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Ep. 20: A Progressive Muslim Running For Congress (Zeeshan Hafeez)
96 Plays1 month ago
Released at the start of Ramadan and during Texas primary season, this episode of Mission: Texas features host Alex Clark in conversation with Zeeshan Hafeez, a progressive Democrat running for Congress. They discuss what it means to run as a Muslim Texan, his race against Julie Johnson and Colin Allred, and the role of outside political spending, including AIPAC, in shaping primary contests.
Note: Julie Johnson was on the podcast in December. Mission: Texas also reached out to Colin Allred’s campaign to invite him onto the podcast but have not received a response.
In this episode, Alex and Zeeshan discuss:
- Political “othering” and its impact on Muslim American communities
- How post-9/11 politics continue to shape representation and participation
- Outside political spending and influence in primaries, including AIPAC
- Comparisons to a new generation of movement-driven progressive candidates, including figures like Zohran Mamdani
- Grassroots organizing versus establishment power
- Building coalitions to win Texas long-term
📩 Email us at missiontexaspodcast@gmail.com, follow us on all socials @missiontexaspodcast, and support the show on Patreon to help us keep building independent liberal media in Texas.
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Transcript
Introduction and Mission Texas Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Howdy. This is Mission Texas. A political podcast about winning Texas by 2032 or else we may lose the White House for a generation. I'm one of your hosts, Alex Clark.
00:00:13
Speaker
And I am Kate Rumsey. Other podcasts may focus on the day to day the next election. But we are keeping the eyes of Texas on the bigger prize. What happens after the next census?
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome to Mission Texas. A very exciting episode today.
District Redistricting and Guest Introduction
00:00:31
Speaker
um if you are following the congressional races here in Texas, you may know about the new district created by this mid-decade redistricting nonsense.
00:00:42
Speaker
going on here in Dallas. I am happy to introduce Zeeshan Hafiz, who's running for Texas's We're going to talk about representation, policy, what it takes to build a winning coalition.
00:00:55
Speaker
And let's get into your story, your policy case and your argument on where Texas Democrats should go next. So I always because I'm a big Marvel nerd, I i love comic books and like where everybody comes from. Like what is your What is your origin story?
00:01:12
Speaker
ah Alex, first off, thank you for having me here. It's exciting to be on Mission Texas. And thank you for all the work that you do on your podcast. I think it's amazing work. And just want to thank you for having the opportunity to join you on the show today.
Zeeshan Hafiz's Origin Story
00:01:26
Speaker
My origin story begins when I was in college. So um I was a freshman in college. And as you know, college is a time where you get to have a lot of fun. You make new friends. it's supposed to be you know ah a really great part of your life.
00:01:39
Speaker
And for me, ah something happened. And my freshman year of college was 2001. So you can guess what that thing that happened was. It was a major tragedy across our nation, across the world, which was 9-11.
00:01:53
Speaker
And 9-11 changed the world for everyone. um One day I woke up where I was making friends. The next day i was public enemy number one. Smiles turned to frowns. People looked at me with apprehension. I was called a terrorist amongst other horrible things.
00:02:08
Speaker
ah But instead of going into the background, instead of sinking into the despair, i decided to get involved. and I got involved in every organization that I could. I joined the Democratic Party. I joined the anti-war movement. I joined the NAACP and we created Sarasota Openly Addresses Racism. i joined a multi-faith interfaith council where we discussed different religions and how we can build bridges instead of create division.
00:02:32
Speaker
I helped form a to diversity and gender center at my college. I did everything I could to be involved. I i started studying poli sci and went down path to go and get my law degree. I got my law degree from Georgetown and I focused on public policy. And I worked at the Harrison Institute of Public Policy in Washington, D.C., where I worked on labor and workers rights with Congress because I wanted to make a difference.
00:02:56
Speaker
I wanted to support my community in all communities. And then that sort of led me to finish up and I went and got my I went and I worked at the WTO and i came back to Florida.
00:03:09
Speaker
i actually
Political Career and Challenges
00:03:10
Speaker
ran for office in 2010 in my home district, which was basically where I grew up, where my college was, where my high school was. um But that was not a Democratic district. No, for the for the state house. they have ah But that was not a Democratic district. It was a very Republican seat. And obviously 2010, as you remember, two years after Barack Obama was elected,
00:03:33
Speaker
I think his term was it a lacking. as It was. It was. It was a very red year. And so I also was going up against the son of the sheriff who had a lot of name recognition. So we still performed fairly well given what the scenarios, but we didn't do any viability studies or anything like we've done this time. ah Then fast forward, I met my wife. We started a family. i decided to get my MBA. I got my MBA from the University of Virginia.
00:03:58
Speaker
i went into technology. I worked in companies like Microsoft and Google and in leadership positions. I went into the startup space. And then the October 7th happened. That was another important day in our world's history.
00:04:12
Speaker
And I think it was a tragic day. I mean, most people know what we're talking about when we say October 7th, but we're talking about Hamas's attack in Israel, right? Yes, it was a tragic day. ah Many people's lives were lost. Many innocent lives were lost on that day. And it was a very sad day in the world's history to see this attack happen.
00:04:33
Speaker
um But then what we saw was what happened after October 7th, the loss of over 100,000 innocent lives, women, children, babies being murdered by our bums.
00:04:48
Speaker
And it caused me to politically wake up again. And I got involved in the political process again in ways that I was never, involved when I have not been involved in for many years.
Political Views and Policies
00:04:59
Speaker
I got involved in ah protesting. and involved in meeting raising funds for the people of Gaza. and I got involved in many different ways to help the Palestinian people. And then I went to my all elected officials and we asked Mark Besey, who was originally who I started my race against,
00:05:16
Speaker
you know Can you do something about Gaza? He said Gaza is good for the economy. He said that um he said that ah we should go protest Hamas and we should go and try to get the hostages released.
00:05:27
Speaker
That was his response. It was completely tone deaf. And he didn't show any compassion or concern or care for the people of Gaza. And to me, that was unacceptable. And so I looked around and I saw we have an affordability crisis in this country.
00:05:40
Speaker
People are struggling. Why are we sending billions and billions of tax dollars to go commit this atrocity in our name when we should be focusing in at home? we could be We could be providing free public education at the university level, free public universities, free public colleges, free public trade schools. We could create a teacher fund so teachers can make a decent living.
00:06:01
Speaker
We could create um ah affordable housing units all across the country that would lower the cost of housing. We could invest in Medicare for all and universal health care so that health care can finally be a right in this country and not a privilege.
00:06:17
Speaker
We could invest in the Green New Deal so we can have a sustainable future for our nation. These are all things that I think are very, very important that I decided to focus in on. And then i saw I saw the encroachment of authoritarianism, the encroachment of fascism by Donald Trump and his wicked administration.
00:06:36
Speaker
When I saw what ICE was doing, when I saw the way ICE was brutalizing my American neighbors, Whether they're citizens or not, it doesn't matter. The actions were unjustified.
00:06:47
Speaker
The brutality was unjustified. The murders were unjustified. The killings in detention centers were unjustified. The rapes of women in detention centers was unjustified. The attacks on civilian neighborhoods was unjustified.
00:07:04
Speaker
And so I said, we need someone who's going to have a bold voice on this issue. And at the time, when I first launched my campaign, I said, it's time to abolish ICE. And at the time, people thought it was very extreme because this is many months ago. This is before a lot of the national media started to pay attention to this.
00:07:21
Speaker
And then, but however, my my view and my position has evolved over time. And now I believe that you must not only abolish ICE, but you must prosecute ICE. and What I mean by that is we must prosecute every ICE agent who is guilty of any crime against any American or anyone for that matter. And we must prosecute all the way to the top.
00:07:41
Speaker
And that means prosecuting Kristi Noem, Donald Trump, Calvino, all the other leaders who have led to this broken system. So to me, I saw a broken system, our focus on international affairs in a very nefarious way.
Critique of Opponents and Endorsements
00:07:55
Speaker
I think it's time for us to be investing in our country, investing in making America better, investing in ah making our country better. So unfortunately, that's not what our leaders were doing. And that's why I decided to run.
00:08:08
Speaker
Well, i I commend you on ah just laying it all out there. Like you've already addressed a number of the questions I would have asked you. So your motivations, your policy priorities. I may have been lost in in all of that that we just went through. But for the the listener, I think it's worth pointing out.
00:08:26
Speaker
The man has a lot of grief from Georgetown and an MBA from Virginia. That is an impressive resume. And then of course, the all the places you named and and you've worked, you clearly got some experience and some policy chops too.
00:08:40
Speaker
um I think that's something maybe people who who know about you might not even realize. Let's talk about how you use that background to approach policymaking. Obviously, we know your priorities are.
00:08:53
Speaker
But how are we going to go about crafting that policy? Can you speak to that a little bit? Yeah, Alex, that's a great point. and I think that, first off, I'm not a politician. I'm not a career politician who's made a career of politics because I personally um despise the word. I think politicians are not good for society. I think politicians have created a system where people become beholden to special interests because of their are many years of working in a system where they believe that to survive in politics, they must raise money by taking money from corporations and special interests. yeah I want to be a public servant, and i think of myself as a public servant. All the work that I do in my community as a coach for many years at YMCA, as someone who's worked as a community outreach director of DFW Refugee Outreach Services for many years, helping to resettle refugees in our community, as someone who created CareerNetwork.co to provide mentorship opportunities for students and college students, and then as a someone who has been leading speech and debate camps and someone who has ah raised money and and helped organizations like Helping Hand for Relief and Development, the Human Development Foundation. All these are volunteer activities that I've been giving back to the community over many years.
00:10:05
Speaker
That is my background. i am not someone that is a politician or someone who is going to allow politics to determine the way that I legislate.
00:10:18
Speaker
The way that I will legislate and create create and craft policy will be utilizing the North Star of what is best for the American people. Someone who understands public policy, someone who has created public policy, someone who's written legislation in the past,
00:10:33
Speaker
I will, of course, bring on the best experts that I can onto my team to help me create the best possible agenda for our future. I will sign on to important legislation that is sitting dormant but needs to be reawakened.
00:10:50
Speaker
Things like H.R. 40, the bill to provide reparations for generations of injustice. Things like the um the bill that Bernie Sanders created to invest ah significant amounts of money to build millions of affordable housing units all across the country.
00:11:06
Speaker
ah pieces of legislation that would repeal qualified immunity. Qualified immunity obviously is something that has allowed ICE agents to act with complete lack of any accountability. And the fact that we have- and shields law enforcement in general, right? It shields law enforcement in general. So repealing qualified immunity would make sure there's a single judicial system where, regardless of what happens to you, if you commit a crime, you do the time. it doesn't matter if you're wearing a uniform or not wearing uniform. you should be subject to the same judicial system.
00:11:38
Speaker
And I think that are those are things that need to change. yeah So for me, my policy perspective, the way that I legislate, will be guided by my background, a community leader, someone who has a background in policymaking, but also someone who is going to be guided by the interests of the American people, by the working class.
Redistricting Impact and Progressive Voices
00:11:57
Speaker
Because the reality is the corporations, AIPAC, the billionaires, they have enough politicians for them in Washington. the people The people do not. you You mentioned at the top that you started out by running against Mark Beesey based on his comments about Gaza. And i would just say, as an aside, as a parent of young children, um I've got a three-year-old and a one-year-old. And so we're very familiar with Miss Rachel in this house.
00:12:25
Speaker
If Miss Rachel can find the moral clarity and courage to speak out on the bombing of children, I think we all can, especially people who want to be in elected office. Just going to put that out there.
00:12:36
Speaker
But you're not running against Mark Vesey anymore. You're running against former Congressman Colin Allred. And you're running against Congresswoman Julie Johnson in this primary. And I would say ah both of them have kind of made a career and a brand.
00:12:51
Speaker
I don't mean this as a slight against them, but by kind of balancing what they would think as ideal goals versus what they think can pass through Congress and they kind of postured as deal making and sensible.
00:13:08
Speaker
um How do you balance that kind of pushing for the ideal versus making deals so that you can get something done? How do you how do you think about that? Oh, absolutely.
00:13:19
Speaker
um I think a couple of things that must be mentioned. First off, Mark Vesey, not only was he wrong on Gaza, but he was wrong on the progressive agenda that I just outlined. He was on the wrong side of all the issues that I'm fighting for around affordability, around things like raising the minimum wage to a living wage of $20 to $25 an hour.
00:13:38
Speaker
things like being able to raise social security benefits by minimum of 200 a month these are all issues that progressives are fighting for ending the patriot act ah doing things to end citizens united these are all issues that we care and we want to do something about whereas he was on the wrong side of these issues unfortunately now we have julie johnson calling all red and to be honest They're much the same.
00:14:03
Speaker
They're on the wrong side of all the progressive agenda issues that I'm fighting for. Julie and Colin are two candidates who have received a combined $700,000 from AIPAC and the pro-Israel lobby.
00:14:15
Speaker
That's 700,000 reasons to vote against your interests and instead vote against the interests vote for the interests of a foreign nation. Julie and Colin are two candidates that, to me, represent what's wrong with the Democratic Party, what's wrong with the establishment.
00:14:31
Speaker
um They are bought and sold by special interests, by corporations, by billionaires, by lobbies. Julie herself has profited off of her position. She made over $4.2 million dollars and was one of the highest earning congressional stock traders in the region.
00:14:49
Speaker
I think she was second highest in Texas and one of the highest overall in the South. On top of that, she made money off Palantir stock while sitting on the committee on Homeland Security. To me, this is all corruption.
00:15:00
Speaker
And I think the problem that we have right now in Congress is corruption. ah Colin Allred, he is on the wrong side of a lot of issues as well. He has been very unwilling to change his position on things like ICE.
00:15:15
Speaker
He, for some reason, thinks ICE can be reformed. Whereas I believe that an organization that is rotten to its core, that has literally recruited people out of the white supremacy movement cannot be saved.
00:15:28
Speaker
It must be abolished. ah Julian and Colin, at the end of the day, are moderate centrists, establishment Democrats. They're corporatists. They're not going to get the job done in a time when fascism is coming. When fascism is here, we need bold, unapologetic progressives who can fight back against the authoritarian takeover. We will not do anything with simple...
00:15:56
Speaker
run-of-the-mill centrists. And the reality is Julian Colin ran in a District 32 that was more ah more or less um you know a 50-50 seat. Colin had flipped the seat originally. And it was not... you know It would be a seat where maybe... Long-time incumbent, he flipped, yeah.
00:16:13
Speaker
Exactly. So maybe it would make sense for you to be a little bit more moderate. But to me... District 33, especially the new District 33, it's a plus 32 Democratic district. Yeah, the Texas Republicans, for the listeners who might not understand this, when you gerrymander, you can either crack a district or you can pack a district. And what they did with Texas 33 is they shoved as many Democrats as possible into one district so that they wouldn't be in other districts.
00:16:40
Speaker
Isn't that right? Exactly. Exactly. And so this district has such a high number of Democrats that we don't need a centrist, someone who's going to play it safe. We need someone who's going bold, boldly progressive. If this is one of the most Democratic seats in the country, it should be represented by one of the most boldly progressive Democrats in the country. Same thing with District 30.
00:17:01
Speaker
My partner is down there. we I'm running with Reverend Haynes on a progressive duo. yeah Reverend Haynes and I are running together in a a boldly progressive platform that will bring progressive issues not only to North Texas, but all across the country.
Endorsements and Political Dynamics
00:17:16
Speaker
But the point is, he's also running in an extremely blue district because of the redistricting.
00:17:21
Speaker
So if we have all these Democrats that have come together, I think Donald Trump and Greg Abbott's plans should explode in their face, meaning they were expecting this to somehow help them gain more seats. Well, instead, they're going two of the most vociferous progressives elected to office to fight against them. The last thing I'll say about the demographics of this district is one of the most diverse districts in the country. 78% minority majority, Hispanic, almost Asian. significant African-American population. And on top of that, the thing that's really interesting about this race
00:17:56
Speaker
is that the average vote total has been anywhere between 18 to 22,000. One year it was 24,000 total votes in the Democratic primary. That's actually significantly less than when AOC initially won her race in 2018.
00:18:10
Speaker
As you remember, AOC was taking on Joe Crowley, who at the time was the second most powerful person in Congress. He was supposed to be a future Speaker of the House. He had way more resources than AOC did.
00:18:22
Speaker
And he had way more resources and name recognition than my opponents do. Julie Johnson, at the end of the day, is a one-term congressperson. Colin Allred is someone who just failed his political campaign for Senate. senate These are not the most powerful representatives in in Congress versus what we saw with AOC.
00:18:42
Speaker
And so from that perspective, what I see is AOC actually raised less money than what we've raised already. Obviously, we're not going to raise the same amount of money as Julie or Colin because they're funded by so many different interests.
00:18:55
Speaker
but We've already raised more money than AOC did to win her primary seat in a seat that was just as diverse as ours that had actually around over 30,000 votes. votes So we actually have lower turnout, similar demographics, very young district, by the way, average age of 32.
00:19:13
Speaker
um And so I think that this people power movement has a real shot, especially the kind of momentum that we're getting recently. We've been getting endorsements day after day. ah Progressive Democrats of America, progress Progressive Victory, um Next Generation Action Network, um Asian American Democrats, ah Asian Americans for Justice. i mean, so many organizations are jumping on. And the Dallas County Young Democrats.
00:19:38
Speaker
as so I was the vice president of not too long ago. oh awesome. Chris Leal, a friend of mine. Always makes this point, which I think aligns with what you're just saying, which is especially in safe seats, the way you just described this one and in Texas 30 where Reverend Haynes is running.
00:19:55
Speaker
Why negotiate against ourselves? Going back to the question of how do you balance pushing for the ideal versus actually accomplishing something? why Why argue against yourself before you get out of the gate? Right.
00:20:07
Speaker
But I am glad you brought up Reverend Haynes, because i'm I'm really curious about your partnership. And there's this interesting kind of proxy war in this district, if I may point it out, where Congresswoman Johnson is ah supported by James Tallarico, which no surprise to listeners, i'm I'm a fan of. I'm a supporter. Just being transparent.
00:20:31
Speaker
I don't get paid by the by him. or anybody really, I'm paying to make this podcast happen. um um congress Former Congressman Allred is being supported by Jasmine Crockett, but you're being supported by Reverend Haynes, who was also supported by Jasmine Crockett. So there's not really a transitive property there.
00:20:54
Speaker
there's There's a link missing there. i I don't understand quite what's going on with the Jasmine, ah Colin, Reverend Haynes triangle there. Maybe you can help me understand it. But then also we have this weird thing where AOC has come out for Julie Johnson. And I think it's just so fascinating. I i want to kind of un unpack it with you.
00:21:13
Speaker
Because you're right, 2018, we talk about it on this podcast all the time, because it was the high watermark for Texas Democrats. But of course, it was a high watermark for the progressive movement in a lot of ways too, right? That's kind of where the squad came from, AOC and others, who took on kind of entrenched Democratic members that year. And this is the most analogous cycle to that, because it's another Trump midterm.
00:21:35
Speaker
So yeah I don't want to put you on the spot or ask you to be gossipy or anything, but help help us understand all these kinds of connections and and how they don't quite seem to fit just right.
00:21:47
Speaker
Absolutely. So um first off, but what's interesting is something that you mentioned before, and I'll get to this question in just a second, yeah about Chris Leal and his point about we shouldn't negotiate against ourselves. I actually met Chris Leal very early on in my campaign. He's one of the first people I met, i think this was back in August,
00:22:08
Speaker
or maybe even ah before that in July when we were still in our exploratory phase. And we were coming up with our agenda. And he said exactly what you said, which was we should not negotiate against ourselves when we're building our progressive agenda. We should be as boldly progressive as possible. And then we will make compromises and negotiate when compromises are necessary when we get to Congress. Right. From a position of strength. Exactly. We do not compromise ourselves. before we enter Congress, and we do not even compromise on certain issues and values.
00:22:41
Speaker
Like things like, ah not a but we we will not compromise on abolishing ICE or ending the genocide or other issues that are very, very popular, and sorry, very, very important to the American people.
00:22:53
Speaker
Now, getting back to your question about the strange dynamics of this race, and it is very interesting. um Julie Johnson, of course, has worked with a lot of folks, both in Congress and in the State Assembly. And because of that, she has existing relationships.
00:23:10
Speaker
I would say one thing very positive, or it depends on how you want look at it, Julie Johnson is very good at playing politics. And so if you think of that as a positive, you can, or maybe you think like myself that politician's not a good thing, so maybe that's not such a positive.
00:23:28
Speaker
She's a great horse trader. I'm sure she has found ways to make negotiations, make agreements, and finding ways to get people on her side. I don't know how she got all these folks, and I did find out later on that some of the folks that she had entered on her website and she put even on her mailers actually did not endorse her.
00:23:48
Speaker
um Groups like the steelworkers, some of the unions, they actually told Julie, you have to take our our logos off your mailers and off of your website. So I think Julie did jump to make some endorsements.
00:24:05
Speaker
It's never a good sign when someone asks you to take their name down. Well, I mean, the reality is that Julie carried a lot of endorsements over from District 32 onto when she announced all these massive numbers of endorsements. And that sort of probably put people in a position of, hey, we either have to continue with this we're going have to just, you know.
00:24:24
Speaker
But most people are not going to take a fight with a sitting member of Congress since they did endorse them in District 32. not sure if that's what led to some of these endorsements like from James Tallarico, because I met James Tallarico multiple times and politically would seem more aligned with myself than with Julie Johnson.
00:24:41
Speaker
ah But the reality is they did serve together in the state house. I will say that Terry Mesa, who has endorsed us, and Ana Maria Ramos, who has also endorsed us, both served with Julie Johnson. and she Terry Mesa sat right next to Julie Johnson when she was in the state house. and That's actually the reason why she told me she endorsed me. Of course, she had seen me in the community and we'd worked together. And I'd known Terry Mesa for a long time because she's been very active in the community. And if anyone can say that,
00:25:08
Speaker
If there's one state representative that's always everywhere, it's always out in the community, that's state representative, Terry Mesa. She's a great public servant. Someone who I, you know, if I was trying to see who would I want to be like, I would want to be like Terry Mesa or Ana Maria Ramos. Um, The reality is, Terry Mesa told me that she never even saw Julie Johnson when she was um in the um making votes. There was actually another representative that used to push the button for Julie Johnson and vote for her.
00:25:36
Speaker
So this is something that you know is unfortunate. She was an absentee congressperson. And she also has had taken a lot of money from special interests, from PACs.
00:25:47
Speaker
to your point about AOC, it's very interesting because Just recently, Julie sent out a text message, which was very absurd, because it said that she was going to end Citizens United, and it had AOC's picture on there, and it made it seem like she was some progressive who was fighting to end Citizens United.
00:26:06
Speaker
There's absolutely no evidence that she has ever tried to end Citizens United. There's also a lot of evidence that shows she's received over half a million dollars the last cycle from corporate PACs.
00:26:17
Speaker
ah Her grade on the integrity index is an F. And you'll probably see something coming up soon from that group that actually grades the different congresspeople on their ratings. And she has like a 52 out of 100, which is a very low F, by the way.
00:26:32
Speaker
um Because not only has she taken a lot of corporate PAC money, but she's also made a lot of money from congressional stock trading, which all I think is is all corruption, which we need to clean up. Now, getting to AOC's endorsement, I will never criticize AOC or, you know, a lot of people lot of lot of folks were very upset with that endorsement. um You know, we saw the reaction not only locally, but also nationally. DSA specifically was very upset about it.
00:27:01
Speaker
A lot of individuals that saw the post were very upset about especially people that are against AIPAC and
Challenges for Muslims in Politics
00:27:08
Speaker
people that are ah very progressive because it just didn't make any sense.
00:27:12
Speaker
By the end day I'm not going to be the one that's going to say, you know, AOC has sold out or she's become an establishment Democrat or she's trying to become the Speaker the House. I don't think that these things are productive. At the end of the day, AOC is a progressive woman of color.
00:27:28
Speaker
It's very difficult for her. And so I'm not going to make it more difficult for her by personally attacking her or attacking the endorsement. Instead, what I'm going to say is that I think Julie Johnson and AOC have worked together and they must have come to some agreement on something. There must be some negotiation, some support for something. We don't know what AOC's political future is looking like. It looks like it is a very bright future and she's probably going to be making a leap of some sort. I don't know if that's like a Senator AOC or President AOC or President AOC, who knows? I don't know what it's going to be. It's all very exciting, of course, because I still, i i think it's interesting. But when you do these things, unfortunately, when you make these jumps, um it does require you to build approval from people on the moderate side. So but perhaps that's what's
00:28:16
Speaker
caused her to ah you know get so involved in this race. Now, of course, we reached out to AOC many, many times to get her support. And you know my campaign manager is an original Justice Democrat that worked with AOC.
00:28:31
Speaker
So we were all very dumbfounded by it. Now we get to call in all red. The interesting thing about Colin Allred's endorsement, i don't think he's been formally endorsed by Jasmine Crockett, as far as I can tell. um What was interesting, though, is they did decide to pick this fight with James Tallarico, very public, and it just continues to get more and more deeper with James Tallarico.
00:28:54
Speaker
I don't think that was a good look for Colin, I guess, because, I mean, he literally was and fighting with a social media influencer and James Tallarico and getting very aggressive and upset about it. And I think it definitely was, you know, secondhand language that was taken. So I don't think that I don't think James Tallarico said anything that was racially coded or i don't think that that was his intent. I mean, I don't i don't know for a certain because obviously I wasn't there. But based off of what his response is and based off of what we know is of James as a person, it doesn't look like something that he would say or do. And for him to then go and launch this very vicious attack on him um is tough.
00:29:37
Speaker
But if you do, I mean, to what people have and analyzed, I don't think you should ever say the term. I mean, I don't think anyone would say. the term was a mediocre a black man. that That's such a horrible racially. He's lived an incredible life. yeah Whether you think he should be in Congress again or not, like and captain of the Baylor football team, NFL linebacker, Berkeley ball. There's nothing mediocre about him.
00:30:01
Speaker
Yeah, if you want to say something mediocre is like he would maybe he didn't do a great job in terms of his his run for Senate. I think a lot of people did criticize him for that. That's a commonly held feeling. Exactly. That is a common thing. It is not something that's unique that James Salarico said. A lot of people have been upset with calling for that. And then people of are also upset with his congressional record. and what he was able to deliver in Congress. So if we're talking about the facts and we're not talking in coded language, we're just talking about the record itself, you know, yeah, that's that's a little bit more, you know, that that wasn't the most impressive thing. And someone mentioned this, which...
00:30:41
Speaker
was kind of funny, um but I don't think that we should focus on it. ah Because you know Colin flexes his NFL career, and someone said something like he only got 46 tackles in seven seasons, so that wasn't the most impressive. either But I mean, I don't think that we should be... Look, if I made one tackle in the NFL, I'd be telling everybody about it for the rest of my That's more tackles than I got. That's more tackles than James got. That's more tackles than everyone else got. So for me, I i just think it's funny that people decide to play politics in a way to have these discussions and make comments like these that are unfortunate. They they take away from him the real discussion. I think part of that is the social media culture that we live in today, where people decide that anyone can be to follow along the football discussion, an armchair quarterback and say these ridiculous things. So. It is what it is. But um i I honestly, I think it's it's interesting. And so Reverend Haynes coming in, you know, last night I was on with Reverend Haynes on TYT and we were with Cenk and, you know, Reverend Haynes was asked, you know, um
00:31:50
Speaker
Why did you decide to endorse? Did this get you in trouble? Are you worried about it? And he said, frankly, I don't care about getting in trouble. He's a bold leader. He's not afraid. He's unafraid. He's unapologetic in his progressive values. He said the reason why he was supporting me was because I'm the one who most aligns with progressive values. To be honest, a lot of folks...
00:32:12
Speaker
especially in Reverend Haynes's position, probably wouldn't have made this endorsement. But that tells you about the kind of guy that Reverend Haynes is, the willing that he's willing to put his neck on the line for someone who is a challenger, someone who is an uphill battle, someone who, you know, I mean, like he could potentially have to then work with these people in the future. But he's He was not afraid to make a very bold stance. And I will say this, a lot of folks in the community, even progressives, were afraid to do that. but The same thing can be said about Henri Ramos and for Terry Mesa and for Murray Newman and for many other leaders across the country that have been
Unity Across Communities
00:32:48
Speaker
supporting our campaign because we need people that are unafraid. We need people that are unbought. And we need people that are unapologetic progressives, people like Bob Bernanke.
00:32:57
Speaker
Well, you know, you mentioned that you don't think Crockett has made a formal endorsement of Colin Allred yet. Obviously, she endorsed Reverend Haynes.
00:33:08
Speaker
Is that a relationship you're trying to work to get the the Crockett endorsement? Because, I mean, maybe she's Texas tough enough to make that kind of endorsement, too. Maybe she's not worried about ruffling any feathers.
00:33:18
Speaker
You know, to be honest, we have we have stayed out of the race because at the end of the day, um we... I'm not asking you to endorse either of them. asking if she'll endorse you. Of course, of course. I mean, it would be fantastic to get any endorsement. And and and of course, we are very impressed by Representative Crockett's work that she has done to fight against Donald Trump.
00:33:39
Speaker
But we also have to be considerate of the fact that a ballot for us, we have two people that are considered by some to be progressive. I wouldn't say... They're as progressive as Reverend Haynes and I are, but they still are considered as progressive. So we don't want to isolate any of the voters that might go with Reverend Haynes. Oh, sorry, with ah Jasmine Crockett or with James Tallarico. So that's why we're trying to stay out of the race as much as possible. But obviously, if Jasmine wants to endorse us, we we'll take it. We're not going to be mad. We're not going to be mad at you, Jasmine. That would be nice. if you It'd be some news.
00:34:17
Speaker
Well, you you started out at the beginning um of this podcast, a very visceral moment. um Some people listening to this podcast won't remember it because they are too young. And that hurts my heart.
00:34:30
Speaker
ah You and I are fellow graybeards.
00:34:34
Speaker
and People who don't don't remember 9-11 because they weren't around. But it was a very particular heightened emotional time in our country. um And in a lot of ways...
00:34:46
Speaker
I'm seeing some of those unfortunate talking points come back around on the right in a way that I haven't seen the volume turned up in in a long time.
00:34:59
Speaker
As I'm sure you're aware, ah one of the main candidates for Attorney General on the Republican side, endorsed by the outgoing Attorney General Kim Paxton, his name is Aaron Wright. He and I went to law school together.
00:35:12
Speaker
And he is a true believer. and um he might cut this into an ad because it'll help him in the primary. But he's um he is a MAGA, through and through, a true believer. He means every word.
00:35:22
Speaker
And he says it with his chest. He is not dog whistling anything. He has an ad where he said, Islam is incompatible with Western civilization. And I just...
00:35:34
Speaker
Look, I'm a Protestant Christian. my My co-host who's not with us today, Kate, she's a Catholic. For us, our faith is very important to us, but it is not an excuse to scapegoat people and to demonize and to devalue them.
00:35:51
Speaker
it's got to be really frustrating to see that kind of ugly racism, ugly othering, prejudice against an entire faith, especially as as um as a Muslim candidate. Can you can you talk to about how you see what's going on? Like, why do you think it's happening right now? Is it just because statistically as as a percentage of the population, it's just an easy group to beat up on? Or what what's going on?
00:36:16
Speaker
You know, it's it's it's interesting you say this because the exact same thing that you were just talking about, that was how Reverend Haynes closed the interview last night when I was on with TYT with Reverend Haynes. He said we need to end the war on the others. Because the reality is it's not just a war on Muslims.
00:36:34
Speaker
It's on immigrants. that It's on women. It's on so many different communities. We could go on and on, the black and brown, et cetera, et cetera. We could sit here for...
00:36:45
Speaker
10 minutes and list out all the different groups that are being attacked. For the Muslim community, it has become very popular for Republicans to raise money, to gain popularity off of attacking Muslims.
00:36:58
Speaker
We have seen Congressman Keith Self, who's also from Dallas-Fort Worth, he has launched his anti-Muslim caucus, essentially. I don't know the exact term for this caucus, but it's essentially the anti-Muslim caucus. Oh, gross. It's crazy that you can create a caucus that's an anti-Muslim caucus. Imagine the other anti-caucuses that could be created. Like,
00:37:17
Speaker
you know Imagine if someone created an anti-Christian caucus or you know an anti-Jewish caucus. you'd be you know Of course, you'd be branded an anti-Semite and you'd be and destroyed. but You'd be on a watch list. It'd be on a watch list, exactly. The reality is with Muslims, we are targets, easy targets, I guess, for the extreme right wing of the Republican Party. I don't think that these people represent everyday average republicans or even everyday average americans i don't think that the majority of americans are islamophobic or hold the beliefs that keith self and yeah you know aaron rice and others that you mentioned they hold they represent something that's uh a very horrible part of our society people like valentina gomez people like greg abbott these folks are, of course, not only they're anti-Muslim, but you'll also see that they're anti-X, Y, and They're anti a lot of different different other groups as well. I mean, Valentina Gomez and all of her videos talks about how she's going to, i don't know if she says kill or she's going to destroy or something, all Muslims, immigrants, you know, all these people that she just puts together and lumps them in as the others.
00:38:31
Speaker
And I think there is a very powerful hurtful and very horrible place that the country is moving in because of this rise in otherization, this rise of white supremacy, this rise of attacks. And I'll say the white supremacy movement and how powerful it's become today, i think the only group that's not under attack in America right now are male white supremacists. I think even progressive men are under attack.
00:39:01
Speaker
um I think that you you could be a a straight, white, progressive male and still be an an under attack under this current administration. And unfortunately, that's the reality of it. Now, when it comes to me personally in my campaign, I recently been attacked by Rare. Rare is an organization that...
00:39:17
Speaker
um targets ah Islamophobia. it target its It targets Muslims. And they wrote piece on their website about how, you know, watch out, there's an alert, there's this Muslim guy running for Congress, he's gonna, you know, bring Sharia law. And the funny thing is, the article that they posted about me It was funny in ways because it said that I was going to pass this this socialist progressive agenda. And it talked about how horrible it was that I was trying to fight for universal health care and I was going to fight for education and I was going to fight for helping refugees and I was going to help with, i mean, the things that I was fighting for, I'm like, right these are good things.
00:40:03
Speaker
Thanks for the endorsement. Right. Exactly. And that's the best that you can do to attack me is to say, that yeah, they said the worst part is he has been helping Muslim refugees in the Dallas community for many years. I'm like, wow, that actually sounds like a good thing to me. So the things that they were saying, these horrible things that I'm doing.
00:40:23
Speaker
I feel like they were kind of kind of good. But my point in saying this is the anti-Muslim vitriol has come to ah a new all-time high. And it's unfortunate because I think that right now our our nation as a whole in the last year under Donald Trump in one year has probably gone back at least 100 years for every community that's been under attack.
00:40:45
Speaker
I'm from a small town. I'm from Sherman, Texas, about an hour north of Dallas. And the way I think about it is there are probably two groups. There are those who don't know any better and those who should know better.
00:40:58
Speaker
Growing up in Sherman, if I knew Muslims, I i didn't know that they that they were Muslim. You know, they it's not one of the things they probably wore on their sleeve because it just was easier not to, especially in the time period were like we were talking about in the post 9-11 world.
00:41:14
Speaker
But as I went to Austin College, also in Sherman, you enter a collegiate space you talked about at the very beginning of the episode where you're making friends and you're meeting new people, you're meeting a diverse crowd. Austin College is a very international campus. You got people coming from different faiths, different countries, um different cultures, right?
00:41:34
Speaker
And I found that it is hard to hate up close. And so if you've met Muslims and you've learned that they're the scary boogeymen that Republicans have tried to paint, they're actually very, you know, just like everybody else.
00:41:51
Speaker
They love their families and they care about this country and they want to live a prosperous life. I was in a Christian fraternity at Austin College, but it was actually more of an interfaith, like non-denominational type thing in practice.
00:42:06
Speaker
Two guys and my wedding party, Shamal Khan and Yassin El-Dagani, are just some of the best people you ever meet. And so when I joined the Air Force, there were Muslims in and wearing the uniform.
00:42:18
Speaker
They love this country. They signed their name on the dotted line just like everybody else. And so it it really burns me up. It really upsets me Whenever I see people who should know better, because they have been to college, they have met other people, they claim to follow the same Jesus who gets more upset with religious hypocrites and people who try to draw a line and and create in group and out group.
00:42:44
Speaker
That's the thing that really gets me going is that how dare you claim of faith and use basically an entire community as your political pinata. It's disgusting.
00:42:56
Speaker
And so I think as as Democrats, as independents, as anyone who's not part of that, even the Republicans who, should again, should know better, i think it's going to take us all standing up and pointing out that they're using Your community, they're using ah Muslims as a distraction to hide the fact that they're not doing anything about affordability. They're not going to do anything to make your life better.
00:43:21
Speaker
I mean, um um I'm ranting now, so I'm gonna turn it back to you because this is your interview. if If you had anything else you wanted to add on this ah before we turn. i think one thing that's interesting is why is this happening right now? I think we have to always look at the root cause analysis. There's a specific, obviously there's there's been anotherization of everyone, like I mentioned, but I feel like specifically to the Muslim community, one of the factors that I think is making a big difference and a big impact is AIPAC.
00:43:51
Speaker
I think AIPAC is seeing itself lose so many races. It's lost its complete credibility in this country. I think most people in this country are against AIPAC.
00:44:02
Speaker
very high percentage of Democrats, and actually a majority of Republicans, I think, are starting to see that AIPAC is very bad. It's very wrong, and it must be eliminated. Yeah. And we're in we can distinguish, right? Like we're not saying Jewish people.
00:44:16
Speaker
Oh, no, of course. We're saying the AIPAC as a political organization. AIPAC lobby. That is is pushing the policy priorities of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel.
00:44:27
Speaker
Yes. Extreme right wing. Because one be very anti-Netanyahu and not be even anti-Israel because the people of Israel don't like that guy either. Absolutely. and And that's the reality of it. Actually, before October 7th, it looked like Netanyahu was going to lose his position. And he has used the war and extended the war.
00:44:43
Speaker
And I would say the genocide, not the war, excuse me, but I would call it the genocide. He has extended the genocide so that he can stay in power. um The reality is, is AIPAC has found itself failing in being able to win the popular support of the American people and win elections.
00:44:59
Speaker
Now, Analia just won in in New Jersey. um And part of that was because she was supported by TRAC-APAC, which was one of the organizations that did a lot of support for her. And at the same time, her opponent was one of her opponents was getting a lot of money from APAC. And that opponent lost.
00:45:15
Speaker
And so AIPAC is now trying to find ways to stay relevant. And so their most recent way is to get people to become anti-Muslim. Valentina Gomez, for instance, became extremely anti-Muslim after she got all this funding from AIPAC. So it's unfortunate.
00:45:30
Speaker
um But I think that there are these things that are tied to it. i think at the end of the day I don't think that the average a Jewish person has anything against Muslims. and i don't think the average Muslim person has anything against Jewish people. I think we all see each other as our brothers and sisters, as people from one community, people from one America.
00:45:52
Speaker
um But there are individuals and organizations that want us to hate each other, that want us to be otherized. that want us to create conflicts and divides because it's easier to divide and conquer than it is for people to be united. But the reality is we live in the United States of America, and so we need leaders that are going to come into office And they're going to be able to unite us across faith, across race, across gender, across every single thing that there that exists. We need to have unity in this time, this unity of this very dark time in where our country is descending into chaos and descending into fascism.
Personal Milestones and Light-Hearted Moments
00:46:35
Speaker
Thank you for for raising the tone there at the end. i mean, coming out of the negativity of that, I want to focus on the good too. And one of the things we've tried to do on our our podcast is get Democrats in the habit of sharing good news. And, you know, in the tradition of the Christian tradition, the word gospel means the good news. And so I think Republicans are really good about sharing what they think.
00:47:01
Speaker
They are not shy about it. and we need to get better at it. So we want to flex that muscle. We want to ask you, what is something going on in your life, personally, professionally, out on the trail, anything?
00:47:12
Speaker
Give us some good news. Most exciting news is just a couple weeks ago, i had my fourth son, Sufjan. He was just born. i know you just met him. Thank you. Thank you. You mentioned you had of a three-year-old and one-year-old. So now I have a 13-year-old, a 10-year-old, two-year-old, and a few weeks-year-old. man. And he's a bundle of joy. He's someone that we have really enjoyed bringing him into our life. And he has really just he's just so cute and ah wonderful to play with.
00:47:44
Speaker
It reminds us of how fortunate we are to live in America where we have this great public health system. ah But also reminds me that there are people in America that don't have health care and health care should be a human right because there are still children that are born that do not get adequate health care here in America. And I think that's an atrocity.
00:48:05
Speaker
And it also reminds me of the fact that there are children and babies in Palestine that don't get the same health care or even the ability to live, the the ability to have a future that my kids have. So it may sort of brought things back into perspective. and refocus my vision as to why we're doing what we're doing with this campaign.
00:48:26
Speaker
And to me, it's, it's, um, at times it can be sad, but it also gives me hope because I see ah this new birth and new possibilities and you hope and, ah you know, just a bundle of joys, as they say, for, for these yeah babies that come into our life.
00:48:43
Speaker
Absolutely. That's great. ah Very exciting. And just continuing on that kind of love theme, of just a timestamp this episode, you know, take a while to come out probably next Thursday.
00:48:55
Speaker
This is the day before Valentine's Day. It's a time where love is in the air. We're also like very few days away from early vote starting. Yes. I think hopefully we can keep it lovey, but we'll see.
00:49:08
Speaker
My good news is that I am going to try a sushi place with my wife for Valentine's Day at Mockingbird Station that offers all you can eat sushi.
00:49:21
Speaker
People who know me will know that whenever it says all you can eat, I take that as a personal challenge. So i'm I'm excited to see how much I can put away. Let know how it is. i love sushi, so I'm always looking for a good all you can eat sushi. Yeah, yeah, yeah. um we said ah earlier, like, I'd be thrilled to have one tackle in the NFL. I was a linebacker.
00:49:43
Speaker
Oh, awesome. In junior high and in high school, but only briefly in high school because all the guys who were linebackers in my school went on to become, you know, bodybuilders and Navy SEALs. And I stayed this size right here. But the thing is, I was actually very good in junior high because I was this size right here. just had my growth spurt very early.
00:50:05
Speaker
And so when I was in junior high, we would go after football games to CeCe's Pizza, which is all you can eat. Yeah, that's good. I remember i had my number my number my my jersey number was 47 and I had 47 slices of pizza was my goal.
00:50:21
Speaker
Wow. Did you ever get it? I knew it was 47 because I would like eat all the way up into the crust and I would keep the crust as like a Oh, so what's best did? That's how I could count how many I had. like the bones of my enemies kind of...
00:50:32
Speaker
What was the most number of bones you collected, Alex? 47 is the high watermark. You hit 47? did it, yeah. What? Yes. Oh, my goodness. That's crazy. Yeah, no, it's... Look...
00:50:45
Speaker
The problem with winning an eating contest is everybody loses around too. Everybody loses. That's right. i used to be on this four-hour body diet where they they tell you to have a cheat day. And on that cheat day, you can go and eat whatever you want. And it's sort of supposed to clean your Dwayne Rock Johnson style. Yeah. You just go crazy. Yeah. And i that day, I had Pizza
Progressive Victories and Political Engagement
00:51:08
Speaker
Hut. I remember I went to Pizza Hut lunch buffet. one of the few restaurants that still existed.
00:51:13
Speaker
And after that lunch buffet, I can tell you, i felt absolutely horrible. I didn't eat 47 slices like you, but I ate enough to feel sick to my stomach. So I know what you're saying. Yeah.
00:51:24
Speaker
Hey, nobody out pizzas the hut. That's great. Um, okay. Well, we always finish up, uh, we're coming up to the top of the hour with the last word. This, uh, as you know, this podcast is not about the day to day. It's not about even this election cycle. We wish you well in your race and, uh,
00:51:41
Speaker
What I want to know is outside of this race and looking long term, we have to get the coalition built for 2030. We just have to. It's it's almost existential.
00:51:53
Speaker
We're going five seats coming to us. That matters for Congress, but it also matters for the Electoral College. Give us the last word. what What needs to happen between now and then? I think that the things that we're seeing that are happening need to continue to happen, which is we are seeing voter information increase, voter engagement increase.
00:52:15
Speaker
People are getting involved in the political process. think I think that people are starting to get, like they're finally waking up, which is really awesome. That's, I think, the big difference between what's happening now and what's happened in the past.
00:52:29
Speaker
For a long time, people have complained. People have said that they're upset, but they haven't really done anything about it. Something meaningful to change the scenario that they're in. Now, we're seeing real change.
00:52:42
Speaker
And when I'm seeing real change, I'm talking about Taylor Romet flipping an almost plus 20 Trump district and turning it into a significant Democratic district. He didn't just win it close. He destroyed his opponent. And not only that, but he was running as a true blue progressive, not a you know establishment Democrat or a moderate or centrist. He is a laborer.
00:53:04
Speaker
True Blue Progressive. And that's exciting. then we That's right next door to us, by the way. Then we have Christian Menifee winning in Houston. True Blue Progressive. Very exciting. We have people like Analia winning in New Jersey.
00:53:18
Speaker
True Blue Progressive. former member of Bernie Sanders' team. So we're seeing the people that are standing on the right side of history are winning all across the country. Not only that, we saw all the amazing wins that we got in 2025. Not only Zoran, but we also saw folks all across the country. For those who have been living under a rock, he was talking about New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani.
00:53:41
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's, it's funny. um Yeah, Cenk last night said I was the, I could be the the Texas version of Zoran. So Zoran and Zeeshan is what he's, we wrapped the show.
00:53:52
Speaker
So we'll see what happens. Hey, there's endorsement you could get. you go. There you Have you reached out to the mayor's office? Well, the mayor doesn't like to endorse anyone outside the state of New York. So he tries to stay close to New York, which is fair, which is fine. But we have mutuals. And so he's got a big job.
00:54:07
Speaker
he's He's got a big job and he's doing amazing work. um But I think we just need to continue to build them this momentum. we need to stay positive. um I think one of the biggest things that I tell folks is I see a lot of people go to protests, which is great, by the way. I see a lot of people involved as activists.
00:54:23
Speaker
We need to convert more activists and protesters into elected officials. If that happens, we will completely change our democracy. The progressives that are out there, a lot of them are not running for office.
00:54:34
Speaker
i someone ah was on ah I was on a session with, I don't remember who, but we got a call we got a message from ah one of the the viewers and they asked, and I'm young, I want to get involved in politics, what should i do? And I said, what should i study? What should i research? what what should I said, no, you should just go run.
00:54:54
Speaker
Go do it. is You don't need to be trained in politics. Go run for something, whether it's city council or school board or or state house or state rep or Congress or Senate.
00:55:05
Speaker
Go run for something. Get involved. And that's going to wait be the only way that we clean house and we make true progress in this country. We have to keep encouraging each other. We keep helping each other. We you keep uplifting each other. We need to keep giving each other hope That's the way that we change our democracy. That's the way that we save our country. That's the way that we make a big difference is that if everyone gets involved, if everyone steps up to the moment, if everyone sees that the American democracy is under attack, but the American democracy is worth saving, so we need to step up. We need to step up to the plate and we need to make a difference.
00:55:38
Speaker
If everyone steps up to the plate right now, it starts getting involved, by 2030, we will have a bold slate of progressive candidates all across Texas. By the way, Texas, I know if you've saw seen this, Alex, it has one of the most progressive charters for the state Democratic Party.
Final Thoughts and Call to Action
00:55:56
Speaker
I would say there's not many that are more progressive than the state of Texas. And the only way that that's going to be implemented is if all of us get involved. Because at the in reality, the time for these billionaires, oligarchs, the Epstein class, these corporatists, establishment Democrats, I think their time is over. think now it's time for us. It's time for all of us. And we must all step up to the plate. And I think right now we need to start building momentum, getting people engaged, getting people involved. And then if we continue to carry this forward and build this true movement, by 2030,
00:56:32
Speaker
we could see a real big change in this country. Because we're going have to rebuild our country because obviously there's been a lot of damage done in just the last year and a half. And so we need to do everything we can to repair it.
00:56:47
Speaker
And it's going to take each and every one of us to go out there and make a difference. So that's the way that I look at it. um You know, I would encourage folks, you can get involved in a political campaign.
00:56:58
Speaker
Even if you're not running for office right now, they'll get involved on a campaign. That'll help build you the skills that you need so that you can run yourself. go i mean You can join my campaign if you want. Go to zshon.com. How can people get involved with with you? yeah where Where they can find you? How can they follow you?
00:57:13
Speaker
Absolutely. So you can go to our website, zshanfortexas.com. That's Z-E-E-S-H-A-N and then and then texas.com. you can also follow us on any social media channel or literally on everything, including upscrolled.
00:57:28
Speaker
We're just not on truth social, but I wouldn't really call that a social media channel. call that a right-wing propagandist. But, um, Yeah, you can follow us there. We're at Zishon for Texas. And on top of that, you can also just, you know, get involved in our campaign. We're looking for people to phone bank. We're looking for people to canvas, looking for people to ah contribute. If you'd like to contribute anything to the campaign, any, any, any amount makes a difference.
00:57:54
Speaker
So time, talent, treasure is what we always say. Yeah. Whatever you can give can make a difference. And so, yeah, um that's That's the way we look at it. We'd love to get you involved. We'd love to have a huge progressive victory in North Texas. We want to win District 30 and District 33 and then set the foundation for even a greater victory in 2028 and 2030.
00:58:14
Speaker
you know and I'm sure you'd rather just win outright and get 51% of the vote. um But ah for those who don't know, Texas has mandatory runoffs ah should there not be someone who gets an outright majority. So don't listen to any influencer out there who tells you this is a two-person race between Julie Johnson and Colin Allred vote your heart if Zeeshan is the person who you think is the best candidate person who matches your values.
00:58:43
Speaker
Don't let someone bully you into voting for one of those two. Vote for him first. And if this influencer is right, and it ends up being a two person race, and it's them. You can always vote for one of them in the runoff.
00:58:55
Speaker
Okay. But right now between February 17th, whenever early voting starts in March 3rd, when we have primary election day, now is the time to pick the person you think is best. So with that, I'll say thank you for your time, Jisan and God bless Texas.
00:59:10
Speaker
Thank you so much, alex It's been a true pleasure. You can follow us on all socials at Mission Texas Podcast. Email us at missiontexaspodcast at gmail.com.
00:59:22
Speaker
This episode is edited by Juan Jose Flores. Our music bumper is by Adam Pickerel, and our cover art is by Tino Sohn.