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Ep. 43 - Trump is Coming To Dallas & Why Dallas County Democrats Aren't Worried
74 Plays8 days ago
Today on Mission: Texas, we're putting Dallas County under the microscope. Our guests are Kardal Coleman, Chair of the Dallas County Democratic Party, and Yasmin Simon, the party's Vice Chair. Kardal is a Dallas native, Army veteran, licensed minister, former labor organizer, and experienced Democratic strategist. Yasmin is a trial lawyer, voting rights and immigration pro bono advocate, and a former candidate for the Texas House. Together, they're helping steer one of Texas Democrats' most important county organizations through a pivotal 2026 election.
Plus: Kardal recommits to early-morning runs on the Katy Trail, Yasmin finds gratitude every day despite the Texas heat, Alex sings the praises of the YMCA's parents' night out program, and Kate celebrates her daughter's fourth birthday and the miracle of IVF.
What we cover:
- How Dallas County has stayed blue for 20 years running (since 2006) and what it would take to help flip Texas statewide
- Kardal and Yasmin's paths into Democratic politics — from interning for a progressive Dallas County DA to running for the Texas House
- Inside the chaos of Dallas County's March 2026 primary, when a switch to precinct-assigned voting left over 12,000 voters at the wrong polling place and nearly 2,000 ballots initially uncounted
- The emergency legal scramble — including a call from Rep. Jasmine Crockett — that led to extended polling hours and a return to countywide voting for the May runoff
- Why Republicans chose Dallas for their first-ever midterm convention (American Airlines Center, September 9–10) with Trump expected to attend, and what it signals about the battle for turnout
- Voter protection efforts underway ahead of November, including poll watcher recruitment and coordination with the DNC and state party
- Precinct chair recruitment strategy, from a unified county convention to "Pilates and Politics"
- Why Dallas County's roughly 1 million registered Democrats make this a turnout election, and what Beto O'Rourke's 220,000-vote statewide loss means for 2026
- James Talarico's $25 million Black voter outreach investment and what effective spending looks like on the ground
- The only two Dallas County-held Republican Texas House seats — HD-108 and HD-112 — and this cycle's targeting strategy
- Where the county still needs to grow: South Dallas, West Dallas/Grand Prairie, Mesquite, Garland, Rowlett, and Irving
Support Dallas County Democrats: dallasdemocrats.org
Support the show:
Love what we're doing? Become a member at patreon.com/missiontexaspodcast — just a few dollars a month keeps independent Texas media alive. And if you can't spare the cash, a five-star review goes just as far. God bless Texas. 🤠
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Transcript
Introduction to Dallas County and Guests
00:00:07
Speaker
This is Mission Texas.
00:00:12
Speaker
Today on Mission Texas, we are putting Dallas County under the microscope. Our guests are Cardall Komen, the chair of the Dallas County Democratic Party, and Yasmine Simon, the party's vice chair.
00:00:23
Speaker
Cardall is a Dallas native and army veteran. licensed minister, former labor organizer, and experienced Democratic strategist. Yasmeen is a trial lawyer, a voting rights and immigration pro bono advocate, vice chair of parkland's health Parkland Health's board of managers, and a former candidate for the Texas House.
00:00:40
Speaker
Together, they are helping steer one of Texas Democrats' most important county organizations through a pivotal 2026 election. Welcome to
Can Texas Turn Blue Through Dallas County?
00:00:49
Speaker
Mission Texas. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Well, to understand whether Texas can really turn blue, and guess what? It can. You have to understand Dallas County. Democrats already win here, now 20 years, starting back in 2006. But the statewide question is whether we can run up the score, protect access to the ballot, and build an organization strong enough to carry candidates from the courthouse,
00:01:09
Speaker
US Senate. Today we're gonna go behind the scenes with the two people leading that effort. And so we always start at the beginning. I love an origin story. So I wanna know who put you in that rocket ship and got you to Smallville, right? How did you
Cardall's Political Journey
00:01:23
Speaker
get involved? Like how did your army service, your ministry, your labor organizing,
00:01:27
Speaker
And I got involved in politics through an internship, which is why one of our favorite programs at at the headquarters, the Democratic Party, is our fellowship. I got involved. I've worked for a guy by the name of Craig Watkins.
00:01:43
Speaker
ah The first first black DA, progressive DA in Dallas County. So that's kind of where i got my my start. I was able to shadow him and Russell Wilson, who's a great attorney. And I thought I was on my way to be a lawyer like Yasmin, but I kind of wanted to see the nuts and bolts of how things work. And so from there, I got a chance to work for Craig, then went on to work for Mike Rollins, the former mayor. From there, from Mike Rollins, went on to work with Eddie Bernice Johnson, spent a short stint in the Texas legislature with Reda Bowers. And then I swore off politics altogether and wanted to be adjacent and do some advocacy work. So I worked for Texas AFT Teachers Union. And, you know, it was really rough being being ah labor rights advocate specifically for teachers during the pandemic.
00:02:27
Speaker
And so from there, I got put in this rocket ship by my friend, Kristi Noble. Kristi Noble and Jane Hamilton. If you know those two, ah you know, they're always really trying to organize and and think about strategies of how to move move people forward. And so they talked to me about this this model of creating a vice chair in Dallas County. We had never had a vice chair in Dallas County before. We hit it off. I became vice chair. Kristi Noble was chair at the time. And then here we are all these years later. The vice chair at the time was Jasmine, right? So she's now the co-chair of the Hispanic Holocaust, correct? That's correct. So ah during my first term, Jasmine Flores was the the vice chair. And then you found someone with almost a similar name to help. That's correct. The vice chair.
00:03:11
Speaker
that' How about you? so i know I know a little bit about your origin story because of when you were my candidate for the Texas House.
Yasmine's Path to Vice Chair
00:03:18
Speaker
But I want you to tell our our dear listeners, like what got you involved in politics to begin with?
00:03:23
Speaker
Well, I think my first political effort was trying to ensure that, think it was my high school, had dolphin-safe tuna. And I had about two people interested in that little campaign, so that didn't go as well as some subsequent campaigns did. But my first real political effort was volunteering for Clinton-Gore in 91, 92. So I am really, really, really, really old.
00:03:48
Speaker
and the oldest person on this particular podcast right now. But always had a real love for democratic politics. I moved down to Texas and just right away got involved with election protection. Did that for many, many years until Our friends at the Lone Star Project approached me to see if I'd be interested in running for 108. Every decision is either good or bad, and this one was both. It was ultimately not a successful run, but it was a really exciting thing to have done. And every every single thing you do is a silver lining, and I ended up being the vice chair of the Dallas County Democratic Party. so that And that itself is a funny story, how Cardall reached out to me to
00:04:33
Speaker
to make that happen. um It was after the election, after I lost the primaries, like, let's have coffee. I'm like, yeah, I'd like coffee. I've got some things to say about how I feel the party is going and what direction is going in. And so, you know, I sort of unloaded on him at that coffee. And he's like, funny thing is, I feel exactly the same way. I'm like, okay. Then he asked me to be vice chair. I'm like, let me think about that. And what, it took me about 24 hours. And I said, I went ahead and said yes. Well, I think that's so great because you ran for State House, similar to me, Yasmin, and we ran in the same area, so the and the same primary. it was so great getting to know you and everyone else during that season.
00:05:14
Speaker
But it's interesting, the paths then diverge. You know you went off to becoming vice chair and being recruited to do that. Now I'm i'm venturing into media and a podcast. It's interesting hearing from my opponent, Cassandra, about what happened when she lost her first race. And she was saying, people look at you and say like, okay, are you going to stick around? Are you going to, what are you to next? And so your decision was, man, i'm goingnna I'm going to start fixing some things because I don't want what happened to me or anyone else to happen. And let's improve Dallas County. But I'm interested to
The Need for Democratic Unity in Dallas
00:05:48
Speaker
hear what are those things that you were, goals that you wanted to improve upon? What were you talking about in that coffee? Well, some things need to stay in the cone of silence to... Can't divulge all the secrets, but what what are you what are you willing to to share with the listeners? I think we needed and are doing, frankly, with this cycle, a much better job of working together as Democrats across the county. You know, we have a really weird structure here in terms of endorsements, getting through the primary, Kate, as you know. There are clubs who do all their own things. There's the party itself. There's outside organizations. There's labor. There's all of these different entities that feed into that primary system.
00:06:32
Speaker
I'm not saying they needed to do anything differently in my race, although specifically I have some comments about some of that. But I would love to have seen everybody rowing in the same direction more consistent.
00:06:43
Speaker
as opposed to everybody doing their own separate thing in different parts of the county. And I think actually, this cycle, we are going to see that, which is a huge credit to our chairman and his leadership on that Well, speaking of his leadership, Cardell, I would love to hear more about your time in the service. I mean, it's just personal interest. um What did you do in the Army and how do you think that's impacted the way you lead now?
How the Army Shaped Cardall's Leadership
00:07:05
Speaker
Yeah, I started off as a MOS job description, 88 Mike, which is a truck driver.
00:07:11
Speaker
I never thought that would do that. So I drove everything in the military or every vehicle that was not a tank. Anything that i had wheels and wasn't a tank, I drove it. And then I reclassed or got a new job because I wanted to see, you know, in that role, you kind of get, you're kind of focused on certain things.
00:07:27
Speaker
But I wanted to see everything that the Army had to offer. So I got a new job and became admin or HR, which took me all around the country. And to be able to see and create like logistics and operations, i'm being able to move all the things, right? And so I think that that side of being on the the direct service end, the grunt work of... making sure that people and things move, the trains move on time, as we say. I can think that kind of shaped my ability to be chair and move a lot of different people and personalities when needed to. And so that's kind of been my, how I've used those skills in in this transferable space, but also being being able to you know sound off and say that the tough things and have conversations when we need to have them internally and externally and and be honest and and true about the direction of our party. That's a highly transferable skill set. And hey, look, when dignitaries come to Dallas, you you can drive them around too, no matter where no matter the vehicle. 18 wheelers, everything. We've done it all. Get this man a Batmobile.
00:08:27
Speaker
So Yasmin, I want to know about you too. I mean, you're trial partner at a major law firm. Do you think that skill set has has come in handy for for your role here? Yeah, know I guess I'll leave that to Cardall to say whether I've been handy, but having a legal background
The Chaotic Election Day in Dallas
00:08:40
Speaker
and some of the things we went through with the primary was especially helpful.
00:08:44
Speaker
And I'm talking from the contract with the county all the way through. We're going to have to file something in order to keep our polls open. On March 3rd, this most recent primary, Dallas County's primary switched from countywide election day voting to these like precinct assigned locations. And more than 12,000 voters appeared at the wrong polling place. Nearly 2000 late Democratic ballots were ultimately left uncounted. And so it was a shit show. It was so bad that even the Republican counterparts like realized it was bad and countywide voting returned for the May runoff. Take us inside Election Day. That must have been just the craziest experience. It was rough.
00:09:24
Speaker
And we knew that it was going to be a little bumpy, right? We just we we kept saying, let's brace for impact. and It's going to be chaotic. The commissioner's court. Dallas County commissioners, they voted for a higher budget to try to get the word out. They spent over a million dollars on on trying to get the word out and mailing everybody that they could. So we knew that a segment of people could be confused or stood the chance to be disenfranchised. But once we hit the lunch hour and we saw so many people being turned around, we knew it was a crisis. Yasmin was running our boiler room, which is a fancy term for a call center there at the HQ, filling some of those critical questions. Folks did not know where to go, what to do. There was misinformation on Secretary of State's website. Yeah, I mean, all of our systems, the Dallas County Elections Department's website had crashed at one point. It was a lot going on in one day, and we knew that we had to really use every tool within our toolbox and try to seek relief from the court. A couple of us put our heads together, led by Yasmin. As far as how do how do we think our way out of this situation, we got a call from Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and said, hey, are y'all ready to sue?
00:10:27
Speaker
And we say, actually, we're in the process of doing that now. And so, I mean, just i think Dallas is really well positioned to have, you know, we have a lot of good attorneys, good to a lot of quick wit and and and legal minds. And so, you know, while we were planning to to sue, Jasmine Crockett and Colin Allred were holding a press conference, letting the public know exactly how bad the situation was. Followed Jasmine's lead, quickly talked to our attorneys and tried to make sure that everyone could vote by extending the hours. I was here in Coppell and i'm it's the main polling center, which is our, ah just our city seat.
00:11:01
Speaker
And people were, I was just seeing it and they're like, where am I going? Is it going to here? And I was there till seven o'clock for all my local races. i remember at that point we were wondering, okay, what's going to happen? Are they extending? it I think that's when I remember seeing the alert that I saw that the judge, you guys had gotten somebody to extend the polling hours, but What's happening now? Is there still litigation on this?
00:11:22
Speaker
So let's just go back in time a little bit. Keep in mind how short the runway was to educate Dallas County about this change in voting on Election Day. They did the redistricting in mid-December. We were still arguing over that, kind arguing, we were still negotiating that contract ah well into January. And they were going back and forth, the Republicans. And then we were trying to figure out, is there any way we can still do countywide on our side if they decide to do precinct on theirs? So we explored every single avenue pre-election day to see if we could stop that from happening under Texas law. Unfortunately, we could not, not on election day. So we had mere weeks to educate the public on what's going to happen on election day. you know It was a very, very short window to educate the public. And in terms of your question, Kay, is there still litigation ongoing? No, I don't believe there is at this point. That has been deemed moot by the Texas Supreme Court. But I do anticipate that the next primary we see, we're going to see this exact same thing happen again. What we have been focused on and what others have been focused on, including our electeds here in Dallas County, is how to get in front of that next time. That's a big focus of of what
00:12:37
Speaker
Dallas County Democrats is looking at, and I think what Dallas County in general is looking at. I've seen a lot of people react to what happened as a form of disenfranchisement of particular voters, and in particular Black voters, and that this had a big impact on Jasmine Cockett's race. Does that inform what we think is going to happen in November? I think a lot of folks are very scared about what's going to happen, that Trump is already laying the groundwork for some sort of meddling with the election. Can you speak to what's going on within the party, whether that's Texas or national as to voting rights and protecting them within our
Protecting Voting Rights in Dallas
00:13:13
Speaker
party? Absolutely. Immediately after this primary, i had a conversation with the DNC, with their voter protection team and said, you know,
00:13:21
Speaker
We really have to look at Texas going into November. We've seen the the press conference that President Trump had last week. ah We know what their plans are. Then they have the nerve to come to Dallas and hold their military convention and try to steam up something else. right So, you know, the non-joint primary, i we won't have that issue. So now the the general election is run by the county, so they'll set all the the locations. And so it'll it'll be how we know it to be normally. But that does not mean that the Republican Party is not going to try to pull a fast one on us. And so since the primary, we've had conversations recently. with the state party, the national party.
00:13:58
Speaker
um And we've been recruiting around the clock on our voter protection team. So our our entire coordinated campaign is really built on voter protection. So as soon as that that lawsuit was deemed moot, we decided that this is our you know our anniversary year. This is actually 20 years of being a blue county, 2006. We went blue under Craig Watkins. And so our whole theme is now fighting back. we're We've created a victory fund that that's focused specifically on voter protection. So we are ramped up with more judges, more clerks, more election workers. And then also we're recruiting poll watchers to make sure that there's no intimidation going on at these polls. So we're, we're it's it's still early in the summer, but we are beefing up around and then making sure that people know that they can, these are volunteer opportunities. If you want to join myself and Yasmin in the boiler room or the HQ and answer phones, or if you have that that expertise and you can, um you know, really guide people through tough situations while they're at the polls, we're we're recruiting all of those individuals and now. So I want to circle back to something Cardell just brought up, which is that Republicans plan to hold their first ever midterm convention at the American Airlines Center
00:15:06
Speaker
September 9th and 10th with President Donald Trump expected to appear himself. I've heard that Texas Democrats intend to provide some counter-programming, which would be fun. I mean, why do why do we think Republicans chose Dallas, a heavily Democratic city, for this event?
00:15:21
Speaker
Because they know what happens in Dallas is going to happen in the in the entire state of Texas. If they can increase their turnout and diminish ours, that's going to be the difference maker for James Tallarico, Gina Hinojosa, for Nathan Johnson, for all of our statewides. They're trying to generate their own enthusiasm while dampening ours, which nothing's going to dampen our enthusiasm for this next election. That I can promise you. I think politically, you also got to look at the map too. I mean, Beyond the logistic stuff of, well, Texas is central to the United States. If you want to throw a quick party, do it somewhere everyone get too quick. Trump raises a ton of money out of Texas when you talk about getting dark money out of politics. like Those things make sense. But when you look at the electoral map, the political map, the Republicans saw that James Tallarico had 4,000 people show up in Collin County. 4,000 people show up to a town hall, to a rally on a weeknight. And Dallas County is the anchor for the Metroplex. But if you look out in Tarrant County, they're on the verge of flipping as well. You know, have Alyssa Simmons, they have candidates up and down the ballot. When you look at our our our region, our Metroplex, Dallas is really the place that really can flip this entire state. And so I think this is also a suppression tactic for them, an intimidation tactic.
00:16:33
Speaker
ah They're trying to send a message and they're trying to prop Ken Paxton up. I think he's a shell of a candidate. He's an empty suit, but they're trying to prop him up and make him something that he's not. I think that's what their their entire effort is here in Dallas. Well, the eyes of Texas will be upon us. But more than that, the nation's attention is going to be on us. Keep in mind that Beto lost his race by 220,000 votes. That could have been made up by registered Democrats who did not vote in that election in Dallas County. That was the difference maker. And we're not going to make that same. It wasn't a mistake, but we're not going to let that happen this time. We are talking to every strong Democrat. We are talking to every Democrat. We are trying to talk to people who move. We are trying to talk to newly registered folks. I mean, and that's all part of what our coordinated campaign is going to look like and is looking like already. Dallas County has 2.6 million people, 1.4 registered, 1.4 million registered voters. Of that 1.4 million, I would argue that a million of those people are Democrats. So we have the numbers.
00:17:36
Speaker
Folks who are already registered. and And, you know, we have groups powered by people, some of these allied organizations. They're focusing on registration. And we still need to get new people who move to Texas and and younger voters registered.
00:17:47
Speaker
But we have the numbers already here. that This is a turnout game for us. And so as my friend
Recruiting Young Precinct Chairs
00:17:52
Speaker
Domingo Garcia said, we're going to give them a Texas-sized welcome when they come here. And so i'm I'm looking forward to that. This is a man that on the voter rolls was declared dead.
00:18:00
Speaker
We all know Domingo. He's doing great work. But if they would go as far as as to declare a national leader dead on the voter rolls, they're going to try everything that they can. And so I think, you know, folks here are tired of it and we're ready to resist. i'm i'm looking forward to with the response from the people. Well, I think one of the points that you made that I think could really help people feel more at ease is that you're reminding us that the county positive.
00:18:26
Speaker
the entity that is going to be running the elections. think people see things like, oh, Jane Nelson stepped down and now the Department of Homeland Security is asking for our voter rolls. And a lot of fear. And I wonder if that just is ah a hurdle to get people to not want to vote. But we have to remind people that this will be a fair and safe election and we're going to do all of our work to make sure it it is. And it's being run by our county, not necessarily by a party or even by our governor who wants to try to meddle in it. But one of the questions I had is how are we doing in recruiting precinct chairs? Yeah, I think we're doing great job at recruiting precinct chairs. We were having ah events that kind of are outside of the box a little bit. We've had our county convention. we've We've never had a unified convention. We're all broken down by, used to be senatorial districts, now congressional districts. But this year we had our first unified county convention, everybody in one place. And that for us was a way to get everybody kind of unified after the primary. But also it was a precinct chair recruitment program, making sure that we had folks get on a bus to go down to the state convention.
00:19:31
Speaker
ah Most of the folks who rode the bus raised their hand and said, I've never participated in a party before. That's 54 passengers. We started recruiting precinct chairs on the bus. So I hear it.
00:19:42
Speaker
Yes. Right. So every and then this weekend, we have an event that's kind of out of the box that our staff is leading Pilates and politics. But we're kind of giving homage to the 92%. And so we have some young ladies who are going to be there and they're bringing their friends and their colleagues. These are people who are not really party involved. They're Democrats. They vote, but they're not party involved. And how do we get them to the next step to have ownership of their neighborhoods? And so we're using all kind of creative ways and ideas to to recruit precinct chairs. And our precinct chairs are getting younger. felt Folks who can who have the energy to be able to to do the rigorous work to be a precinct chair and and contact their neighbors. So I think this we're off to a great start this summer. I'm really proud of the the work that our our staff and our team is doing. Look, if y'all offer childcare, I'll do some Pilates.
00:20:27
Speaker
Listen, there we go. That sounds great. Yes. And we'll be Uptown at Griggs Park. So come on out. Talking um about that with Allison Campolo, your Tarrant County counterpart. And that's one of the things Republican Party does a lot better job about is making things more family friendly, more accessible for for families of young children like me and Kate. Yeah.
00:20:45
Speaker
Yeah. Well, just before we stop talking about precinct chairs, which is a topic I could just talk forever on. I have a precinct chair or else I would do it. But I was just looking at the data on the Secretary of State website, if we assume it is truthful. i hope it is. But do you know that we are we have more precinct chairs than the Republicans in this area? And do you know by how many? We do have more, but I don't know the exact percentage. I don't know what the percentage is, but we have, according to this website, 314 precinct chairs, which you may have a more updated one. And it's less than half, so 149.
00:21:19
Speaker
in for the Republicans in this area. So I think that's just showing how incredible we're doing in this area. And Tarrant County has more Democrats filling precinctures. And I'll share this with you, too. Here's how things backfired on them. They think they're so smart.
00:21:32
Speaker
We had a a larger number of precinct chairs before redistricting. Obviously, some of those precincts merged and we lost some some really great precinct chairs. But when they tried to cheat us at the polls, they're losing their electoral power with precinct chairs because obviously some of theirs merged. And so they have a smaller number as well.
00:21:50
Speaker
So It's like they're willing to, what's the term, cut their nose to spite their face. yeah yeah it i don't I don't even to think they think through the consequences of how it affects them. So they've just created a steeper hill for themselves to to recruit precincters. If you ever come to one of our CEC meetings, every single time we are having a huge line of brand new precinct chairs being sworn in.
00:22:15
Speaker
I mean, it is it's one of the best parts of the meeting. And wanna just give a shout out to the Beltline Area Dems who have been very busy recruiting precinct chairs in that part of Dallas County. So.
00:22:29
Speaker
Kudos to them, Lisa Hamlin. ya We're seeing Irving, Farmers Branch, Carrollton, yeah places that we we, you know, we haven't been as strong. Those places are, folks are showing up and becoming precinct chairs. High school students, ah recent recent high school graduates and college students as well. I want to circle back to the million Democratic voters you were mentioning earlier,
Targeting 700,000 Democratic Voter Turnout
00:22:50
Speaker
Cardell. I want to know, when you think about like the political science of it all,
00:22:54
Speaker
What do you think is Dallas's like win number? What's the raw total of like net democratic margin that Dallas County needs to produce for our ticket to win statewide, do you think? Yeah, I think 600,000 showed up in 2020 for President Biden.
00:23:09
Speaker
If we want to just put the team on our back and and carry the state. Just pull a LeBron and just put them all back. Yeah, I think we got to get as as close to 700 as possible.
00:23:20
Speaker
Okay. Turnout, raw turnout. But I mean, again, that was in a presidential year. Yeah. Well, my follow up on that is that James Tallarico just announced the twenty five million dollar pledge for black voter outreach. I'm curious, what do you think putting that money to really effective use might look like here in Dallas County? Well, you got to run a strong digital program. I still believe in in block walking and. in and direct voter contact, but times are changing. you know Folks are using more Ring doorbell cameras and folks aren't really at home. And so the landscape's changing a bit, but I think that everybody has a cell phone right in front of them. Most people do.
00:23:54
Speaker
And so how we how we connect on ah through through the digital space where the cell phone, text messages, connected TV. People aren't watching cable TV anymore. It's it's Hulu, Netflix, right? yeah How do you catch people in in real spaces where they are every day? So a strong digital program, catch people at real events. you know Football is king here. High school, Friday Night friday night Lights, you have stand to have 10,000 people, 20,000 people in stadiums on a weekend. And so showing up to untraditional places and and really having
00:24:27
Speaker
the the muscle and the team enough to be in those places and make your presence felt. I think that's kind of how we get out of the box and started to attract new eyes to us. Yeah, I love that. I mean, I grew up in Sherman. The Sherman High School football game was the game in town, right? Like, it doesn't even matter if you like football, everyone was there on a Friday night. Alex has to bring up Sherman in every episode. did that for you, Kate. I did that for you. It's like a bet we have. I owe him a beer now. You mentioned a kind of buzzword earlier phrase, coordinated campaign. And I'm hearing that from the national or the state party with Kendall and his folks. Like, can you speak to what that means? Like how we have a state party, we have the county party, we precinct chairs. We're all...
00:25:07
Speaker
military except for Yasmin. So we we appreciate a command so structure. So can you tell us more about that? Like how things are coordinating in that way? Is there's coordination? Yeah, just yesterday. So we have the Texas Together. That's the statewide coordinated. They're officing with us at at the DPD, DCDT. Dallas County Democratic Party. There we go. yeah Coffee Cardinal.
00:25:30
Speaker
Something. Working hard. At the HQ. ah So they're there. Nathan Johnson's team stopped by yesterday. Gina Hinojosa's North Texas team offers us with us. i'm James Tellerrico's team offers us with us. So if you are a Democrat and you're looking to to get involved or you want to get plugged in or you want to work for a specific campaign, you can do that at our headquarters at or at one of our satellite offices. That's what the coordinated campaign is. If you're just walking off the street and you want to get involved, you can go to a centralized place and the whole team is there ready to
Importance of Coordination Among Democrats
00:26:06
Speaker
receive you. And so that's kind of the the goal that we want to have in mind, that that we're all rowing in the same direction. Yeah, that seems similar to what Yasmin was saying, that she was hoping for to coming in as a goal, so that we all want to coordinate together with messaging rowing in the same direction. and like Yasmin, I also felt like when I came in as a candidate, didn't know anything
00:26:26
Speaker
I was very surprised by all the different clubs that there are in this area. They're great, right? Rad, the feds, the, I mean, Beltline Democrats, like you were telling me. And it's such a great way to bring community and camaraderie together.
00:26:41
Speaker
but it also felt like we kind of are decentralized in a way. And so I wonder, like, how do you perceive the county as like ah you know, bring all the folks together? Is there a mass email? Do you have a, you know, like, what are y'all thinking as far as that? Because you want to keep that community aspect of all the clubs, the great things that we love about them. They rally the troops with volunteers, but also how do we bring folks together? we are a big tent.
00:27:05
Speaker
It is like herding cats. How going to do that? Somebody that said to me the other day, cut the check and cut me loose. People who people who know how to organize in their community. And so that's that's our goal to make sure we have all the tools and resources for them. The literature, you know, be able to to create phone banks and letter writing opportunities. So these things should not just be all centralized at the headquarters. They should also be happening in every corner of our county. And so some of our clubs are already off to the races.
00:27:39
Speaker
Clubs that you ask when I'm a part of, I mean, Preston Hollow, there are a lot of the different organizations, Park City, STEMS. I mean, these these folks are moving and grooving already. And so that I love to see that work happening in community.
00:27:53
Speaker
And they just do it in a fun way. I think if people were asking themselves, what should I do first? Should I join a group? Should i start going to Dallas County meetings? Like, how would you say that people, if there are new Folks, like you're saying, people have never been, they're on the bus and they're not really, have never really done anything. What is your advice on how to get involved in the county in the first place? Go to our website, DallasCountyDemocrats.org. There's a volunteer tab right there and you can pick whatever suits you. You can phone bank, you can write postcards, you can do block walk. We are having and people post their block walks. Candidates are posting their block walks. So for example, you know, Andy Summerman is running for re-election. His campaign and his group of folks are posting on Dallas County Democrats. So you can volunteer for those. Whatever you like to do there is an opportunity for you to do it. And you can find it at DallasDemocrats.org, I promise. or you can simply show up to headquarters. we We will direct you into what you like to do. Some people like to put signs together. You can do that too. Some people love talking to people. Great. Some people hate talking to people. Some people just want to write a check.
00:29:02
Speaker
All of these things, there's an opportunity for you. So that's the best way to do it. And, you know, there are block walks going on every weekend. There are candidates who are block walking every day. So if you are passionate about James Calarico, you know, show up. We can, you know, provide you with that information and set you loose.
00:29:22
Speaker
But also look at your neighborhood. Every neighborhood has a club. There is uptown Democrats. There is downtown Democrats. There are young Democrats. We don't yet have the medium old Democrats, but that's probably Park City's area Democrats. I know. We do have some really young people in that group. you know, Peter Young, for example. Very young and also a precinct chair. There's an opportunity everywhere. Well, in you mentioned the Park City Dems. That's in the district that you ran for, House District 108. House District 108 and House District 112 are the only Dallas County, Texas House seats still held by Republicans.
00:29:57
Speaker
And this year, they both appear on a national Democratic target list. That's exciting. How has it is sort of their placement on that list impacted how things are being run by the county?
00:30:09
Speaker
Well, I think we have always invested, you know, 108 is the north part of Dallas, and it overlaps with a lot of districts that have been held by Democrats. So there's always been an investment by the party in those areas. There will continue to be that investment.
00:30:28
Speaker
There's already strong block walking going on 108s. I've I've seen the um invites for it, have not yet done any myself. It is too hot and I am a delicate flower. i am doing this to my precinct. is so hot right So hot. It is so hot.
00:30:44
Speaker
It was a hundred and I think it was 116 degrees yesterday um in Dallas. So anybody block walking yesterday, hats off to you. And I think 112 is a really, really exciting opportunity. I think that, you know, Avery Bishop did a great job of of cutting that margin with Angie Chen Button. And we've got a really strong candidate there in Zach. I think we have a real opportunity there to flip that seat. And, and you know, 108, you know, we we have to keep working at it. And whether it flips this cycle or next cycle, it will flip eventually. And every candidate who is doing that work is part of that progress.
00:31:19
Speaker
Zach says he's going to unbutton that district. Yes. I don't like that. Okay. a too evocative. Well, are there other areas for growth within Dallas County, Cardall? You're mentioning Farmers Branch, Carrollton, but are there areas that you think that aren't getting the love that we need to, if someone was like, okay, I'm and ah i'm in an area where we got a ton of block walkers, like you said, Yasmin, is there an area that you think, okay, we should go give some more love to turn out the blue vote? Are there...
00:31:45
Speaker
state house races that maybe need to some help to turn out. Maybe they're a safe seat Democrat. They need more help in that area. Yeah. I think there's always more potential to grow in the South. I mean, the vote share, I mean, there's so a ton of people there and and making sure that people actually get out to the polls and and turn out. mean, uh,
00:32:02
Speaker
when I talk about South, I'm talking House District 110, State Representative Tony Rose, House District 111, Yvonne Davis. There are a ton of people there. And so making sure that we we help them to to get all of their voters out. But then also when you go to the western portion of the county. Grand Prairie, I mean, it's huge. There are a ton of people there and most of them are Democrats. So we just have to remind them what's going on and and why it's so important. So I think when you look at South and West, the Eastern portion of our county, Mesquite, Garland, Rolette is even coming along. i mean We have ah you know folks who are down ballot, when I mean all the way down about municipals, that there you see in these local races where city council you know is starting to become blue in some of these cities, you can see the effects of the work that we do. So those folks turning out their voters, I think, is is really helpful for the whole countywide project and and the statewide project. Mesquite last night, it was a victory party for someone I know who had run for justice of the peace. And there were there were people from Rowlett who were attending that because they were part of that that JP district. Yeah. And so, yeah, you're right. I mean, people forget Dallas County as a county is so much bigger than Dallas the city.
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah. yeah I just want to make sure we mention Irving in that list of places where there is a Democratic vote that we need to really invest in And we've seen that. I mean, we're we're seeing that. Well, the the municipal votes in Irving we just saw, and we were able to elect some Democratic-leaning individuals. And so they've done a really great job in that area. So absolutely. And I can just say even up here in Coppell, would love to have people more involved. We've got some groups, but Not as many precinct chairs. Keep fighting. And if you have a precinct chair, we have a program called Foster Precincts that you can adopt a precinct next to you. Or no if you want to adopt a precinct that you don't live in. or So if you see an area that needs help, you can always foster a precinct.
00:33:55
Speaker
I'm going to do that. like to Adopt a precinct. That reminds me of presidential election. Like the the Pod Save America guys had the the vote Save America, adopt a brown state thing. Maybe we need to call call those guys and get them run get to run run it back for the midterm. But that's great because ah something you said, Zach Herbert, you're a recent referencing him, Yasmin, he was telling us about this great program called Oath, where people could basically send in donations that would accomplish a purpose. Like you wanted to flip the the House Representatives, then you could make a donation and the money would automatically distribute out. If you wanted to flip the Texas legislature, same. These little small donations have been kind of just trickling up and
00:34:33
Speaker
becoming pretty substantial. So people are getting pretty innovative about how to get involved and have their money go in a far way. I think one of the things you said you're doing, having the HQ and everybody office together, I mean, just the rent savings alone. like I just love to see the teamwork and all the ways people are getting creative about how we're going to do this. Because I think we all recognize that 10 plus years of Donald Trump has really poisoned American politics and has made everything feel terrible. And so we feel the kind of stakes, just the heaviness involved. I mean, how do you keep, I guess, the the weight of that from from being crushing? And how do you keep, because I see it on you, how do you keep the happy warrior energy that you both seem to to carry so well?
Finding Joy in Community Support
00:35:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's when we all show up together that really brings me joy.
00:35:17
Speaker
Yesterday, we have we have this thing that we call win on Wednesdays. It's kind of our organized action day where you stop in the office and you write postcards and write letters or phone bank or text, bank, whatever you want to do. And yesterday was kind of our first day back in a while. And some of the old faithful showed up and you just love to see these people walk through the door.
00:35:37
Speaker
And I think that's not just the old faithfuls. We had high school students. had 15 year old who's all out of school for the summer who led the whole thing. but myself ah You know, we have some of these these younger fellows and interns. And um yeah I think that's what brings me joy to see that folks are still fighting.
00:35:56
Speaker
And that's really the spirit of who we are here in Dallas County. That's the spirit of really being a Texan is to never quit and and to fight and resist. ah you You can't really tell a Texan what to do. And when you tell them that they can't do, it makes them double down and do it even more. So I think that's what kind of brings me joy in in this season.
00:36:15
Speaker
yeah It's like they're telling me right now I can't eat lettuce and all I want to do is eat lettuce. But then you've got the explosive diarrhea outbreak. But I've never wanted a salad more than I do right now.
00:36:28
Speaker
And I can't have it. I like to make Cardall laugh. Like that that's what keeps me going in this is just seeing him laughing. Well, while we're so happy and we're smiling, I would love to transition and us to my favorite segment, which is good news. So what is something good happening in your life right now, whether it's political or professional or just absolutely completely personal. Because Republicans are so good at sharing their good news, their gospel. We got to get the reps in.
00:36:54
Speaker
So let's lead the way and show them. Good news is that I'm finding finding time and trying to steal a little time to to exercise again, man. This this this work is is a grind. And so making sure that you're fit physically, mentally, all the things. So I'm recommitting to that to make sure I have enough in the tank to be able to fight this thing. So.
00:37:13
Speaker
yeah what that went good news What's your go-to workout? I've just been running lately. So I need to get back in the gym a little bit. How are you surviving? Early a.m. on the Katy Trail. hu that's That's been pretty good. Got to get out there early enough to where it's not do you do the full leg not melting. card up come Come and run with my run club. We get up early and that's kind of the area we run in. We we usually meet at the Starbucks on Knox-Cindersen. I used to live on the Katie Trail, so I used to run all that. Yasmin, what's your good news? I don't know. Every day is a good day. Every, well, like I like to say, every day above the dirt, the good one. I'm also getting in some exercise, unfortunately, for frozen shoulder syndrome. Women of a certain age will know what that is.
00:37:54
Speaker
Doing some physical therapy, which is actually very difficult. And so that's been good. i love it. When you focus on yourself, you can focus more on others. throughout the rest of your day. So that that's my good news. It's a sunny, beautiful day here in Texas. What's there to complain about? I mean, plenty. weather? I mean, we're I've got air conditioner. I'm grateful for that. I'm going to go off the air exercise ah train because we did that in our last episode where i talked about how I'm also getting into running Cardall. So maybe we can all do the Dallas half after we've just blown this election out of the water.
00:38:29
Speaker
But my daughter turned four this week. So Yasmin, if you remember, i ran for office in 2024 when she was one. could not, I cannot believe. Can you imagine? it's just time flies. So she's so little, she's four. And the good news about that is that she is here because of the miracle that is IVF. yeah And I want to talk about that because as Democrats, we are the apparently pro-IVF party because the GOP has said that they're against it.
00:39:02
Speaker
And it's so unpopular that even dan Patrick and Ken Paxton have come out against it, even though that's a part of their base in their platform, and they're not going to denounce it. and so we are And I want to be loud and proud about the fact that my beautiful daughter, who brings us joy every day, here because of that. And I'm just so grateful for it. So we are the party that's here because of this, you know, the beautiful baby that is behind have a picture of her. It's here because of that. Thanks for that good word. That's yeah. And Vivian has been to more democratic meetings than some Democrats in Dallas County. That's right. Yeah. She goes to all the Labor Day breakfast. She's there block walking.
00:39:39
Speaker
i think I remember before you guys were talking about Collin County and it gave me this memory of just giving birth to her. And then I went a few weeks later to volunteer at at a Beto event up in Frisco and thinking, oh my God, how incredible is this event? It was outside, of course, in like the heat of early August.
00:39:58
Speaker
It was packed. And i I don't want to say it was like 3,000 people, but it was enormous. And to think that we are even farther ahead than we were then, we have more people packing these events than even Beto's rallies. And so I'm just so that is another part of this good news is that I think that we are we have such a great shot at this. And we're so much far farther ahead than we were four years ago in the other midterm election.
00:40:22
Speaker
my My daughter Hattie is also four and Kate and I became friends because we would be at these Democratic Club meetings or or events and be the only people there with very young children and they would get to play with each other and get along very well. But yeah, I mean, Hattie's being exposed to all this. She refers to James Tallarico as daddy's friend, Mr. James. And she's like very invested in this race.
00:40:45
Speaker
She was there at the kind of a kickoff event he had in Deep Ellum. My good news is kind of related to her, which is, i don't know if y'all know about this, but the YMCA is the best deal that parents need to know about.
00:40:58
Speaker
Because not only can you get child watch for like an hour and a half or two hours, depending on the location, so you can go work out. Once a month, they have a free parents' night out. And that's date night, right? Like I dropped my my daughter off at the parents' night out last last weekend.
00:41:15
Speaker
And because my son is too young for that, we just put him to bed. And we stayed in and had an indoor date night and watched Project Hail Mary, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
00:41:26
Speaker
Y'all can sponsor the podcast, but Project Hail Mary was incredible. Highly recommend it for anyone. I find myself just quoting the kind of surprise character. I'm not going to give anything away who shows up all the time.
00:41:37
Speaker
YMCA is my good news for Child Watch, for Parents Night Out. And my my daughter is also in the YMCA summer camp. It takes place downtown Dallas at the T-Boone Pickens location. And it's been a lifesaver. So that's my goodness. yeah You know, the Simon family, we're we're all members of the YMCA.
00:41:55
Speaker
And all of us belong for like $99 a month total. And that's five of us. And we can go to any YMCA in that network in the country for that.
00:42:06
Speaker
So it's, I get that same deal, except for I get a military discount. So I'm paying even less. Now we're going to wrap up our podcast and give everybody, our guests, our last word segment. So the purpose of our podcast is to talk about flipping Texas by the next census, because the road to the White House has to lead through this great state and apparently now through
Long-term Strategies to Flip Texas
00:42:28
Speaker
Dallas County. So what's y'all's take? How are we going to flip the state by the next census? What's the long term strategy think that we need to lock in on?
00:42:36
Speaker
Long-term strategy starts right now. I mean, it starts with this November election. In order to do that, we need to have a strong campaign coordinated not only with the state, but through the county.
00:42:49
Speaker
And Dallas County is looking to have $1.5 million dollars coordinated campaign. So for anybody who's excited about this election in November, if you can't block walk, if you can't be a precinct chair, if you can't, you know, if you can't do, if you don't have time at this time in your life to devote to the actual infrastructure of what it takes, please consider giving to the county party because like y'all said, put them on our back and let's cross that finish line.
00:43:20
Speaker
And this is all going to come down to Dallas County. But I think it starts today. It starts in November. And if we can flip some of these seats now and by some of these seats, I mean, Senate, I mean, governor, I mean, lieutenant governor, I mean, comptroller, I mean, AG, that's how we flip the script for the census.
00:43:40
Speaker
Cardinal, send us off. You're you're an army guy. Where are your soldiers? well What do you got for us? Anybody who's sick and tired of Donald Trump and on the road to 2028, it happens right now if you want to replace him. There was somebody who came and voted in a primary election. One of the poll workers told me broke out crying and it was a Republican. She said, I really want a new president. She didn't know that the president was up on the ballot.
00:44:06
Speaker
I think most people feel like that, whether you're Democrat or Republican. ah Folks want new leadership. They want a ah different direction our country. They're tired of folks, masked men, grabbing people off the streets, killing them on the streets.
00:44:17
Speaker
Everything that we're seeing in this country, prices going up. And the way that we really fight back against that is to get involved, ah whether that's writing a check, whether that's Coming down to the party HQ and signing up for an activity, whether that's just liking and sharing our content on social media. and You can do that at Dallas Democrats on all social media platforms.
00:44:39
Speaker
But it's going to take people getting involved in a different way, not just sitting back and watching what's happening. but you yourself taking action. think that's what we want right now is to take action in this election so that people know that you can't mess with Texas and and we're not here to play around when it comes to 2028. So this is not just a test run, a trial run for us. This is the real game.
00:45:01
Speaker
And we'll we'll be ready to go. if If we can get it done now, then we can do it again in 2028. Yeah, we're to build off those wins. All right. Well, I'm super confident in our county. Thank you so much, Cardall and Yasmin. Thankful for your leadership and all that you're doing for our county.
00:45:16
Speaker
ah we will follow you at Dallas Democrats, especially DallasDemocrats.org. I'm on your newsletter, so shout out to that. I'll sign off by saying God bless.