Transcript
Alexander Clark: Today on Mission Texas, we are so glad to be joined by Chelsea Hockett, the Democratic nominee for Congress in Texas's 5th District. Chelsea is a Terrell based. Mother of two, community organizer and member of a working class union family. before entering politics.
Alexander Clark: She worked in restaurants and in the airline industry. Experiences, she says, shaped her focus on affordability, workers' rights, healthcare, care and public education. Chelsea won a competitive. Democratic runoff in May and is now a challenging.
Alexander Clark: Republican Congressman Lance. Gooden. She's working as a progressive class progressive. Sorry, working class progressive who supports Medicare for all, stronger unions.
Alexander Clark: Fully funded public schools, reproductive freedom and tougher accountability for corporations and wealthy political. donors. Chelsea Hawkins. Welcome.
Chelsey Hockett: Thank you.
Alexander Clark: to Mission, Texas.
Chelsey Hockett: for having me. leave
Alexander Clark: So. Before you tell us your origin story, which is always where we'd like to start. which is the beginning. I would just like. to to say for our audience right up front that uh you may have remembered I had interviewed someone.
Alexander Clark: named Zeeshan Hafiz. And at that time, I actually thought. He was someone I was going to be voting for. because I had received so many mailers. for Julie Johnson and Colin Allred.
Alexander Clark: that I assumed I was in that district. It wasn't until like the day before I went to go vote. that i was looking stuff up and i was like wait a second I'm not in that district I'm about to go vote for Chelsea Hocket.
Kate Rumsey: Yay! yay
Alexander Clark: So you are our nominee, but someone doesn't just be. Come the Democratic nominee for Congress. without I would imagine. something of a winding road. Oh. How does someone like you get involved in politics to start with?
Chelsey Hockett: so I have a family that's been very politically oriented and they're... background. is political. and so i was raised with that i can get into that in a second but for me personally
Chelsey Hockett: I have endometriosis and I've experienced a lot of pregnancy loss and healthcare care issues. And I have a very big focus on maternal healthcare care as it is because I had... My daughter, two weeks after everything shut down with COVID, I lost my health insurance because my store shut down.
Chelsey Hockett: We had a hundred thousand dollar hospital bill with like NICU stays and emergency C -section. And my husband's company was able to like throw me on insurance really quick, but it was a lot of stress right before having a baby. to deal with So for me, like that's why one big reason why I support Medicare for All is because your aren' insurance shouldn't be tied to your job and by any means. But with that...
Chelsey Hockett: I experienced just a lot of health issues between her and my son where I had multiple miscarriages. And then my son came a month early. He was in the NICU as well. I was lucky lucky I did not have an emergency section for that one. But Roe v. Wade was overturned when I was pregnant with him after experiencing a lot of loss.
Chelsey Hockett: And then I started, I was working full -time, childcare was pricing me out of my job. I was really, really stressed out and I ended up bringing them home and I took care of both of them while working a full -time job. Because childcare was so expensive, I eventually was able to quit because my husband's union negotiated really good overtime benefits when they were switching over software programs. So he was able to like work us completely out of debt. and
Chelsey Hockett: was able to take over bills from that point uh but when i decided to quit my job because child care was too expensive and i couldn't take care of both kids and work full time i decided that i was going to make every politician that put me in that position pay for it and i started getting really really really involved and i had some free time so it was organizing protests meeting with all of the county parties that are out in rural texas
Chelsey Hockett: And I started making my way into Dallas. And I knew who was running on the Democratic ticket. I voted for her previously. I was not impressed. And I wanted somebody that would represent people like me versus corporations and and a more moderate ticket. I wanted somebody with ideas to push forward. and then our third person on the ticket he was older he was a rocket scientist and i was like that's great but it was the same old same old he was an old republican moving over to the democrat and i was like we just don't have anybody willing to push progressive ideas. on the platform that I want to vote for. And so I jumped in.
Kate Rumsey: Well, also, we have a special guest. or Your cat is on our podcast to do today as well, which we love.
Chelsey Hockett: Yes.
Alexander Clark: What's your cat's name?
Kate Rumsey: we love
Chelsey Hockett: This is Chumlee. like pond stars he wasn't named after he was from a pirate litter i used to work at a vet clinic and i worked for a rescue we would take care about of a take care of about 100 cats at a time but he was one of the kittens that i brought home he was
Alexander Clark: Chumlee is a great cat name.
Chelsey Hockett: And yes, I was like, i I brought him and his brother home.
Kate Rumsey: that
Chelsey Hockett: His brother was dusty. He passed away a couple months ago. And then I also got a dog. from the same shelter. And he he passed about a year and a half But I...
Kate Rumsey: wow
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah, animals are a big part of our lives. so
Kate Rumsey: All that. Well, I just wanted to say, Chelsea, we will we just celebrated Labor Day weekend and I saw you at the Dallas County Labor Day event.
Kate Rumsey: we both had our daughters there which is really great and they were vying for the same toys because they Finally, I feel like Like our democratic county and apparatus are finally becoming more kid -friendly.
Kate Rumsey: Maybe I'm being too harsh on finally, but I'm very appreciative.
Alexander Clark: We shamed the men to it, right, Kate?
Kate Rumsey: Yeah, I think we shamed them into it. at We were like, Yasmin. But no, I really liked it. I mean, how did you feel as far as... Being a mom with kids. Because Alex and I, we met.
Kate Rumsey: A lot of times because we we're the only parents at events with kids at these political things and I always felt a little like oh my child she's running around she's being disruptive but how do you feel now with this entree into your candidacy and bringing your kids to things.
Chelsey Hockett: reprimanded occasionally.
Kate Rumsey: No!
Chelsey Hockett: but for the most part, they do amazing. So. Sorry, I... I get teary because yes. advocate bradley is
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Reprimanded by who? Name names.
Kate Rumsey: No, yeah
Chelsey Hockett: No way! but it's one of those It does get disruptive when you're trying to speak and it gets clinging to you.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: But they're the reason why you're doing it, right?
Chelsey Hockett: Or just...
Alexander Clark: All right.
Chelsey Hockett: They are the reason and so I'm not What a shame to bring them to a lot of stuff.
Kate Rumsey: and
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: Wow. That's it.
Alexander Clark: No, we have we have to disrupt this. We have to make it more normalized because we want working parents to be in office, but then we make it hard for them to do it.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah, we need to show them.
Chelsey Hockett: it And it's been great.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: yeah yeah covman County Dems which is my home.
Kate Rumsey: Yep.
Chelsey Hockett: county democratic party i'm the only one that brings my kids in But they love them. And I have a lot of the ladies that will step out and be like, hey, I'll take them. And we'll go play in the hallway for a second. So way you can speak and you can do what you need to do.
Chelsey Hockett: And they go to dinners with us and everything. And they'll like these kids run in and like they know exactly who to go to.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: And they just they'll jump in their laps or they'll, you know, even just cling to me. And they've they've calmed down a little bit. But I started doing this. Almost two and a half.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: but i have A lot of support.
Alexander Clark: We need more of that Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: from a lot of amazing people and a lot of my team members. just absolutely adore kids and they will just sit and they will play with them forever and they'll make sure that they get distracted and you know do whatever they need to do I had three with me yesterday that just adore.
Chelsey Hockett: my daughter. And so she was just jumping in between everybody. She was coloring coloring with the chalk. She was she brought her own bracelet making kit. Yeah. She'd be like...
Kate Rumsey: Oh, I love her.
Chelsey Hockett: The other kids sit down and make bracelets with her. And I mean, she's incredibly intelligent.
Alexander Clark: Nice.
Chelsey Hockett: I was talking to Kevin who also brought his son yesterday.
Kate Rumsey: urged.
Alexander Clark: Evan Burge.
Kate Rumsey: mm -hmm
Chelsey Hockett: Yes.
Alexander Clark: Friend of the pod.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah, I'm sorry.
Chelsey Hockett: I should have said Kevin Burge. but yeah talking
Alexander Clark: Candidate it for Congress running against Beth Andine.
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Chelsey Hockett: Yes. I'm 24. Like we need to have.
Kate Rumsey: my district.
Chelsey Hockett: I was like, we need to have a candidate like event where we have a whole slate and we have kid friendly stuff like inflatables and everything else.
Alexander Clark: Absolutely.
Chelsey Hockett: So parents can bring their kids to events. The kids are entertained. They have something to do. People are watching them. And parents can feel engaged because I did feel really weird going into a lot of these spaces being the only mom.
Chelsey Hockett: And I know that kind of makes you feel like you don't have access to. fight the way that you want to fight for your kids.
Kate Rumsey: yeah Well, can we just... reflect on this for a little bit. I ran Chelsea in 2024. I know I bring this up all the time. But I lost. But I remember when I was going into it, I had a one -year -old at the time.
Kate Rumsey: I mean, Chelsea, it like she's one years old. And i I had people in this area saying, well, I don't know you know if we can really elect people with young kids. and there are some pretty sexist people out there and they might not think that you're capable of doing this.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: And I'm like, what are you talking about uh and i remember someone also commenting on that i don't have enough energy i'm like i'm barely sleeping so Like how can I, I don't have energy for any, like how?
Kate Rumsey: What do you mean? but As you're saying, I know what the cost of daycare is. I know what the cost of the formula is for my daughter. I know like you. when I just had my c -section having issues with my insurance and getting a pediatrician to take my insurance.
Chelsey Hockett: yes
Kate Rumsey: and So I think like your story is such a good one for us to be reminded that. moms can do this. Katie Padilla Stout, we talked to her down in San Antonio, who's also running for Congress. and You know, like, we we get what...
Kate Rumsey: is happening to people and we can enact legislation. accordingly.
Chelsey Hockett: Amen.
Kate Rumsey: And I love that.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: But yeah, like knowing. how much groceries cost or doing the the massive grocery. Like... budgeting. And we're seeing just a massive, like I bought one onion for $1 .50 today.
Chelsey Hockett: Just bring it.
Alexander Clark: Oh my God.
Chelsey Hockett: one onion and I'm like this is insane.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: The one each carrot was a dollar?
Alexander Clark: Well, yeah. Okay.
Chelsey Hockett: but I could get a bag of carrots for $2. that are organic. And I was like, this makes zero sense. And then having daycare, gas, getting around. uh dealing with weird schedules and like being a consistent person for my toddler to wake up in the middle of the night having to get back and forth between school and parent day out. and Everything. like
Chelsey Hockett: I feel like I'm constantly multitasking. i'm I'm understanding of. everything that we're seeing i mean both of my kids one was going to go to a public preschool and her tuition was 500 a month for public preschool and then my son was 1700 a month and so 2100 a month is not doable for a lot of families especially when you don't hit a threshold where you're able to get. additional care.
Chelsey Hockett: And I do always start out with, I'm from Maryland. Cardinal sin of running for office in Texas without being from Texas. But I moved here when I was 15 and I went to the public schools. I did all of that. But being from Maryland.
Chelsey Hockett: Right down the road is the Capitol and I have family that They are retired now and ready to watch the kids 24 -7, so that way... they have somebody that they feel like they can trust. this. regardless of if I actually represent them or not. So i'm I'm thankful that I have that. And I know that that's not an opportunity that a lot of moms that would be running out of state.
Chelsey Hockett: Cheers. But it's just, it's so essential to have moms that are. willing to step in and... say hey this is not okay this is what we're dealing with like we need to fix this
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Alexander Clark: Yeah, I mean you're talking about you know not wanting to have health care tied to a job and Now that I work for myself, got my law firm started. you know having to go and buy health insurance on the exchange, it's by far the most expensive. thing on my budget after my mortgage.
Alexander Clark: And to be honest. Childcare is not far behind. Because... I have a four year old. girl and a two -year -old boy. who start. Wednesday. this week.
Alexander Clark: And then Thursday this week. for their They're preschool and it is not cheap. And so, yeah, I mean, we need more people who are you know hyper aware and attuned to the costs and the sacrifices that real people have to make. I mean, these people are living completely different lives. allianceance good and
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: The amount of travel, I think I saw you you post about him. what was the thing about
Chelsey Hockett: The travel.
Chelsey Hockett: and I mean, he's traveling to the Middle East and all over the country. time of you know, taxpayers. And I've looked at what he's getting reimbursed for and I know that the flights that he's buying because i I booked travel for airlines and I had pilots that had first class when they would fly across I was like the the cost that he's
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: paying for Art International. airline tickets in first class. So... it's that That's what it is. And it is the most that a congressman has ever been reimbursed by double.
Kate Rumsey: wow
Chelsey Hockett: that he's that he's taking in. I think the next person was like $400 ,000 almost. And it wasn't even 400. So.
Alexander Clark: and Just blatant corruption.
Chelsey Hockett: it It is. And he sent out right before the blackout, like the blackout date for them being able to send mailers and mass communication prior to the election. He sent out just these massive books.
Chelsey Hockett: I'm sure you I don't know if you got one since you're not technically in the district, but they're like, it's a book full of lies.
Alexander Clark: Well, that's the thing. Like, am am I in the district or aren't I?
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah. Well, I mean you're not on the mailing list.
Alexander Clark: i am I am voting in the district.
Chelsey Hockett: I've called and complained so many times that I am on the mailing list so I have to see his face all the time.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: I guess I'm not technically in the district for like him serving right now.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah, not yet Yeah.
Alexander Clark: but he's running for this new district because of the mid Decade redistricting, that's probably why I haven't gotten it.
Kate Rumsey: for the future. Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Still getting all the Julie Johnson stuff.
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Chelsey Hockett: I'm happy to send you a picture of everything that it says, but it in it too, because we were talking a little bit about it beforehand, but his ethics investigation.
Alexander Clark: That's crazy.
Chelsey Hockett: He has his campaign. Shit. he himself have said that it is due to bogus spending allegations but then In March, he was on a podcast with Matt Gaetz And they started bashing a philanthropist in Dallas.
Chelsey Hockett: And that guy sued him. And he... brought the lawsuit the same way that the ethics investigation dropped. So in this book, after saying that it's been a or bogus spending allegations. is They're now saying that it was actually the philanthropist that got him an ethics investigation. But in 2021.
Chelsey Hockett: he got the investigation because he was uh trading unethically in congress So it was stock trades in 2021. Now we're in 2024. Is it spending or is it because you bashed a philanthropist and you're getting sued that you're getting enough? investigation now. and Not to mention that the guy that he was on the podcast was. with what got paid for or i'm sorry got his ethics investigation because he paid to have sex with a minor So...
Kate Rumsey: matt gatez Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Yeah, Matt Gaetz.
Chelsey Hockett: but
Alexander Clark: Almost Attorney General of the United States.
Chelsey Hockett: Mm hmm.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Trump's first pick, people forget.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: I did.
Chelsey Hockett: I
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: hate that man with a passion. next
Alexander Clark: He was part of the origin story for one of our other guests, Olivia Juliana.
Kate Rumsey: Oh, yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: Mhm.
Kate Rumsey: Do you want to? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah, watching that is just... Watching the entire Matt Gaetz just... story explode. and the fact that he's still able to walk around and be a voice in politics is unacceptable.
Alexander Clark: Crazy.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Just...
Kate Rumsey: but i mean Can I ask, though, like the ethics investigation?
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: This is by Congress.
Chelsey Hockett: Hmm.
Kate Rumsey: So this is an internal investigation.
Chelsey Hockett: Yes.
Kate Rumsey: of their own members and he's being investigated by his own republican -led congress for these purchases is that correct or the
Chelsey Hockett: apparently we So there's no official... statement about what what it is from the from the ethics committee. None. Anything that has come out has only come out of Gooden's mouth or his campaign team.
Chelsey Hockett: That's it. like they're we have no idea what it's for. and But we've also gotten multiple stories.
Kate Rumsey: i just
Chelsey Hockett: about what it is
Kate Rumsey: Okay. And like he is. like what he's saying and it's about, or is he not saying anything?
Chelsey Hockett: He has said it's... either the bogus spending allegations, Or... him bashing a Dallas will eat their fist. on the podcast with Matt Gaetz. But.
Chelsey Hockett: his campaign team. Sad. spending allegations to the press and then it was printed in his mid -year report that it was because He used his free speech.
Chelsey Hockett: on a podcast. and It caused harm to somebody that was working with Chase and he sued him. But the lawsuit and the ethics investigation dropped at the end of July together.
Kate Rumsey: It's kind of like when Fox News exercised their free speech and lying about voting machines and then they
Chelsey Hockett: So.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah. Yeah. Page 797.
Kate Rumsey: paid billions of dollars yeah whatever that amount was
Alexander Clark: Yes.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Thanks to 2018 Attorney General. nominee Justin Nelson was the lead lawyer on that lawsuit. I don't know if y 'all know that.
Kate Rumsey: Yes.
Alexander Clark: Fun little trivia.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah, yeah, yeah, from Sussman Godfrey.
Alexander Clark: We really as a state whiffed it. I'm not electing Justin Nelson. as our Attorney General. He is incredible.
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Alexander Clark: Former Supreme Court. clerk Sandra Day O 'Connor. Anyways, that's a that's a side thing. Can we just talk about like. What it is it about like the modern Republican Party that is like festering? It seems like corruption is just infecting the party. like it is They're like noticing that it's almost rewarded.
Alexander Clark: Like. They're seeing the way those record levels of grift that Trump and his family have been able to get away with. They're like, this is the this is the path. If I want to be successful in Republican politics.
Alexander Clark: This is what I need to do, basically. Like. it Ken Paxton is a Senate nominee.
Chelsey Hockett: i don't necessarily
Alexander Clark: like Lance Gooden is trying to follow in those footsteps.
Chelsey Hockett: i don't like they're seeing it as a past I think they're saying like oh, I don't have to hide it anymore because we all know that they've been doing it anyways But now they're like well, we don't actually have to hide it corruption.
Alexander Clark: No accountability.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah, the voters aren't going to keep them accountable. They don't care. They're like, oh, well, you have the conservative policies that we like. We don't care that you you're robbing our taxpayer coffers. at all and for these you know incredible flights that you're doing.
Kate Rumsey: I mean, we're i flight like I'm also sorry.
Alexander Clark: The price of doing business.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah, like I just opened my own business too, Chelsea. and Like I'm. putting aside tax money for whenever I have to pay quarterly now. And it's so much money. And I guess when we're withholding in our you our paychecks, it doesn't seem as close to. like It's just money I don't really think about.
Kate Rumsey: But when I'm actually setting my own money aside and I have to think about that I'm now paying for Lance Gooden's. Very expensive flight around the world. It makes me angry. but Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: yeah mean Like you're you're paying for your... congressional representative to fly first class. But don't worry, if you elect me... I have standby and I can fly for free.
Kate Rumsey: Yes. Exactly.
Alexander Clark: Well, some of it has to be to like incentives, right? Like. as part of the I guess the the... the perverse incentive of uncompetitive districts.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: I think, well, all I have to do is win my primary and then I can do whatever I want. And. I'm guessing for most of Lance Gooden's career, he once he got the the job, he probably hasn't.
Alexander Clark: Worried about it. since.
Chelsey Hockett: yeah he hasn't worried about much of anything monty bennett has definitely funded most of his runs
Alexander Clark: Who's that?
Chelsey Hockett: and mont He's a... Hotelier in Dallas. that is Very, very rich. And he likes to... by elections. And one of the things that he did recently that was absolutely heinous was he took a closed door meeting with the Dallas City Council and tried to open up the Hutchins warehouse for the human. trafficking, basically, with ICE and the unhoused in Dallas. That was.
Chelsey Hockett: quickly cut off and but there were a lot of protests against it because it would have, one, doubled the size of Hetchums with zero infrastructure upgrades to it, but it's also, you know, housing humans in a warehouse instead of...
Chelsey Hockett: any kind of facility that would be you know. safe and not neglectful in any way. and then we also have kyle bass that's in our district constantly and he's currently trying to
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Chelsey Hockett: take water out of the Carrizo -Wilcox Aquifer, which is one of our big water sources in rural Texas, especially for our farmers. and he's trying to drain 15 billion gallons a year out of it.
Chelsey Hockett: And he is actually suing multiple counties in rural Texas and federal courts, and they don't have the money to fight back. tactic. retain control of their water. And he is also one of, I don't.
Kate Rumsey: wow
Chelsey Hockett: I think he's directly donated to Gooden, but he is donating to a lot of the other Republicans. again. people that are out but they are fighting him back pretty hard.
Kate Rumsey: and marian
Chelsey Hockett: on a bipartisan level. But we do.
Kate Rumsey: is that May I, so, sorry, may I ask though, is... is We're seeing data centers and water and public goods like that.
Chelsey Hockett: Yes.
Kate Rumsey: as a huge talking point.
Chelsey Hockett: mm -hmm
Kate Rumsey: As you're out talking to voters in your area, And I guess I'm hearing you're a very gerrymandered spot if you're representing Alex in East Dallas all the way out to Coffman County. but Can you speak to the issues like that that are you hear from people at the doors?
Chelsey Hockett: yeah so Honestly, the big ones, we are working heavily in Forney right now because Forney went for, or Kauffman County itself. i mean Coffman County is only 12 miles from Dallas County, so it's not...
Chelsey Hockett: that part of it called the gerrymandered part it's the palestine And then out.
Kate Rumsey: Not far.
Kate Rumsey: Yes.
Alexander Clark: three
Chelsey Hockett: Tyler, that's more gerrymandered. kaufman county is reasonable with it but With 40, we saw an increase. I'm sorry, with the growth in Forney in Kauffman County. We saw it in Greece.
Chelsey Hockett: of 900 we had about 900 primary voters turn out on average for each primary and this year we had 12 000 people turn out for the democratic primary so we're seeing a really big increase on that and we're trying to capitalize on it because we have two local people running for county commissioner and justice of the peace but one of the big reasons that they're running for county commissioner is because of we have a land grab issue happening in Kauffman County because they have zero zoning regulations and we have about four data centers that they're trying to put in but they also
Chelsey Hockett: heavily put in like mud districts, which are the multiple, id like are the, the utility. I want to say municipal utility districts, but I... can move them
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Chelsey Hockett: my My acronyms today are failing me. But it's basically the pre -planned master communities. and they're putting them outside of city limits without any infrastructure and they're pushing really hard on city limits so we're dealing with that at the same time that they're trying to put a data center right next to those communities and that those communities don't have a say because none of it is in the city City. like
Kate Rumsey: zoning or area, yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah, zoning area. And it only falls to the county. And the county said, well, if you've got water, electricity, and gas, we're not going to tell you what to do with your property. So you can do whatever you want. free for all four. the mud districts, free for all for data centers, free for all for all of that.
Chelsey Hockett: And it's to the point where the one in tulsi that they're trying to put in they're going to get water and sewage From Forney. But they're trying to take electricity from Mesquite. So they're hard they're trying to get into Dallas County and take...
Chelsey Hockett: like put pressure on that. electrical grid that's already struggling. so that's a really big issue here and the people in ford you're like hey we've got way too many housing issues i Kate, I think I sent you the stuff with the Section 8 vouchers that they're doing.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: but With that, like they have chosen like the developers that are heavily funding my opponent. Arr. building like 100 out of 116 houses on section 8 housing vouchers and they're bringing in a lot of that and increasing rent and decreasing housing costs are like decreasing like house prices and values for people that do own those homes. and we have
Chelsey Hockett: a massive amount of the housing vouchers. I don't have an issue with Section 8, but I have an issue with Build to Rent.
Chelsey Hockett: taking so much federal funding and driving people out of Forney. but that issue with land is just a really big struggle.
Chelsey Hockett: in the entire rural area with data centers, with water, with the availability.
Kate Rumsey: out there
Chelsey Hockett: And so we're we're just seeing a lot of. struggle with that so when we do block block That's what we hear is about. Too many houses. Data centers are coming in. There's no accountability. People are getting away with whatever they want to get away with because it's a good old boy system. and they They were like, we're not going to tell you what to do with your land instead of looking out for... best interest so if they can poison.
Chelsey Hockett: everybody in the water supply. As long as. they pay whatever taxes they get. They can do whatever they want. But they're also offering abatements because if they offer the tax abatements, then they have to go by the like the guidelines of the county and city. but then they're not.
Chelsey Hockett: paying. into the city. and it's pudding. a strain on resources again. so
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Chelsey Hockett: it's It's just that way. through all of the counties. I mean the mud districts aren't as bad, but.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Well, just flagging like how. easy it is to get away with stuff like this based on again kind of the structural incentives i mean you go back to the start of all this when Lance Gooden first got the job.
Alexander Clark: I just looked this up. you know It was such a... i guess red ruby red jewel like a prize to win for republicans back in 2018 even that apparently there was an eight candidate field.
Alexander Clark: And so all you have to do is make it to the runoff. Right. And he got.
Chelsey Hockett: And then it's yours.
Alexander Clark: little over 17 ,000 votes, 17 ,551 votes. And that was a good enough to get him to the runoff. Because nobody had the majority. he was able to become a congressperson
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: with 18 ,364 votes. and basically hasn't had to look back.
Chelsey Hockett: I got more than that in my primary.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Wow. Awesome.
Chelsey Hockett: We're just, we're we're pushing on that one. and But with the redistricting, we we took 6 % more of Dallas County than we had before. We had 10%. Now we have 16%, which is a pretty big. chunk when you have six congressional representatives running in Dallas County.
Chelsey Hockett: Right? I think it's six.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah. Mm hmm.
Chelsey Hockett: i mean That's huge.
Kate Rumsey: i mean can we reflect on that like I think a lot of folks are thinking that The Republicans diluted a lot of their strong Republican congressional districts in order to create the five that Trump wanted.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Additional ones and because of that you're saying as I understand You've got more of Dallas County, which is a strongly blue area. including apparently alex's Mockingbird area east house.
Alexander Clark: I'm a big... Big blue dot. On Del Mar Avenue, yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah. I mean, is how are you seeing that? because as like in the past elections we always you look at like okay how did the they do in other midterms but how are you vote reflecting on that given what has happened in the primary and then adding the this new 6%.
Chelsey Hockett: So they didn't take anything into consideration when they did this. They only looked at the 2020 census data. data. They haven't looked at the growth. That's what happened. Coffman County is the second fastest growing county in the entire nation.
Kate Rumsey: Really?
Alexander Clark: I didn't know that
Chelsey Hockett: it's Huge. we went from about 80 000 people in 40 and now we have almost 120 000 i believe The numbers are always a little.
Alexander Clark: Wow.
Chelsey Hockett: iffy because we don't have
Alexander Clark: oh
Chelsey Hockett: full census data.
Alexander Clark: So do you mean fastest growing like as a percentage or as in raw numbers?
Chelsey Hockett: I... Okay. I feel like it's percentage but it is.
Alexander Clark: Okay. Because as a percentage, that is huge.
Chelsey Hockett: Yes.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: it is It's a a massive increase that we've had in Kauffman County, and a lot of it is due to Forney. And it's those districts that... Lance got his palms greased for is now going to backfire on him. So they're not looking at that. They're not looking at the fact that Palestine, Texas has, for the first time ever, elected a black mayor.
Chelsey Hockett: and he's going to be running for his third term, and he has an entire base of support now in Anderson County that gets out in votes. a lot, but that has happened since the 2020 census. we have uh the data center's becoming an issue we have a lot of but the other stuff going on but we also took on Lake Highlands and White Rock Lake area.
Chelsey Hockett: And that is. while it is Fairly conservative? Not enough. it's not enough Wooden Upshur. Well, they're not flipping. We lost them and they went into Dan Barrios' district.
Chelsey Hockett: And then we took, so I was like. They gave. our most Republican areas to Barrios and gave some of Julie's bluest areas to us. So they kind of...
Chelsey Hockett: shifted.
Alexander Clark: For orientation, who is Barrios running against?
Chelsey Hockett: That way. He's running me against Jace Yarborough.
Alexander Clark: Okay.
Chelsey Hockett: he's not there's no income like the incumbent for 32 is Julie Johnson so well and she's not the incumbent i guess uh running because it's dan but they just they shifted
Kate Rumsey: In Richardson area, yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: the bluer areas and and then the redder areas up.
Alexander Clark: Watch out.
Chelsey Hockett: But Anderson County now has a bigger base of Democrats turning out.
Alexander Clark: Hmm.
Chelsey Hockett: and because of Mitchell Jordan being mayor down there. Athens. They have the churches now getting together and they're going to be offering rides to the polls. They're doing massive voter registration events and they're doing all of this. We have three very historic black cities. in rural Texas between Terrell and I live in the one in Terrell.
Chelsey Hockett: Athens.
Alexander Clark: sherman Sherman played Terrell in football.
Chelsey Hockett: yes
Alexander Clark: I know about Terrell.
Chelsey Hockett: yeah
Alexander Clark: and i have to do it's it's contractually obligated now i have to mention sherman once per episode
Chelsey Hockett: Well, if you're going to mention him. and Terrell. You also have to mention mention Jamie Foxx.
Alexander Clark: I was just about to say Jamie Foxx was at the game.
Chelsey Hockett: I live off Jamie Foxx play. yeah
Alexander Clark: Danny Fox came to the Sherman High football stadium. Watch, I think it was his brother play.
Chelsey Hockett: yeah
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: but
Alexander Clark: Of course I know Jamie Foxx is from Terrell.
Chelsey Hockett: the the park Yeah, the park that I take my kids to, he actually funded for the community that we're at.
Alexander Clark: what
Chelsey Hockett: It's like a minute and a half from my house. i don't just like live in tarot i live in the black neighborhood of tarot
Alexander Clark: Favorite Jamie Foxx movie?
Chelsey Hockett: i don't know
Alexander Clark: Okay, it's Ray for me.
Chelsey Hockett: I should.
Alexander Clark: right Race, i I used to listen to that album all the time.
Chelsey Hockett: right
Alexander Clark: when I was in high school.
Chelsey Hockett: so That's a good one.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: I don't know.
Kate Rumsey: It's got so many.
Chelsey Hockett: i
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: I know a lot of Jamie Foxx movies, but it's one of those things where I can't name every single one of them, but I know.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: I know him pretty well. But we have them painted on the side of our buildings.
Alexander Clark: Oh wow!
Chelsey Hockett: I can't tell. He has a huge mural with like...
Alexander Clark: Home time. Hero.
Chelsey Hockett: Seven of his faces. Yeah, it's cool. But it's my favorite long -term checks. But we have those three communities that are now very active. Because of everything that's happening. So between Athens, Palestine and Terrell, they turned out massively for the primaries. And then.
Chelsey Hockett: they are just they're ready to fight back. And we're we're really excited to see that and everybody is. meshing very well in the rural areas for that. And so
Alexander Clark: Okay.
Chelsey Hockett: The Republicans have not taken any of that. into account like not the tariffs not the increased prices they haven't they did not take anything I think they did the redistricting before the war in Iran. So.
Alexander Clark: Well, can I ask you very bluntly then?
Chelsey Hockett: ready
Alexander Clark: I mean, the decision desk HQ people would say something like, you know.
Chelsey Hockett: mm -hmm
Alexander Clark: Texas five has an underlying Republican advantage of like 20 to 22 points based on the presidential election.
Chelsey Hockett: Yes.
Alexander Clark: Obviously that's not. this election. They say even though the current political environment. is good for Democrats. we actually think that the race is probably still 12 to 14 points.
Chelsey Hockett: that
Alexander Clark: in favor of the Republican. I'm not saying they're right. I'm just saying.
Kate Rumsey: Walk.
Alexander Clark: 20, 22 points.
Kate Rumsey: I was just...
Alexander Clark: Taylor Remitt.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: He swung his district by more than that.
Chelsey Hockett: thirty one
Alexander Clark: 31 points. So if we can have a remit size swing everywhere, we're going to be fine.
Kate Rumsey: i mean Cooks has a 10, right?
Chelsey Hockett: We're plus 10.
Kate Rumsey: So plus 10. Yeah.
Alexander Clark: I'll cook as it attend.
Chelsey Hockett: Paxton being on the ticket is an automatic six -point swing to the left.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Nice.
Kate Rumsey: Yes.
Chelsey Hockett: and then we're seeing an average of 11 points so that's roughly about 17 points so just that alone without the redistricting that out
Kate Rumsey: Congresswoman Hawkins. Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah, so we're We have 196 ,000 Democrats.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: We have about 76 ,000 unaffiliated, but those unaffiliated have shifted massively to Dallas versus the whole area.
Alexander Clark: Yeah, they're breaking this way, right?
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Well, can I just... I was just looking at your map. I'm sorry I didn't see it before this, but...
Chelsey Hockett: you
Kate Rumsey: So I think it like. if I'm just going to... Maybe I'll put this on one of our clips, but it's essentially like concentrated in Dallas. And then if you just like spread. southeast and that it it goes to athens as you're saying palestine and then What's cool is that my parents have a house on Cedar Creek Lake and And I've mentioned this on the podcast before, but honestly, like.
Kate Rumsey: I've seen so many signs anti -data data center. like if there's I mean, there's just a lot of Trump signs usually. And now I'm seeing data centers. Like I got, we ordered pizza one night.
Kate Rumsey: We're all out there. And our pizza owner was out delivering the pizza. And he had the like a button that was like at anti data center. And I'm like, What is going on out here in Malakoff? It just seems like...
Kate Rumsey: People have not read... the room i don't think on this issue and if you're plus 10 in a year like this like Well, it's good.
Chelsey Hockett: i mean he has he has a congressional letter that he put out supporting data centers and the growth that they have like unlimited support to data centers is taking money from data centers uh like just
Kate Rumsey: It might be packing its bags.
Chelsey Hockett: workers and people that are designing them and whatever the case is. And then on top of it, a couple of our cities just installed a massive amount of flock cameras in rural Texas where they're already mad about the data centers. And while we still have a couple like, well, we just don't want crime. We'd rather have the cameras. I'm like, well.
Chelsey Hockett: not the only thing that they're doing and they're stalking people. My husband decided to try. My husband does not have a social media presence. He'll be there. But he he stays very quiet on it.
Chelsey Hockett: And he decided to chime in and got into an argument with the people of Terrell. Oh. think about it and he was like Oh, is that how you feel about the one guy that like, are those people in Florida that?
Chelsey Hockett: stalked a bunch of people and they're now facing prison time because they were stalking people with black cameras. and she was like well i don't have any affiliation with this and he was like oh so your son
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Chelsey Hockett: or so you don't have any like affiliation that's not your son that is this person on the tarot And she was like, fuck he would never.
Kate Rumsey: Well, I think it's such a it's a weird confluence of...
Chelsey Hockett: So.
Kate Rumsey: pro -law enforcement, wanting safety in the community, but also
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: the libertarian let freedom live type texan who doesn't like the idea of a surveillance state and You've got this this kind of confluence of worlds. I saw on TikTok, I think.
Kate Rumsey: There was a woman, I don't know what city council it was, but apparently it was it was like kind of a parody. And she was up in the city council. diets. I was like, thank you so much for these flop camera contracts.
Kate Rumsey: It allows me to stalk my ex -boyfriend and I've been on every video and now I get to see all of his whereabouts.
Chelsey Hockett: yes
Alexander Clark: Sorry, sorry, sorry.
Kate Rumsey: Thank you so much. And and I think that's when people realize, oh, yeah, maybe. Maybe this isn't a great idea.
Chelsey Hockett: maybe it's not a good thing Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: of
Alexander Clark: So how do how do you make the most of that opportunity, though? and I think this is a bigger conversation. beyond obviously your race, but I want to know specifically for you, like. How do you see these disaffected Republicans?
Alexander Clark: Who? they're probably not waking up in the morning being like man I'm a full blown. Democrat. I'm actually I've changed my mind on every issue. But... On data centers, and on flock cameras and maybe something else.
Alexander Clark: Like. I'm ready to break rank.
Chelsey Hockett: Yep.
Alexander Clark: That's the phrase I keep seeing, right? like How do you make sure that they feel welcoming your campaign. And they have like some sort of. internal permission structure in their brain that it like doesn't like get them jammed up and says does not compute can't sub Can't vote for a Democrat.
Chelsey Hockett: So the ones that can just cannot bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, they are... Just not voting. I have called like we're doing call time. I have unaffiliated people on my list. We don't actually have to bring any Republicans over. We just have to turn out our Democrats and we know our unaffiliated are going to come out no matter what if they feel.
Chelsey Hockett: any kind of way about it but we i mean we reach out to them anyways But I use Model Partnership. I don't use VAM. So I use different...
Alexander Clark: What's that?
Chelsey Hockett: So I use L2 data.
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Chelsey Hockett: which does model partisanship based on a lot of history. And it's almost the surveillance state thing that we were talking about. but it also uses when they do when they move it brings in their old voting records so if they're coming in from like ohio where they're registered democrat it transfers with their data. So I'll be able to see previous voting records outside of the state of Texas, not fully, but like that they voted and that they were voted. Democrat or that they were registered as that and then also uses family history.
Chelsey Hockett: To kind of determine if somebody so if you have like two parents that we're democratic and you have an 18 year old come up, they're going to be flagged as a Democrat as well. So we have we have more Democrats in middle partisanship than Republicans.
Chelsey Hockett: And I was able, we have 123 ,000.
Alexander Clark: Interesting.
Chelsey Hockett: democrats that have turned out to vote in the last eight elections like total and that is more than enough to win us the election So we're focused on turning them out and talking to unaffiliated. But Republicans that come to me, I go, hey, yep this is how I feel about it. I've had them come to me about THC, universal health care, data centers and all of that. And I've reached out to them and I do talk to them. I'm like, hey, i I don't support any of this. I want a moratorium. We need more studies like that kind of stuff. And I was like, and the noise is just an issue for wildlife and everything. else and they're like Thank you.
Chelsey Hockett: But they also know that I'm not for like taking over farmland for solar farms. I would rather see those like on buildings, like over parking lots. like we should We could have coverage in parking lots from hailstorms and also get solar energy.
Chelsey Hockett: like That would be incredible.
Kate Rumsey: Yes, girl Yes.
Alexander Clark: Win -win.
Chelsey Hockett: Anyways.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: So they know that.
Kate Rumsey: I hate parking drones.
Chelsey Hockett: Like I don't want to see their farmland destroyed at all. I think it's sacred. I'm from a rural part of Maryland. My dad lives where they put in high voltage power lines and they go for a walk and we have to like walk past these like.
Chelsey Hockett: awful buzzing noises and they are so much smaller and the noise is less than data centers.
Kate Rumsey: first
Chelsey Hockett: But I just, I tell them, I'm like, I'm from a rural area. Farmland is sacred. I don't want to touch it. I just want everybody to be able to thrive. And they they're like, okay, okay. i've had When I was poll green during primaries and runoffs, we had Republicans that were like, I have never voted for a Democrat in my life, and I'm really nervous.
Chelsey Hockett: going to vote for Democrats.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: that I've called independence, independence, I'm not voting this year, or yeah, I'm going to vote Democrat this year. I can't stand what's happening to the country. So we do make a nice open space for them.
Chelsey Hockett: I'm saying welcome here. I know we're not going to agree on everything, but I promise that I'll listen to your concerns. But that that's basically it. like They were coming to us. Whether we went to or not, Keenan Colbert and I went out to Grand Saline and we did a podcast together in Van Zandt County and just one of the most rural areas.
Kate Rumsey: Yay, Kim!
Chelsey Hockett: And we were there for about three hours. I moved my chair and looked into this guy's eyes and I listed off all of these things that were happening in the country. They... died laughing.
Chelsey Hockett: and They're like, we've never had anybody get that passionate. And they were like, you did amazing delivering your message. I got invited back. I got about three or four different compliments on it. Keenan nearly jumped him over the table.
Chelsey Hockett: But it's it's not even the first time.
Alexander Clark: be
Chelsey Hockett: and spent there and he got invited back to it too. And it's not over drama. It's just because we've been that passionate about everything and they're seeing that we... genuinely give a shit about them yeah
Kate Rumsey: Learn about your community, yeah. Well, shout out to Kenan, who's running for the state Senate seat out there as well.
Chelsey Hockett: out
Kate Rumsey: And we're he's a veteran. We've had him on.
Alexander Clark: Another veteran, yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah, he was on our...
Chelsey Hockett: yeah and' Yep.
Kate Rumsey: venezuela panel and really big fan of him i just saw him at the labor day picnic too so
Chelsey Hockett: uh kina We overlap about 258 ,000 constituents and voters.
Alexander Clark: a while
Kate Rumsey: wow
Chelsey Hockett: So we have a massive overlap between Kauffman and Van Zandt, but we also overlap. heavily in Dallas and he goes to Richardson. He also has some South Dallas. so it's not just that he's in the rural area out here running like he is also running heavily in dallas
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Kate Rumsey: Bye.
Alexander Clark: I think that's one of those things that's not intuitive to people, but it's it's it's a true fact that... State Senate districts. are larger and have more people in them than our congressional districts.
Chelsey Hockett: because if they're what 31 senate districts and 38 congressional districts so while they're not that much larger.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Right. So far.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah, I was like, they are.
Kate Rumsey: In a little bit.
Chelsey Hockett: They are definitely. definitely larger than What?
Alexander Clark: Well, I mean, one of the things...
Chelsey Hockett: thepress or
Alexander Clark: One of the things that got this show started in the beginning. and it's kind of the central thesis is we're about to get four or five more congressional districts because of just the explosion you talk about kaufman how it's been growing but the state as a whole has just been going gangbusters
Chelsey Hockett: and they've been able to do them for a while but they just have chosen not to because if they get the more congressional districts they're going to have more blue seats as well. so they are worried about losing texas because they're going to get actual representation but i mean i talk to people all the time i was like dallas has with all of 1 .3 million people.
Kate Rumsey: God forbid.
Chelsey Hockett: And... There are six congressional districts running within that 1 .3 million people, and there should be. too.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Well, may I just piggyback off of something that you were talking about earlier, just in inviting. red or independent voters. uh we're hearing a lot about dsa like every time you mention universal health care or like we get a lot of those kind of comments on our own social media like oh Jenna McCratch just want to like spend all of our money and for nothing.
Kate Rumsey: And how do you Do you have those kind of comments or how do you bridge that gap to say?
Chelsey Hockett: get him all the time
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: yeah I just. for the most part it's something that i would ignore because typically it's like you're just a communist and when i go well our president for the first time ever has taken public shares of private companies so who but uh they don't like that answer and they go you're lying So I i move past that.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: pretty frequently because a lot of time it's just the rhetoric that gets you. and push up. but or like gets them worked up. But when the people that actually want to like sit down and talk about it, I'm like, I don't want to increase your taxes.
Chelsey Hockett: I want to see accountability. I want to see the Pentagon pass their first budget or audit in like what, seven years, eight years now. They haven't been able to do that.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: We have money going to no big contracts. We have. literally money just flying out of our government. We're at a $40 trillion dollar deficit. And I don't want to see. any of that increase i want to see that decrease i don't want to see taxes increase i want to be able to kind of even that out. But even when it's Medicare for all, like, hey. what you're paying for medical. now will significantly decrease even if it's a small bump in taxes while
Chelsey Hockett: the deficit and everything else worked out, but we have the money and the government and they are using it. to bomb people across. Fees. instead of putting it back into your education, putting it back into your infrastructure and putting it back into your to your healthcare.
Chelsey Hockett: care Like we can afford it as one of the. which is good. the richest country in the world. I think we're one out of the top 50, the only one out of the top 50 richest countries that does not have some kind of medical care.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: for.
Kate Rumsey: And the only one that ties it to your point to employment.
Alexander Clark: Well, look, I saw.
Kate Rumsey: So.
Chelsey Hockett: Yes.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Yeah. I saw that the Dallas County Democratic Party announced that Pete Buttigieg was going to be the keynote speaker at their big.
Chelsey Hockett: The JJ?
Alexander Clark: Johnson Jordan dinner.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: and i think it was him who said like look Republicans are going to call you a far left. socialist.
Chelsey Hockett: No, thank you.
Alexander Clark: Communist. Atheist Muslim. whatever whatever their scary words trans whatever like
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: whatever they think is going to be the boogeyman term. And even if they don't really make sense together.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah, no that
Alexander Clark: that It's never stopped them.
Chelsey Hockett: No.
Chelsey Hockett: It's going to be there no matter what.
Alexander Clark: And so it was.
Chelsey Hockett: so i
Alexander Clark: Yeah, you just gotta to decide like what's the right thing to do. What's the best policy and do that?
Chelsey Hockett: yeah
Alexander Clark: right You can't be scared of what they're going to call you. Because like, look.
Chelsey Hockett: We'll bring it back to kitchen table and be like okay call me whatever you want to but what I'm concerned about is the fact that you have food. That's what, and that doesn't poison you that's it
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Yeah. Well, I just think it's so hilarious that like... Okay, James Tallarico is like... A sweet man. I've known for a long time. he's a middle school teacher and a seminarian like he's a like squeaky clean very neighborly.
Alexander Clark: Fred Rogers come to life. kind of guy. But. He's running against the most. maybe immoral. Like...
Chelsey Hockett: ethically group.
Alexander Clark: flawed candidate man who has like figured out a way to do everything wrong yet now the like Republican messaging I continue to see is like.
Alexander Clark: Tallarico is the Antichrist or he is Satan himself or he is demonic heretic
Chelsey Hockett: yeah
Kate Rumsey: As a heretic.
Chelsey Hockett: yeah it's like you may not like how he looks or what he does, but he'll fight for our Texas values.
Kate Rumsey: So, yeah.
Alexander Clark: Okay.
Chelsey Hockett: Just hold your nose and vote for him.
Alexander Clark: Hmm.
Chelsey Hockett: is basically what it is.
Alexander Clark: No, like. like Literally, i like my but my friend in Rockwall took a picture of a yard sign.
Kate Rumsey: Well, against it.
Alexander Clark: That has like. you know, Tallarico is Satan, right? you nominated Ken Paxton and you want to say Tallarico is Satan?
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Well, they're calling him a heretic, right?
Chelsey Hockett: i
Kate Rumsey: Like that he his teachings or his messaging is anti is against the teachings of the Bible, which you're like. have you read the bible uh i don't think so but But I think that that's what we're all dealing with is like, how do you, there's.
Kate Rumsey: facts are not facts you know they don't want to hear reason they don't want to hear what the actual bible says
Chelsey Hockett: They just want to be able to continue pushing there. agenda and i mean The Republican Party has nearly always been a corporate agenda. It's been for business. It's not been for people and they've pulled over.
Chelsey Hockett: like they they have gained their following. over the past, like... quite moment quite a few decades. I mean, it's been going since about the late 1800s reconstruction era, where they've been able to just use hot button topics to push their agenda and to get people to their side, whether it's racism, abortion, Muslims.
Chelsey Hockett: and Any kind of fear. I'm like, Muslims have literally been here since this country was started. If it was going to be a takeover. It would have happened.
Kate Rumsey: no
Chelsey Hockett: I know. I was like, most the people that they pulled over and enslaved were were Muslims from Africa. I'm like they they've been here. They've been here for a very long time. So it's just it is literally whatever. issue.
Chelsey Hockett: that they can make culturally inflammatory is what they what they go on just for corporations and to benefit. big business and billionaires and people with money.
Chelsey Hockett: And i trying to explain that to a Republican is not fun. I don't recommend it. But I do it occasionally just to rile them up.
Chelsey Hockett: a
Alexander Clark: The love of the game.
Chelsey Hockett: yeah I'm a big history nerd and i'm I'm a true history person. So whatever I've learned, I know that it's probably not real. And i I dig deep to go find what actually was happening. and i give that to my children as well because I feel like it's a gift to be able to understand and have compassion and empathy for people that we're never innocent like when your family was never in that situation, to be able to say, oh, hey, like, this is why everything is so messed up.
Chelsey Hockett: And, I mean, my family was Cherokee, and they were indigenous to Georgia, pushed into a reservation, pushed out Trail of Tears. or left the reservation to go off grid until they made it out to like Alabama. And my family did civil rights work because.
Chelsey Hockett: it was like my great -grandfather, his uncles. looked very Native and they were very There was a lot of prejudice in the area that they were at, so he took it upon himself to go work and help desegregate a small town right outside of Birmingham. And my my grandmother, she would cross picket lines to take kids to school during integration.
Chelsey Hockett: And so. For me, I was like, I know that part of my history. And I know that my history doesn't necessarily align with what's happening, but I will make sure that I find out exactly what happened. And I will read every book along the way. to truly understand the laws and the oppression and everything that's happening, because there's no point in moving forward and trying to fix things if you can't also acknowledge that the laws were oppressive.
Chelsey Hockett: and they will take everybody down along with them. as long as the people that they intended it to harm. Perfect. So.
Alexander Clark: Hey. Yeah, totally agree.
Kate Rumsey: And we're seeing it today. I mean, with Tarrant County and closing polling sites, they're trying to make it harder to vote.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: Mail -in voting with the Postal Service and Trump. and It just seems like there's such a pattern here of people who... or folks in the hooligan party that wanted to be harder to vote and i And here in Texas, it's heart it's one of the hardest states to vote, right? Like, we have to register people on paper. We've got to get them.
Kate Rumsey: more than 30 days before the election and I mean had a friend who just moved here back to Texas and I'm like, are you registered?
Chelsey Hockett: Yes.
Kate Rumsey: Go get registered. You have to do it.
Alexander Clark: Yeah. and we got like a million over a million people on the suspense list and all that and
Chelsey Hockett: immediately i'll sit there on threads and be like, somebody will say something like, I'm suspended. I'm like, do you need a voter? Do you need a VDR right now? I was like I can find you one in an hour I was like I have a whole network.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: I was like, I don't care where you are in Texas. Do you need help registering to vote? And what scares me is that if they're in suspense, they can vote provisionally. But I was looking at the numbers from the 2024 election, and out of almost 3 ,000 people that voted provisionally in Dallas County alone.
Chelsey Hockett: This doesn't include the rest of the state of Texas. Only 600 were accepted.
Alexander Clark: wow Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: So yeah, we can .
Alexander Clark: I wouldn't recommend voting provisionally if you can help it.
Chelsey Hockett: Yes, they they will deny a vast majority of provisional ballots if they find any reason to. They were also denying a heavy amount of. the mail -in ballots for primaries this year.
Chelsey Hockett: The county chair, Van Zant, she voted via mail -in ballot. And hers was denied. And so her vote didn't count. the county chair, the Democratic county chair that knows how to fill out a ballot.
Alexander Clark: am
Chelsey Hockett: They're like, oh, you missed something. And she's like, there's absolutely no way I missed that.
Kate Rumsey: yeah
Chelsey Hockett: Thank you.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah, that happened to me, yeah.
Alexander Clark: Well, you mentioned
Kate Rumsey: When I was in the, my husband and I were gone out of state for the military and I tried to vote by mail. through a military program and they didn't accept my ballot. But anyways, Alex, sorry.
Alexander Clark: I'll just say one more thing and then we can move on to our last segments. You mentioned Cherokees.
Chelsey Hockett: Yes.
Alexander Clark: and the trail tiers and all that and I don't want to get myself in trouble pulling Elizabeth Warren or anything, but it is part of my family lore.
Chelsey Hockett: Mm hmm.
Alexander Clark: That. the grandmother on my mom's side. was part cherokee and so i Because it was part of the family lore, I always took a real interest in in their story and their history.
Alexander Clark: and my hot take my history my history hot take is that andrew jackson more than any other President was probably the closest America has ever gotten to Hitler.
Chelsey Hockett: marble
Alexander Clark: Uh, Like. For him to take a Supreme Court. case that the Cherokee Nation won.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: and say, okay, Supreme Court, now you can enforce it.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: I'm sending them on the trail anyways.
Chelsey Hockett: Mm hmm.
Alexander Clark: and have all these people die. on the way to... Let's face it. Oklahoma is not a great state.
Chelsey Hockett: No. yeah They just voted against it.
Kate Rumsey: Oh, that's the hot take.
Alexander Clark: Just wanted to put that out there.
Chelsey Hockett: gets their own minimum wage yeah my My family.
Chelsey Hockett: So we have documentation. My family's on the Baker's and Dahl's rolls in North Carolina at the reservation. and They're part of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian. A lot of them were born in Caldwell County and they left because Caldwell County was taken from the reservation.
Chelsey Hockett: So we have documentation where like. full government documents that were submitted to and it now uploaded of where We had family leave the reservation and live off -grid in the mountains of Appalachia. We have family that migrated back down to Alabama. We had some go back to Georgia. And then you can see you can actually see it it's a dna pattern with me and that side of the family, you can see where it drops off the entire way around Trail of Tears.
Chelsey Hockett: So we have DNA matches on the exact trail. today so we from a and like through arkansas through mississippi through oklahoma we just have dna matches in that trail where people dropped off
Alexander Clark: wow
Chelsey Hockett: so it's not
Alexander Clark: It's a very dark part of American history that I don't think it's the sunshine it probably deserves.
Chelsey Hockett: It is.
Alexander Clark: It's probably kind of the same way I think Germany is, you know. Ashamed.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: of that period of its history.
Kate Rumsey: And they just elected a far -right parliament.
Alexander Clark: Oh, did they?
Kate Rumsey: Right?
Alexander Clark: In Germany?
Kate Rumsey: didn't they just do that last night yeah
Alexander Clark: Oh no.
Kate Rumsey: Anyways, but on that bad news...
Alexander Clark: Yeah. that's let's try to turn it around pick me up here
Chelsey Hockett: Yes.
Alexander Clark: So one of the things we like to do. we started doing, I guess a few months ago is, uh, a segment we call Good News.
Chelsey Hockett: okay
Alexander Clark: Right. Republicans are really good at being evangelical. even if they're doing it with their fingers crossed behind their backs and they don't really care about any of this stuff. They share their version of the good news.
Alexander Clark: unashamedly. Uh, i think personally democrats got to do a better job and we got to get the reps in so What is something in your life? either personally professionally or just something completely random that is so good You gotta got to share it.
Chelsey Hockett: it Can it be really, really simple?
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: My husband made a pie yesterday for Labor Day and the entire crust was made of cinnamon rolls.
Kate Rumsey: Hey.
Alexander Clark: Awesome.
Chelsey Hockett: like a brown sugar crumble for the top of it. so i have a cinnamon roll apple pie in my fridge and that's just incredible but also Because he's a union worker, I made sure that I put him to work on Labor Day, so he did do everything.
Chelsey Hockett: for our Labor Day cookout.
Alexander Clark: His one day.
Chelsey Hockett: And his one day, he worked a full shift and then he came home and he was like, yes.
Alexander Clark: no
Chelsey Hockett: Because I just, I mentioned, I was like, oh, mom wants to see if we want to do dinner. and i And he was like, good. We just ordered a quarter of a cow, which he impulsively did, by the way. And then all of the news came out about like the 300 ,000 pounds of like unknown beef.
Chelsey Hockett: and it I was like, there has never been a time where I've been more thankful for your weird, impulsive vibes.
Alexander Clark: but
Chelsey Hockett: getting a quarter of a cow.
Kate Rumsey: ha ha
Chelsey Hockett: So we had that. He was like. Awesome. I just got everything and I was like, no, she wants hot dogs. So he literally went to the store and he got. everything for like a little cookout and he prepped everything he did it all I came home and he was like all right I've got I've got dinner taken care of for tomorrow and I was like I didn't anticipate you doing any of this and he was just ready to go and he did everything my mom just moved to Terrell and she's been helping out with the kids a lot We just...
Kate Rumsey: that's nice
Chelsey Hockett: Whole meal for my mother. So
Kate Rumsey: That's awesome.
Chelsey Hockett: So that's our our good news and our happy. our happiness over here.
Alexander Clark: That's great.
Chelsey Hockett: So.
Alexander Clark: Kate, what about you?
Kate Rumsey: oh yeah Well... I went to Notre Dame undergrad and football season is upon us. And I'm happy to report that Notre Dame won its first game. And I'm very excited about our season. So, sorry, Tullivar, Texas. A &M, UT, Texas Tech listeners I'm sorry but this is my season where I am.
Alexander Clark: yeah
Kate Rumsey: rooting outside of our state. and for my alma mater. So I'm really excited about that. We beat Wisconsin.
Alexander Clark: Did you say rooting like Rudy?
Kate Rumsey: so Rudy, yeah.
Alexander Clark: Rudy. All right.
Kate Rumsey: I guess. We had friends over. And I have some Notre Dame alumni friends who live here now. and It was nice. It was just like a little fellowship of mine. uh classmates so it was a lot of fun It was a good time.
Alexander Clark: Very nice.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: who y'all Who'd y 'all beat? What was the score?
Kate Rumsey: Wisconsin and it was, I think it was 41 to 10. At first it didn't look, yeah.
Alexander Clark: Dang!
Kate Rumsey: i think it
Alexander Clark: blew him out.
Kate Rumsey: could have been bigger honestly they didn't look so great at the beginning I think we're struggling with some young running backs on our line, but I'm excited for the season. so you got Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Look, so i I went to Austin College in Sherman.
Chelsey Hockett: i
Alexander Clark: And so for you to be like. disappointed in a 41 to 10 victory. I have no time for that
Chelsey Hockett: I went to Texas Women's University. We didn didn't even have a football team. so
Alexander Clark: My sister went to Texas Woman's. go go Go Frontiers, women.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah. So did my mom.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: Right.
Chelsey Hockett: Pioneers.
Kate Rumsey: All right.
Alexander Clark: Pioneer, that's right. Yeah.
Kate Rumsey: All right, Alex, what about you?
Alexander Clark: Yeah, I... I'm gonna talk about my shirt.
Kate Rumsey: There.
Alexander Clark: This is from a company called Volition America.
Kate Rumsey: Oh.
Alexander Clark: I was fooling around on an app somebody told me about called Tribe. And I applied to be a part of basically an ambassador program called the Volition 13.
Alexander Clark: So it's 13 men and 13 women who are going to basically. rep the brand. What I really like about them, if you go to their website, volitionamerica .com. It says not red.
Alexander Clark: Not blue. We are red white and blue. And I really like that messaging because it is so true that patriotism so often, I think, gets hijacked by the right. And I think there are really people.
Alexander Clark: like people who really love their country on the on the far right And there are people who really love their country on the far left. and everything in between. right like your political ideology. where you come out on certain issues on the sides of government or something like that doesn't dictate how much You love this country.
Alexander Clark: and The reason why I applied for it is not just because I want to become like weird influencer guy who sells. close but because A percentage of their profits goes directly to the nonprofit Folds of Honor.
Alexander Clark: which gives out. of scholarships. it's like military families And so that felt very aligned to the kind of things I've been doing. basically for years and years and years anyways. like Where Blue Runs Remember, Service to School, Warrior Scholar Project, just kind of helping give back.
Alexander Clark: in ways that feel feel good to me. And so Dear listener, if you would like 10 % off of your order. I feel so cheesy saying that You can use code volition AC. as in Alexander Clark. Volition AC.
Alexander Clark: So that's my goodness.
Kate Rumsey: nice I think our good news for me whenever I listen to you, Alex, is like a practice of you have. taking on so many awesome responsibilities uh you're on the board of all these things and You're now brand whatever ambassador. So that's great.
Kate Rumsey: Well. Chelsea, this is our very last segment. You're going to get our the last word. And our podcast is about flipping Texas.
Alexander Clark: Mm hmm.
Kate Rumsey: your district, my district hopefully. but also just the state.
Alexander Clark: The state.
Kate Rumsey: uh writ large before the next census because as we mentioned earlier we're going to get more congressional seats and that means we have more electoral votes and that means we have a lot more power in deciding who's going to be in the white house so based on your perspective out there in your area.
Kate Rumsey: and also just being a candidate what do you think is going to take? to really flip. the state.
Chelsey Hockett: i'm turning out every single person possible.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: <unk> like It's a big task and a big ask, but that is what we need to do. We need every single person to go. Vote. how you feel. That does not happen.
Alexander Clark: So. what What kind of infrastructure do you think we need to build between now and 2030 to make sure we can do that?
Chelsey Hockett: I think we're starting it. And I think it's a really good, like we've got a lot of organizations, we've got a lot of nets, we' we're doing it, but we have to keep it up. All the time. It can't just be around election season and they can't just be like, okay, we can take a breather, but I'm like, let's keep going.
Chelsey Hockett: Let's keep these organizers.
Alexander Clark: Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: like you know.
Alexander Clark: we hear that from a lot of guests that it's not just the election season it's a full year
Chelsey Hockett: close Yeah.
Alexander Clark: type Yeah.
Chelsey Hockett: Yeah. Because, I mean, then we gear up. But I also. want to see way more in local elections because that's where it's really won. You know, your city council, your mayoral seats, your county commissioners, especially like what's happening right now in Kauffman County, like the county commissioners could have stopped so much of what's happening. So just your local city, your local county.
Chelsey Hockett: just get involved in every election and be an absolute nuisance. across the board at all times and every meeting. until...
Kate Rumsey: alright right
Chelsey Hockett: until we get our focus back on people Yes!
Alexander Clark: Become ungovernable.
Kate Rumsey: Yeah.
Alexander Clark: You're welcome.
Kate Rumsey: You heard it here. Be a nuisance. That's the that's the mission from Chelsea Hockett. Well, thank you so much, Chelsea. We love talking to you. Thank you for. Making time for us, and we'll sign off by saying, God bless Texas.
