias, send us off.
Matthias Early: I say pay attention and volunteer. I mean, every single day in the news, it's it's sadness, it's anger. There's every feeling of frustration.
Justin Early: Mm-hmm.
Matthias Early: And it's hard it's easy to just look away. But the more you are engaged, the more emotions you'll have and the more it'll be talked about in your everyday life. Hey, did you see, you know, what's going on in Gaza? Did you see what's going on with ice and these ice raids?
Matthias Early: Now, Republicans have won the rural area, but once upon a time, those the rural areas were Democrats. And it is the sheer fact that the Republican Party made a commitment that we are going to invest in every single race, every single year.
Matthias Early: So we are going to flip Texas by volunteering. There is a candidate who needs your help. There is a person you can reach out to to to remind them to vote. There's always somebody.
Matthias Early: And even if you live in the deepest, deepest part of red part of Texas, Volunteering now is making, is helping build up these relationships later. If you have a conversation with somebody in West Texas today about what's going on with Trump, they'll, you know, okay, yeah, you're right. I'm going to vote Democrat.
Matthias Early: And you may not win the election, but it'll help with the next election and the next election. It's about an investment in our politics. And it's about starting these conversations now.
Kate Rumsey: Amazing. Well, one of the things we wanted to prove in this podcast is that we are the party for families as well, and if not more so, and you are the living proof of it. You're the epitome.
Kate Rumsey: So as they say, vote early, and I'll sign off by saying God bless Texas.
Matthias Early: Thank you.
Justin Early: Thank you.
