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Ep 4: How Much Does ONE Vote Cost? (with political fundraiser Alex Andrade)
64 Plays29 days ago
What if every vote came with a price tag? 💸
Political fundraiser Alex Andrade joins Mission: Texas to break down the shocking math behind campaign money — from Beto O’Rourke’s $77 million race to why Democrats might be spending big in all the wrong places.
Hosts Kate Rumsey and Alex Clark unpack how much a single vote really costs, why fundraising talent is so scarce in Texas, and how smarter investments — not bigger ones — could finally flip the state.
🎧 Topics include:
• How much campaigns actually spend per vote
• The ROI of TV vs. field work
• Why Texas Democrats may be having their “Luka moment”
• Building long-term infrastructure that lasts
👉 Follow @MissionTexasPodcast for clips and new episodes every week.
#MissionTexas #TexasPolitics #TexasDemocrats #Fundraising #PoliticalStrategy
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Transcript
Introduction to Mission Texas Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Howdy. This is Mission Texas. A political podcast about winning Texas by 2032 or else we may lose the White House for a generation.
00:00:11
Speaker
I'm one of your hosts, Alex Clark. And I am Kate Rumsey. Other podcasts may focus on the day-to-day the next election. But we are keeping the eyes of Texas on the bigger prize.
00:00:23
Speaker
What happens after the next census?
Meet Alex Andrade: From Organizer to Fundraising Consultant
00:00:27
Speaker
Today, we are with Alex Andrade, my friend, a donor, an organizer turned consultant and fundraising strategist. We'll talk about how he got here, why fundraising consultants are rare, and whether Texas Democrats are about to have their Luca moment.
00:00:44
Speaker
Yes, we are going to talk about the Mavs. So welcome to the podcast, my friend Alex Andrade. Thank you. Thank you. You knew you had to mention the Mavs to get me excited. Yeah. Yeah. For context, for our listeners, I'm on a political text thread, and usually we're just talking about the maps.
00:01:02
Speaker
So in our group, um and Alex Andrade, and it's the Alex times two episodes. So when I'm talking about Alex, I don't know who I'm going to be talking about. you might I might say Mr. Andrade or something like that.
00:01:16
Speaker
Mr. Sir Andrade. Okay. so ah Alex, did you figure out, Andrade, that you would be in this position where you would be a consultant right now? Because last cycle, I remember you raised over a million dollars for a congressional campaign and you are trying to do it again. Did you ever think that you were going to get here? And also by becoming a consultant, were you trying to solve a problem that you
Challenges in Political Fundraising
00:01:41
Speaker
saw?
00:01:41
Speaker
so it was purely ah accidental. I mean, i I agreed to help Sam Epler run for Congress and um tried to get him a meeting with a large fundraising firm and they didn't take the meeting because I think they just had so many clients. And so At that point, I realized there's there's not many people doing this. And so I had done boom fundraising for early stage Texas progressive groups and done a lot for different candidates over the years and figured, well, I could i can give this a try. And I was his fundraising consultant for the primary group.
00:02:18
Speaker
And we raised about $400,000 for that in ah in a pretty ignored district. um And so part a lot of what I did for him was try to come up with messaging um that would explain, you know, why why give to me.
00:02:35
Speaker
Now, he was a very gifted fundraiser. on his own, but most political clients are very uncomfortable asking for money. It's really hard. They can do a great meeting and then the end happens and they don't make the ask. And so um it's, it's a real need out there to help people.
00:02:52
Speaker
You know, I was helping 25 year old teacher. Now i'm helping a former Marine people that are not comfortable asking for money.
Strategic Campaign Investments
00:03:00
Speaker
um Maybe you've not spent time with a you know, a lot of donors and and that's kind of uncomfortable then too. So,
00:03:07
Speaker
I feel like there's a real need to help those people craft their message effectively so that they can fund their campaign. So what what does that look like? What what makes a good consultant stand out? And just for the listeners who don't know, ah Sam Empler ran against ah Beth Van Dyne. You might call her BVD, our own Texas version of mtg ah not Not a very ah competitive district um in terms of what people think of as a swing district, but it was targeted on purpose and there was a reason why ah people were willing to give to this race.
00:03:44
Speaker
So, you know, what what did you find was successful? Like what makes a good someone who does this stand out? Well, I mean, what made it successful was we were very honest with people and we didn't try to tell them this was a shoo-in, we're going to win it. we We were very honest and said, look, this is a tough district. They drew it red.
00:04:04
Speaker
You know this, but you don't turn districts and you don't win races unless you invest. Investing means funding a campaign that will go... knock on doors, talk to voters, and eventually you break through. So a lot of our donors were sort of long-term thinkers, it really investors more than transactional, where you just, you want this certain election to go certain way.
00:04:27
Speaker
um Now that's that's that's harder this cycle because I think we had some missteps in the state. um Not really due to anybody's fault. There just was not the turnout that I think all of us hoped.
00:04:39
Speaker
um So we've got to kind of rebuild that. ah As far as you know what what makes somebody successful at fundraising, I mean, it's it's like a lot of jobs. it's just It's just elbow grease. It's just... going to things, meeting people.
00:04:52
Speaker
um As I told Sam, I mean, I set up play dates for my kids all the time. I'm just here to set up play dates for you, you know, and that's kind of what I did. I just introduced him, made sure he got met all the right people that cared about the district. And he usually took it from there.
00:05:07
Speaker
But to be fair, though, to you, my friend, you had those connections already. And so can you give our listeners a sense of how you got to the place where you had those connections?
00:05:18
Speaker
and stepped into that need that needed a fundraising consultant for Sam? Like what had you been doing prior to that? I'd basically been a donor and and done a lot of volunteer fundraising for groups like Texas Civil Rights Project, Move Texas, Faith in Texas, and tons and tons of candidates. I'll take my daughter to go block walk for him, I'll give money.
00:05:40
Speaker
And so I just met, over the years, I met a lot of donors at other donor events. And ah so I just came from that world. um So, you know, but I think if if somebody's starting out or trying to get into it, um you can be a call time manager. You can you can help the candidate call donors.
00:06:01
Speaker
You can help set up events and then you start to build your own network as well. So and it's it's an ah it's a field where I think we need more good people. um There's just, there's not enough people doing it right now.
00:06:14
Speaker
So it sounds like ah you already had, ah pardon the the term here for our younger listeners, but you already had a Rolodex kind of ready to set up those play dates up. And then it was up to the candidate to, ah was the line from that Alec Baldwin movie, always be closing.
00:06:30
Speaker
ABC. ABC. abcology Coffee is for closers. Yeah, yeah. I give them a lot of coffee. um But yeah, mean, what, you know, that was mostly the primary. Once we ran through all those contacts, you know, like any other candidate, you got to do call time. You got to call statewide donors.
00:06:47
Speaker
You've got to go to events and meet new donors. um There's always people coming in and out. There's people that are frustrated. They've been doing it 20 years that are just like, like, I'm done. I've given what I can give. And then there's new people that are newly invigorated.
00:06:59
Speaker
um So finding those people. And some of that came
Fundraising vs. Voter Engagement Balance
00:07:03
Speaker
from just ah hitting the phones and calling donors. I mean, it's not sexy, but it's it's how you get new connections as well. See, this is what I think is fascinating because that district, I would argue, is much redder, much more of an uphill fight.
00:07:20
Speaker
on the congressional district level than a statewide race is in Texas, just based on the numbers have, as they have been in in recent cycles. Yeah, I agree.
00:07:30
Speaker
Yeah, i I think that's right. um it's We think it's one of the more interesting congressional districts because it it isn't rural. It's all suburban. And it's two-thirds in Tarrant.
00:07:41
Speaker
And just for to give you some some numbers, the Dallas part of the district, we have two-thirds of the precinct chairs filled. The Tarrant part of the district, it's only a quarter. The Dallas part of the district, we have 10 active districts.
00:07:54
Speaker
Democratic clubs where people can go get organized and volunteer for campaigns. There's probably three on the Tarrant side. So Tarrant, we believe, is just a non-voting purple area.
00:08:05
Speaker
You know, we saw Beto flip it in 18. So it it is an area that can be mobilized. It can be a lot more blue. And our margins in the Dallas side versus Tarrant were, you know, over 10 points. it was a lot It was a lot more red in Tarrant. So we believe...
00:08:22
Speaker
You know, we want to flip that. And and I just frankly have the the connections and that i know the people that live in this district. It was formerly my district when Colin Allred won it. So we feel like, you know, we should we should take it back.
00:08:35
Speaker
um So everybody's doing different things. I agree statewide. There's really some exciting opportunities. um But this is kind of my little niche. Yeah. Well, so this is the 24th congressional district, which is where I live.
00:08:47
Speaker
And it's where just situationally it's in North Texas straddles between Dallas and Fort Worth, sort of as you're saying for people that might not be from Texas or might not be familiar with North Texas. um But in for context, you helped Sam's race in the 24th last cycle, Epler, and now you're helping out in another congressional race.
00:09:06
Speaker
But what I find interesting as a former candidate is that I found out, and I did not realize this, is that as a congressional candidate, or even any candidate, most of your time is spent fundraising.
00:09:19
Speaker
Like I was taught in a campaign school that... 80, 90% of your time should be spent on the phone or talking to donors. And most of what you're trying to do is fundraise. And yet, as what you mentioned earlier, we don't have many consultants in this field. We've got a lot of other kind of consultants, especially not even in Texas, but all over the country in DC. But can we get a sense of like where we are, like situationally like the state of the world right now, as far as fundraising consultants go and like, you you know, why we don't have as many
Effective Campaign Spending Strategies
00:09:49
Speaker
maybe? i don't I don't know if you can answer that, but- Well, let me let me start with the first part.
00:09:53
Speaker
I do think there needs to be a better balance st struck between how much time the candidate spends raising money and how much time they're actually talking to voters. you know, um if you're only raising money, ah you're never meeting people, you're never doing the rallies, you're never doing the town halls. And and um this campaign that I'm helping with Kevin Burge, we're gonna do a lot of that grassroots stuff. um So there's there's a sort of an optimal amount of, I mean, consultants that are on your call that that do digital and mail and TV, more is better, right? so they're going to tell you keep going because that's what they do. They they do mail and TV for for people with money, but there needs to be a pushback from the campaign staff saying, okay, yeah, but we've we've also got to go get out and meet people and do events and and have you you know knocking on doors and meet regular people. So,
00:10:41
Speaker
that that's a balance that needs to be struck. But it is it is true. I mean, if you want to run a real campaign, you do have to have a certain amount of money. You've got you gotta to pay for staff. you you know you need a cop We still need a comms person. We need a field person. I mean, staff is going to be most of our expense. And then you need to get the word out somehow.
00:11:02
Speaker
So it is an unfortunate reality. I'm just playing the game they've made the rules for, but I'd love some different rules for sure. Well, what I liked about what you said earlier is that it's it's ah an investment.
00:11:16
Speaker
And you can make a pitch in a red district for people to invest and you made the pitch successfully. um The way I'm hearing this is there seems like the the mail and TV are short term investments.
00:11:29
Speaker
But this podcast, as you know, we've talked about is about long term investments. What do we what are the kinds of expenditures a campaign, even at the district level, can make such that it's moving the ball forward beyond the cycle?
00:11:45
Speaker
Because it sounds like that's that's one of the things that you were able to bring donors on to that bigger vision. Right. Yeah. And that's that's really the key question. That's a great question. um because you know it does all go away after the campaign ends.
00:12:00
Speaker
But I'd say one of the things a campaign can do that does endure is field, is knocking on doors, because then you've usually ah a voter has a good memory of you. they you came to their door, asked them what they cared about.
00:12:14
Speaker
That is um something long term that I think a lot of the ah other expenditures are not. And then the other thing I think people can think about doing is just being a little bit more efficient with their giving. So, you know, a statewide campaign that raises 80, you know, and there's a certain amount of money they raise where they got to pay all the staff, they got to do basic advertising, you know, maybe that's 20, 30, 40 million.
00:12:40
Speaker
But then that marginal dollar after that, they're just doing extra mailers and extra TV cause they've already kind of it's already more than their budget. And so, so um you take the, and I did this, you know, kind of analysis um if, and I can just run through real quick on the amount of money we spent to get an extra voter in 2022,
00:13:05
Speaker
ah with Beto, who's an amazing candidate. this This is not about the candidate. This is about the use of the dollars that they raise. So Beto got 3,553,000 raw votes. Collier So Collier had really no money, not much name ID.
00:13:25
Speaker
so beto got fifty eight thousand or sixty one thousand extra votes for seventy seven million dollars okay That, and some of that was just people knew him and they wanted to vote for him and they'd seen him on TV. So some of that's what we call earned media.
00:13:42
Speaker
But so if if you calculate for that, you're basically saying $2,600 per vote. That's what we were buying when you donated to Beto. You're buying an extra vote. Be clear, we're not buying any votes, but I understand what you're saying. No, no, that's probably the wrong term to buy a vote. but um clip That clip is going to go on Republican media. feel hi and That was right? Yeah.
00:14:10
Speaker
but so so that's a lot right um You know, and some of that was field. I'm i'm i'm biased. I love field. But if you you tell me, Kate, I mean, because you did field.
00:14:22
Speaker
if you so If you pay somebody $25 to do an hour of canvassing, you know, maybe they talk to six or seven. Yeah. And maybe get get you a vote. You know, maybe maybe most of those people were already going to vote for you. But that's $25 an hour if you if you get a vote, right? It's just a – it's – 1% of what we're spending on a big program statewide.
00:14:46
Speaker
Well, I will tell you, we're seeing this with ah the mayoral race in new York with how much field they're doing, but I think they're capped at this certain amount of money they can raise. But I know for me, i would have this war with myself of how should I spend this extra hour of time? Like I had a certain amount of time in a day, time is finite.
00:15:05
Speaker
Do I spend those hours trying to chase some money? that might then only be used to pay for a mailer or some texts or digital? Or do I want to go knock on 10 to 20 doors?
00:15:16
Speaker
And I may be able to, during a sweet spot time of the day, i can maybe talk to half of those doors. They will open for me and I can convince every single one of those people to vote. And I, so it was such a time where I thought, what hu time value of money, what do I do to actually, that is more bang for my buck.
00:15:33
Speaker
And yeah, So, I mean, and I think we also saw this with the differential between Colin Allred's race and Beto's race, which I think Beto did focus a lot on field where I think Collins was a but different strategy where he probably raised a lot of money and spent a lot of it, as I understand, you know, on media at the end. And maybe I'm wrong, but.
00:15:55
Speaker
that's, it was sort of a differential and you see that kind of war. And I actually talked to a person who had ah done a lot of races statewide and I said, well, how do I spend my time? What do I do? Do I raise more money and call donors who won't call me back or field? And she was like, look, this is how a lot of people feel and what their emphasis is in a race. Like, do you want to, and you see it and it's evidenced in a race. Like what are they prioritizing? And that race is shown like hourly, like what are they spending their money on? And you see that with Beto's race, he was more interested in rallies and maybe field work. So.
00:16:32
Speaker
john And and and just to just to fully answer Alex's second part of his question on on how do we invest, you know, it's it's not just field ah for campaigns, but it's also looking at um civic education groups, voter registration groups, turnout groups that do work year in, year out. in the in the field, we call it infrastructure, but it's really just groups that every cycle are going to be engaging voters, getting them excited,
00:17:00
Speaker
And it's not always just they're registering. They can be doing community events. um You know, one group, Somos Tejas in Dallas, was helping people out during COVID, giving information, talking them at the door.
00:17:11
Speaker
You build that loyalty in a community. And then when it's time to vote, you do a you do maybe a
Building Long-term Political Influence
00:17:17
Speaker
candidate forum. So you're you're you're doing some civic education and you're you're getting your people more interested in politics. So I think those are really good uses of your money.
00:17:27
Speaker
um as well. Like that's that's long-term stuff. The reason Georgia flipped was because they invested a lot more in those groups. Stacey Abrams had done a lot of that.
00:17:37
Speaker
And we just have not put as much money into those groups and we have not funded as many groups. So that's a real ah important thing for people to sort of reent reorient their giving to more of that.
00:17:49
Speaker
I think Georgia is a great example. I also think a lot about ah Florida. I remember there being a story about how Democrats spend a lot of money on radio ads, Spanish language radio ads in Florida.
00:18:03
Speaker
Well, at the same time that the Republicans were just buying the radio station. So that ad money, you light it on fire, you you say your little message and it's gone. But Now, every cycle, the Republicans can get their message out year round on this radio station.
00:18:20
Speaker
So I would love to see just a shift in that kind of long term mindset happen in Texas as well, because you're right, these nonprofits, these civic education groups, they're doing the work year round, not just showing up when it's time to get the vote. um I think if we can think more expansively, even even beyond voter registration, to think about communications, right?
00:18:44
Speaker
um You know, this is selfish because we were starting a podcast, but we need to have more media organizations. um Like I know that you're involved with Progress Texas, a great example of a group that is just doing it day in and day out.
00:19:00
Speaker
um As they say, campaigns come and go, right? um But Progress Texas is always there. And so um I think we're getting outgunned on that front.
00:19:13
Speaker
And so i would just stop talking now and and yeah have your thoughts. I agree. um You know, and in Kathleen, our executive director, has added this year a daily podcast. It's like an eight minute summary of what's going on in Texas politics, which I think is really good.
00:19:26
Speaker
We've built out our TikTok stuff. So we're, you know, we're trying to talk to younger voters that maybe aren't always um that ah consistent a voter to give them information. But yeah, we need we need more of that. We need more messaging. We need more podcasts like yours.
00:19:43
Speaker
to, you know, I mean, podcasts for me have increasingly become a bigger percent of how I consume information as well. Cause I can do other things and I'm listening. So it's, it's just more efficient. So I, I think, and and look, I mean, this is why I'm so thrilled to see Tallarico on Rogan.
00:20:00
Speaker
Like one of the mistakes we make is not going on the Theo Vaughns and the Rogans and, and talking to ah different audiences. So, um, you know, I think that's really important for candidates to do.
00:20:11
Speaker
Um, Just keep telling us why we're good and why we need a podcast. So, you know, we'll use this in our pitch materials. Yeah. But I guess have a question. do we need to raise more money in Texas? Cause I think something that you told me before was that we don't really have a money problem. It's where we're investing it and also convincing the people to invest here, uh, in, in Texas.
00:20:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think the the money going out of state has always been a problem, but that gets solved very easily by some wins or some close wins, right? You know, you have to give people help ah some some hope. I mean, you can't just, I mean, everybody had some great wins in 18 and we haven't done much since. So it's like, you got to give people something, right?
00:20:56
Speaker
So the money is there. It'll come back in the state. Yeah, and my whole pitch, which is why I walked through those numbers, is we can spend it better. we We can routinely fund a statewide campaign for $80
Grassroots Political Infrastructure in Texas
00:21:07
Speaker
million. dollars I don't know the total spent on all our infrastructure groups, but it last I heard it was $5 million. maybe it's Maybe it's closer to $10 by now. um So...
00:21:19
Speaker
We just have to shift those dollars to, um I think, investing in the groups. And then um I think donors need to hold campaigns a little more accountable for what are you doing with with the money right now?
00:21:32
Speaker
Like, tell me and tell me what the return on that is. You know, this is how is this going to get us some more votes? Yeah, and I wanted to follow up with that because i know you're part of a group called The Bridge, which figures out where to put money. Can you tell our listeners a little bit um more about that group?
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah, so this was started by Drew Galloway, who who took over Move San Antonio before it was Move Texas with a tiny budget and made it a ah real force in voter registration at colleges.
00:22:02
Speaker
And what they do, again, they they civically engage the kids. They meet them at campus from with with peers that go to the school. They get their cell phones. They ask them what issues they care about. They put on candidate forms. And they started out...
00:22:14
Speaker
getting kids interested in the San Antonio mayoral race. um He grew that group and then he decided about four or five years ago, he wanted to incubate new groups in Texas that we don't have enough.
00:22:28
Speaker
um We have some good ones, but we, but they all cover kind of the same areas. So it's basically like venture capital or incubator ah model for the, new Texas progressive groups. So know every three months, we give them 50 grand, we give them a six to nine month training on how to fundraise, how to run a group, how to do finance and legal and compliance.
00:22:51
Speaker
And we help somebody go from I'm doing volunteer on my weekends, running this group to I want to be an ED and make this a real group. And so we And again, back to the money, we've got foundation money um from outside Texas that wants to invest in Texas, that sees Texas as eventually a battleground.
00:23:13
Speaker
and so they But we realized we just didn't have enough groups doing stuff. And so what those groups do, they all focus on very specific areas and areas. things they do. So we've got a group like radical registrars that that registers people in San Antonio.
00:23:30
Speaker
um We've got a new group Cornerstone ah that registers college kids in a lot of places ah move or TFN haven't gone. So that is, you know, i think vitally important. And so we encourage people to apply and we want to help them grow. And and a lot of people don't get accepted the first time we put them in another group and help them.
00:23:54
Speaker
So we're trying to just help start new groups and the more the better. Where can people find it Uh, you go to bridge movements.org and, um, you can apply if you have, you know, you've been doing something, and not, not like a brand new idea and you've never done it, but if you've been doing something on the side, you know, registering voters or engaging your community or, or even advocating for an issue in front of city hall and you want to take it to the next level, then you can apply and we'd love to talk to you.
00:24:23
Speaker
I think it's so great. And I know Drew and Move San Antonio more more broadly. i was a campus organizer at UTSA ah during the 2014 cycle. um Back in the day before Battleground Texas really kind of became smaller than than it was intended.
00:24:41
Speaker
um I think Battleground Texas is such an interesting case study in this kind of long-term investment thinking that just got distracted and drawn to the bright lights of a celebrity candidate at the top.
00:24:57
Speaker
And I hate to say it that way because Wendy Davis, I've been a fan of hers. way before she ran for governor. um She had a filibuster before the big filibuster where she she she stood behalf public education. And i I had been a fan of hers ah since then. And way I see it because it's very personal to me, I was a 2013 first group of fellows, volunteer for Battleground Texas, and then my first paid campaign job doing field and then campus organizing.
00:25:28
Speaker
for the governor's race when Balgron, Texas essentially became the Wendy Davis for governor campaign. But the the beauty of the idea, whenever Jeremy Byrd, the Obama field director, came and had his first meeting with then mayor Julian Castro, and I think he's probably still a state representative, or maybe he was already a congressman at the time as well, Joaquin Castro,
00:25:53
Speaker
He was like, look, we have to treat Texas like a battleground state, right? No one's gonna think it is until we treat it like one. And what we were doing was building neighborhood teams. We were giving trainings on here's how you actually do canvassing. Here's how you do a phone bank.
00:26:08
Speaker
And we were empowering people to do the real work that let's be honest, the Texas Democratic Party as an organization just wasn't doing. um As you mentioned, there are lots of parts of the state that still have no precinct chairs.
00:26:22
Speaker
We had an interview with Kendall Scudder and he'll be the first to tell you, we do not have the people in place. And so what I saw about around Texas is fulfilling a huge need.
00:26:33
Speaker
um And so unfortunately we've lost, I think the momentum because people associated, we call it a BGTX, right? Background Texas with the, the windy campaign that obviously did not work out.
00:26:45
Speaker
um And so that kind of just deflated the air of that balloon. But I think what Kate and I was, we really want to ask you about um is this kind of phenomenon where you pin all your hopes and dreams on one person.
00:27:00
Speaker
It's okay if you want to make the analogy. that As Texas Democrats, are we having our Luca moment here with the, like the Mavs? You know, we got the generational talents. We're relying on them.
00:27:11
Speaker
season over season and one year the rug will be pulled out from under us and that's going to be 2028 we're not going to have a top of the ticket so are we about to have our our lucca moment like what are we doing here this might be a clumsy analogy but if if beto is our kind of energizer our kind of uh lucca if you might say um 2018 2022 like if he doesn't run what are we going to do right yeah um Well, that's why you have drafts and you get Cooper flag. So there's always, is, is, is James Calarico our Cooper flag?
00:27:46
Speaker
Yeah. Our young guy, we we didn't, wear we weren't expecting him to come in and didn get everybody excited. But I think we, we, so let me, yeah. Okay. So candidate stuff first. I think there's a a lot of amazing candidates. I mean, I got first involved in Texas politics because of Wendy.
00:28:01
Speaker
Um, I love Colin Beto. You know, we we put out these amazing people and then we pin all our hopes and dreams on them and they're not magicians. You know, you are somewhat subject to the national view of the Democratic Party.
00:28:16
Speaker
Right. And that is stuff that you can you know some of these guys run away from it and win and like weird red places, but generally you're at the the whim of of the national brand, right?
00:28:27
Speaker
And so we put all this hope in these candidates and then it causes this huge letdown and then we have to rebuild again. So that's why I encourage people to think about the groups, investing in the groups, um, ah A little bit more on our bench. is well Yeah. Then the candidates. And yeah, a lot of people come from those groups.
00:28:44
Speaker
I'll get back to battleground though. um That was an issue where it was a top down versus bottom.
Developing Local Political Talent
00:28:51
Speaker
Right. Somebody in DC or wherever they were like, Texas is going to flip. I'll just start a group.
00:28:56
Speaker
And they just came in there. And my friends at the Travis County democratic party at the time were, were not too, fond of of their approach. They felt like it was not learning from the local people that have been doing it. And so at Bridge, we believe in bottoms up, something organic, you know, your community.
00:29:14
Speaker
And, um you know, I think that's evidenced in in some data that it comes out in voter registration. if you If you just are a random person and you go to a random neighborhood and you so you sit in front of a grocery store and you register people and you never talk to them again, 15% of those people actually vote.
00:29:32
Speaker
If you live in a community, you know your neighbors, you you have an event and you see them all and you register them and you talk to them and you follow up with them, and you engage them, those numbers go up to 65 or 70%. So that's the difference between bottoms up and top down. So we we think it needs to be more organic people that know a certain region.
00:29:52
Speaker
And it's it's a long investment, right? Because it you know we invest a group that's doing voter registration in Tyler, Texas, well usually African-American. mean, it's all pretty niche, but it's all pockets that aren't being addressed by the either the state party or the big Texas organizing projects, TFNs, the big big infrastructure we have out there.
00:30:11
Speaker
You know, i hear a lot from folks, and it's sort of related to that, but We have too many DC consultants coming into Texas and too many DC people, and they don't know our state.
00:30:22
Speaker
But the reality also that I would love to share is that we don't have a lot of people running races. and the state going back to the need for fundraising consultants like yourself to step into that need. do you have any sense or feeling of that ah from your the campaigns that you've done? Because how do we balance that? Yeah, we have huge shortage of talent. I mean, with Sam's campaign, after we won the primary, we had to do a state a nationwide search for a campaign manager.
00:30:50
Speaker
The first two said no, the third one finally moved there. By the time he was organized, we had lost three or four months, right? And so our obviously we would have preferred hiring statewide, somebody from the state, but there just weren't a lot of resumes coming across. So we need to um build the bench. But I'll say this to people that are listening that are younger and thinking about doing this, or if you have a ah child or niece, nephew, and they're thinking about it, you can rise really fast. So I'll give you an example.
00:31:19
Speaker
So um A friend of mine, she started a poll greeting and um block walking became one of our most reliable block walkers. I could send her out in the rain to on Sunday and she would show up. And that was kind of her first entry in the campaign. So that's, let's say, you know, late last year.
00:31:39
Speaker
Then she expressed interest in fundraising. So I made her my deputy. We didn't have really any money to pay her, but she kept meeting everybody and and making the contacts. um Just yesterday, she was hired to be the regional ah fundraising director for DFW for James Tallarico.
00:31:56
Speaker
so Wait, who's that? Gretchen. Gretchen? Oh my gosh. So that took nine months, right? Because she wanted it. She hustled.
00:32:07
Speaker
And if you work at a campaign, there's usually a shortage of people and you just grab whatever needs to be done and and you can rise so fast in this field. So I just encourage people to enter it. it's so fun. Like I'm a campaign guy. i like the competition of it.
00:32:23
Speaker
um It really is exciting and fun and you meet a bunch of great people. So I hope we can get more people into it. Yeah, I would really love to echo that. I mean, every person I've i've talked to, especially young people, i just really try to emphasize that this can happen so quickly. There is such a ah yearning, a hunger really for young people to step up and get involved.
00:32:47
Speaker
A lot of times just showing up and raising your hand can lead to some title or responsibility that can then be leveraged to the next and the next, and the next thing. And and the the rungs on that ladder can be climbed very quickly. And we need it.
00:33:01
Speaker
We need it. And also there's this field is it needs some creativity and some risk taking. It's very similar to, it needs to be money balled, right?
00:33:14
Speaker
um we We do a lot of things that we've done just because we've been doing them, but they don't necessarily get a good return on investment. The way people consume information has changed.
00:33:26
Speaker
And now look, a lot of campaigns get that. They do a lot of digital, um but even that can change, right? So, you know, there was, um I compare it to the private sector. Warby Parker um got all their consumers online and they calculate what's called a cost to acquire a customer, CAC.
00:33:44
Speaker
That dollar amount was like, 50 or a hundred bucks, but it changed when Apple changed their privacy settings and it blew out their whole business model. So it's like, you know, it costs them way more to get a customer um than it did before.
00:34:00
Speaker
And then they started realizing, oh, we need stores. Right. And so that, that sort of analogizes that you need, to you need field, you can't do it all digital. So it's constantly evolving and look, there's no,
00:34:12
Speaker
There's no set right answer. If everybody did field and only field and everybody, every house got knocked five times a day, then they'd probably start putting signs up saying, leave me alone. And then field wouldn't be there.
00:34:23
Speaker
But right now, um it's still pretty effective because most stores I go to, they've never spoken to a campaign ever. Right. And you got to break through somehow. So I just think creativity and risk taking.
00:34:36
Speaker
And people maybe from other fields applying some lessons into politics would would be beneficial as well.
Innovation and Authenticity in Campaigns
00:34:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, to that point, an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast is going to get in so so many more eyeballs than a candidate could physically ever knock knock on doors to have that kind of conversation, right?
00:34:56
Speaker
And it is a risk. If you have a big moment like that and you fail to meet the moment, you've just had millions of people watch that. But if you're going to break through and break the longest losing streak in statewide politics,
00:35:12
Speaker
we got to We got to have some risk takers, right? Well, I think also, yeah, I think candidates are overcoached. yeah You know, I'm a big fan of Gretchen Whitmer, but I heard her on a Galloway podcast the other day and she sounded like somebody had coached her so much that she was afraid to say anything wrong. And maybe you can make that argument with Kamala.
00:35:31
Speaker
I think a lot of candidates get... They have so many people in their ear that they lose a sense of themselves. And I just think I encourage my candidates to be themselves and you're going make some mistakes, but people will see the authenticity.
00:35:46
Speaker
I mean, clearly we've seen this work, like Trump makes mistakes every day and no one cares. So it's, you know, people are so hungry for authenticity that they'll give you a pass if you screw up here and there. Yeah.
00:35:59
Speaker
So I want to go back to something you said earlier about transparency and money. How can candidates do that better? Because it does feel like you send so much money to a candidate and it just sort of lights on fire. Like I have no idea where it's going um and how they're spending it.
00:36:16
Speaker
And then my related question is if you have say a round number, $100, how would, because you're just getting bombarded with text messages. I have no idea who to spend money on, how they're spending it.
00:36:29
Speaker
What would you recommend a donor or somebody at home to spend their money on? Is it a combination of the party? Is it on a favorite candidate? Is it local? Like, how would you recommend people spend their money? All right, so the first part of the question, you know, I would ask candidates for audited numbers on how many doors they knocked.
00:36:48
Speaker
um You know, let's because that's again gets back to evidence that you're sort of helping the team overall, if you're knocking on doors and talking to voters, and and I would encourage donors to spend more time with the staff, ask the campaign manager, hey, what are you spending money on? Why are you doing this versus this? I mean, just spend more time understanding that.
00:37:08
Speaker
um As far as money, you know, again, I get back to the every candidate campaign needs a certain amount. Figure out what that is, where they're running a good campaign. But beyond that, you know, it's like people gave Amy McGrath $25 million dollars in the last two weeks in that Kentucky.
00:37:24
Speaker
What's she going to do with $25 million? dollars She didn't know was coming. I mean, I guess we'll put up TV ads, you know. So, um you know, really, i think fund campaigns, but to a point.
00:37:36
Speaker
and then say, okay, how much have you raised? How much do you, I mean, and also some of these candidates, like they're what they're wealthy, like ask them to self fund.
00:37:47
Speaker
um yeah i get I think I've given to a lot of candidates that have more money than me. I found out later. um But then i would look at I would look at giving to some of these groups like a, you know, Texas organizing project, TFN, move Texas, a lot of the bridge portfolio groups. um The Mission Texas podcast.
00:38:08
Speaker
but Oh yeah, definitely. And just fund projects that you're interested in that you feel like, you know, it's really valuable. Like, okay, we can hire an extra staffer or we can keep this podcast going or whatever it is with these dollars. And um I think your dollars go a long way and it feels a little more rewarding kind like giving their NPR something like that.
00:38:30
Speaker
Can I ask a pointed follow-up that might get you in trouble? Uh-oh. yeah So what do we do about these ah Democratic elected officials in Texas who they don't have to worry about their reelection?
00:38:44
Speaker
And it seems like their campaign accounts are always flush. How do we make sure that they're doing enough to help out the rest of the team? You know, this came up at lunch two days ago with a candidate who was running in ah in a district like that. And she was talking about how she needs to knock her district and she thinks all of them need to do that, but I don't think they're going to do it unless you give them some kind of incentive.
00:39:06
Speaker
Right. So how do we give them that incentive? Do you have it? do you have ideas? thought that through. i I don't know, but I think that is a big problem. Like give them some kind of incentive. I bet Kendall could come up with something there. um you know, maybe speaking slot at the party kind of help, you know, will help promote you if you help grow the grow the party. So I think that's a great question. I think that that's something that really needs to be worked on for sure. Yeah. It's just something I think about a lot because of how gerrymandered the state is.
00:39:37
Speaker
um Those of us who have the the joy and and the benefit of having a Democratic elected official represent us, um We are kind of, as a whole, I think checked out because our district is safe.
Engaging Voters Amidst Gerrymandering
00:39:56
Speaker
It's drawn that way so that more Republican seats can be safe than Democrats. And ah i think we get so comfortable listening to the person who's already representing us that we're not keeping our eyes on the bigger prize, which is the statewide races.
00:40:13
Speaker
And a safe Democratic vote in a safe Democratic seat is worth just as much as a Democratic vote in a deep red seat whenever you're counting statewide.
00:40:26
Speaker
Right. Like you you mentioned, Tyler, Texas. Right. Part of the 903 where I'm from is a huge area code. um Nobody is really mining the 903. Every vote in the 903, Sherman all the way down to Tyler and Huntsville, where Kendall Scudder ran for city council twice.
00:40:45
Speaker
Right. This is a massive, massive part of the state that. You know, if let's be honest, most Democratic candidates, excluding Beto, who has always made it a point to come to Sherman and I love him for it. i You know, I'll never say a bad thing about Beto because he he comes to my hometown.
00:41:02
Speaker
But lot of folks just don't mind it. They're not minding the store. And if these people are only ever hearing one side of the story, one version of the message. And we're just uncontesting huge swaths of the state. Yeah. And it's a national problem. I mean, when people that are not political come up to me and say, what's wrong? Why are we so partisan?
00:41:22
Speaker
It's only one word. It's gerrymandering. Right. mean, that's the problem that creates all those issues. And so there are people out there that are working on that specific issue.
00:41:33
Speaker
um You know, I don't know how we get an independent commission like some of the other states, but But I think if Democrats ever took over the state, they should put that in place, you know, have a. Yeah, well, we got to we got to win the legislature to do that.
00:41:45
Speaker
And I don't even think we're running enough candidates to take the legislature if we were to win. Yeah, that's another issue. I mean, i think we overlap with one or two House district races in Tarrant where we don't yet have a Democrat running. So that's that's tough.
00:42:00
Speaker
Well, so do you have any, reflecting back on last cycle and your race last time, like, and you knocked a lot of doors. So including also talk to donors, was there a takeaway? Was there a moment? Did you see something? Did you hear something? And you said, okay, this might be an issue for us in this cycle that you maybe explained how we did in the state or across the nation?
00:42:20
Speaker
So it's again back to a gerrymandered district. The playbook is the Republican that holds it will not agree to talk to you or engage you. So the playbook is pretend you don't exist.
00:42:31
Speaker
The Chamber of Commerce threw out 10 dates to have a debate with Beth Dandine and Sam. We agreed to all 10 and she didn't even answer their email. Right. So. they're hiding from their constituents, they're hiding from debate.
00:42:44
Speaker
And that was the most frustrating thing was trying to get so a journalist or somebody to write about the race to talk about it. and And if you can't break through with some viral digital video or you can't get press coverage, then all the people in your district that might be open to the message of voting for a 25 year old teacher who did not vote to decertify the election,
00:43:09
Speaker
um there'd be a lot of people that will talk to that person and and be interested in maybe voting for that person. um And you can see that in the data. I mean, Beth Van Dyne outgained Trump and Cruz in raw votes. And it was because you had this Republican that goes in and they don't like Trump or Cruz, but then they assume everybody else down ballot is like a normal Republican, right? Because they don't know how bad Van Dyne is.
00:43:34
Speaker
They just don't know. And so, you know, breaking through with mailers and, you know, you can only do so much field in a big general. um It was is really hard.
00:43:46
Speaker
um So it takes a little luck. It takes us something some doors video or something to to kind of break through and grab everybody's attention. So that's the the thing that a campaign staff is always trying to work on in the general.
00:43:59
Speaker
I remember last year. I knocked doors for y'all near my ah house in Coppell and a woman, this was in the general election. So you guys gave me a list of people that I really didn't know if they were a Democrat or Republican and maybe they leaned Republican, I think is the list that y'all were giving
Persuasion and Voter Turnout Strategies
00:44:14
Speaker
me.
00:44:14
Speaker
And a woman knocked, I knocked on her door. She opened the door, told her who I was. She actually talked to me and it was nice. And she was like, oh, Beth Van Dyne. Oh, she's so nice. I like her. And I'm like,
00:44:26
Speaker
I don't know if you've actually like figured out who she is. And it's like, you're right. like she they There's some amount of messaging that has not broken through to say what but she's done.
00:44:38
Speaker
And it's like, how did we how do we get here? um How are we not um able to break through with that kind of messaging about what what kind of things that she's voted on, what she's done as a mayor of Irving?
00:44:48
Speaker
all these other things. So it's, it was a very interesting ah takeaway because it was either people knew who she was and could like articulate why they didn't like her or they were like, Oh, she looks like a nice person. And I'm like, well, that's not actually the case.
00:45:02
Speaker
Very common for me in Dallas was they didn't know who she was. um That was, that was also pretty common. So we wanted to define her um and ah get that message out. But you know, ah really didn't scale a field program to the size it needed to be to get that out. And, um you know, there was a big debate after, you know, persuasion versus turning out the base. And, you know, I kind of defer to my my partner, Brody, on who does the field plan on how to split that up.
00:45:34
Speaker
But I mean, persuasion is more expensive. It's harder, a requires a really well-trained person at the door versus turnout. You know, you're just doing volume and and getting the word out. So that debate will continue. And I think there's merits to both um of those. What you're saying is you're trying to target, if I understand you, is that turnout means we we know there are people out there that probably are Democrats, but they're not predictably...
00:46:03
Speaker
voting, and so we need to turn those people out versus the other category of people who we need to persuade because they we don't know whether they lean Republican or Democrat. Maybe they don't lean either, we need to persuade them.
00:46:14
Speaker
Is that what I'm saying? We know they're going to show up and vote. we just want them to vote for our person. It's a matter of who we spend money on, and is it turning out the people we know are going to vote with us?
00:46:28
Speaker
And I've also heard that there's a debate whether we wanna spend money on the whole other category, which is voters who've never voted vote before and registering people, because that means we have more people to spend money on.
00:46:41
Speaker
So I've heard a debate that we should not be even spending money on that. Like, how do you, where do you lean? The turnout, I think the lesson from last cycle, because it was a turnout problem in the whole country is that all campaigns will spend a lot more on on turning out the reliable Democrats um you know, that that maybe skip an election or two.
00:47:00
Speaker
um So there'll there'll be a lot on that. The persuasion thing is super interesting because what it usually looks like in the data is we're not sure what they are. And so um anecdotally, my conversations with those people went great.
00:47:14
Speaker
If I didn't lead with Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, I led with 25 year old math teacher who cares about schools. And then here's a woman who voted to completely outlaw abortion, went along with the whole lie that the election was stolen. This is your current representative. And a lot of those people, you know, you could you could convince. They're just not super partisan. Now, there's people on our party that don't believe those exist. They think they're unicorns.
00:47:42
Speaker
I, from going to doors, do not share that. I don't know the amount, but I will say the critique on that is correct. It is more expensive. It is harder. It is... you know If you're doing that and you're not turning out people that that was a lot cheaper to do and they don't show up, then yeah, that that ends up being not the right choice. So it's yeah it's a concept. Yeah.
00:48:04
Speaker
I just had a very frustrating conversation exactly about that ah recently. Someone who genuinely believes that the way that we are going to win Texas is just by turning out more Democrats. And I just...
00:48:19
Speaker
I think sometimes people can get so bogged down in their echo chambers that they forget that most people who vote for Democrats probably aren't super partisan identifiers the way you just said, like if you don't lead with Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, they're open and they want to vote.
00:48:36
Speaker
Like the word Democrat is not actually super popular at the moment. the The national brand is not great. That's not to say that individual candidates can't do much better than that polling. And they, they often do, but I think it's because that's not the primary motivator for a lot of people when they say,
00:48:55
Speaker
um I'm not going to vote for you just because you're a Democrat. Like I'm the whole, like, if you see online, the vote blue, no matter who, like that is not compelling to a person who's not already bought in and as like got the team Jersey on. Right.
00:49:10
Speaker
Most people don't want to wear a team Jersey. Like they find it offensive to like their sense of American democracy. Like that's not who they are. I encourage everybody to go do a block walk for a candidate in a middle income slash working class part of Dallas. and you'll notice some things.
00:49:30
Speaker
There's no signs up. Everybody that you talk to is friendly and happy to hear from you. And they're not partisan and they're not spending time watching MSNBC or Fox.
00:49:42
Speaker
They're working and taking care of their family. So they're out there. I mean, but the critique on that is, you know, how much do you spend to get them and and how many can you get? So, I mean, that debate will continue.
00:49:54
Speaker
um But i I do believe just from my experience that. There's a lot of them out there and I agree with you. but They're not. It's not like a academic theory either. Like this is measurable.
Concluding Thoughts on Texas Politics
00:50:06
Speaker
We can go and look in 2018 and say, just based on how numbers work, X number of people voted for Greg Abbott and Beto O'Rourke.
00:50:17
Speaker
That has to be the case just on the total turnout and how many votes each of those two men got. And same even recently, right? The number of people who voted for Donald Trump and also Colin Allred.
00:50:30
Speaker
It wasn't enough, but it wasn't nothing. ah was It was a pretty good chunk of people. He outperformed the ticket to his credit. You know, I'm i'm not hiding the ball here. i'm I'm all in on James Tallarico in this primary, but. We're open minded. All red did, you know, outperform the ticket in 2024. He did. By quite a bit.
00:50:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. To his credit. So Alex Andrade, not Clark, ah top three things you think the state needs to do generally? Like what if you were if you were to give advice to Texas, you know, like what do we got to do to flip our state? Like what do you think the top things that we need to do are?
00:51:10
Speaker
is a is join a club. um Google, you know, where you live in Democrats, join a club because it really helps to have fellowship and meet other people that are are as kind of distressed as you.
00:51:25
Speaker
You can't possibly keep track of what's going on as far as campaigns and who's coming to speak and when can you volunteer, get on their mailing list, join the club. You strengthen the club by giving them some money and, you know, usually a nominal amount and joining and their strength in numbers um become a precinct chair.
00:51:44
Speaker
We need more. they're They're really valuable in terms of educating those lower propensity voters and people who are not that partisan on who to vote for. And and a lot of people really rely on that. I know I did mine for judges because I never really knew what to do with judges um and then go volunteer in a campaign.
00:52:04
Speaker
um You know that that's Those are ways to get involved for people. And that's in the bottoms up. That's how we do things. Because I don't know, there's nobody really that's making all these decisions. It's it you know it's all it's all a combination of our decisions. I mean, I'm i'm rooting for Kendall to...
00:52:26
Speaker
turn this party, the state party into, in a real force. And I think he's already on, onto a good start, but that's going to take some time. I mean, we're not just going to sit around, wait for, for that. And um so it's, it's gotta be people getting offline, stop posting, go do something, please give some money. If you have money, give have money. If you don't have money, give your time.
00:52:47
Speaker
I think that's, that's how we, we flip Texas. texas is We all get more engaged and involved. Well, I think finding community where you can and like organizing and block walking are all combined. Like they all kind of beget each other.
00:53:01
Speaker
Like if you find community and friendship with one or two people in your area and you can find a club, like usually that leads to other things like, hey, we're all going to go knock doors for this candidate, this cycle. And that usually only happens right before the election, though you guys are actually doing some block walks for the special election, right?
00:53:19
Speaker
That's happening in parent county? trying to help Tyler Remmet win a ah state Senate seat in the special in November. So we're out walking for him. So if people want, or they're in the North Texas area, they want some experience in block walking, never block walked before, they can go head out there and ah volunteer for that.
00:53:37
Speaker
It restores your faith and humanity get outside of your your bubble and go talk to people that just really don't consume news the way we consume it. Yeah. I'll tell you, that's how I felt when I was knocking doors for my own race. And it was, you think it's scary just to go out in your neighborhood and talk to people. And it really wasn't. And i was talking to a friend in the legal community and she was saying the same thing, like,
00:54:02
Speaker
You tell me, Kate, what we need to do. Like, I'm trying to ask other people. And I think that's what we're trying to give in this podcast, which is a sense of what are some actual concrete items that people can do at home, because some people just need that.
00:54:14
Speaker
and But when I mentioned block walking in their own neighborhood, ah she was saying, well, I don't know. i don't know if I want to be in my neighborhood and see the person I know who's a Trumper or MAGA person. and just get angry every time. And I personally i have someone right across the street from me who always has a Trump sign.
00:54:30
Speaker
They had a Maha sign in their yard as well. I had no idea what that meant until you know I figured out what that meant. I was like, Maha, I'm Googling it um And is... you know it is There's still people who I will say, if they have a garage door open, I'm going to tell them that their garage door is open. Like there's still people that I care about. And, ah but it's nice because I've walked my neighborhood I know ah so many people now and i I see them and it's nice to see, like I go walking and I'm like, that's a person who took my yard sign. That's a person I had conversation about their daughter who they're so proud of that they're going to college. And just made me feel like I'm very connected to my neighborhood, even though they may not have voted with me.
00:55:11
Speaker
And from a raw political analysis, right, like going back to what I was referencing about the ah Abbott Beto voters and the Trump Allard voters, this is a phenomenon that happens across the country and we got to get over it.
00:55:25
Speaker
um Yes, a person with a Make America Great Again yard sign is less likely to vote for our candidates. not But it's not zero, right?
00:55:37
Speaker
In the same election where we elect reelected Donald Trump as president United States, oh the same states that voted for him also elected a senator in Arizona.
00:55:50
Speaker
as a Democrat, a Senator in Michigan, I believe as a Democrat, um, Kentucky, which goes for Trump hard yeah as a democratic governor right now. Yeah. Yeah. Beshear amazing.
00:56:03
Speaker
And, you know, listened to, I listened to a podcast with the guy who ran his campaign and, it It ended up being some really specific local issue, like a bridge, fixing a bridge so people didn't have to take forever to go to get to work. You know, it's solving like very specific problems. And we need to keep that in mind. Now, I'll say I do have a bias. If I see MAGA sign, I'm not knocking that door. work We will not send you. We will not knowingly send you to a MAGA door. We will send you to people that don't vote in primaries and.
00:56:31
Speaker
um we don't really know what they are and occasionally you get a MAGA person but I don't want to scare people away I just mean to say we can't we can't write anybody off right we can't write anybody off yeah we might knock a door and the group of people are different right like I might have a person on my list I'm like I know that they are probably a democrat and they're in that that that house so I need go talk to them if someone in a red hat votes for my candidate I'm glad they voted for my candidate Oh yeah, I'll take them all day.
00:57:02
Speaker
But I'll lose my volunteers if I send them in too many those stores. That's right. One of my favorite stories about Kendall Scudder is whenever he was running for city council in Huntsville, people would come up to him and say they' just the wildest stuff.
00:57:17
Speaker
um As you might know, he has he has two moms and they they they wouldn't know that about him. And they'd say, you know, the gays cause hurricanes, right?
00:57:26
Speaker
Kendall would just put his hand on his heart, look him in the eye and say, you know, a lot of people feel that way. And then he would pull his hand off and say now let me talk to you about, and then he would talk about some local issue because a vote from a crazy person counts just as much as a vote from the academic, from the well-respected lawyer or banker in town.
00:57:47
Speaker
Everybody's vote counts the same. And so you don't need to get them to agree with you on everything. i think sometimes Democrats are too interested in winning an argument instead of winning an an election. There's a lot of that.
00:57:58
Speaker
There's a lot of that. um Yeah. And I think, I mean, this has been talked about forever. So I don't want to spend a lot of time on it, but you know, we shouldn't shame on us for losing the working class. um and And that's a that's a fault in messaging. That's a fault in not being a fierce enough advocate for the working class.
00:58:17
Speaker
And that's a whole nother podcast. And that's been talked about a lot. But I i agree with it wholeheartedly um that we've we've got to reconnect with ah that group of Americans. That's that's what we are as Democrats. Why I'm a Democrat. I believe that.
00:58:30
Speaker
you know, we are there for the people. And so we got to get that back. And I think we can, I think a lot of those type of voters, they sort of ping pong back and forth. You know, there was that whole phenomenon of like Trump voters voting for Bernie and, you know, voting for Obama and, and, you know, just this back and forth and neither party is addressing their problems.
00:58:50
Speaker
So they just trying new things, you know, until. so Yeah. I don't, I don't think they're ideological in the way that some people assume that they are. i think that they want someone who's going to, fight for them.
00:59:01
Speaker
And that's why I think there's a through line but between, i would even back it up beyond that and say like, Ron Paul voters, right? Ron Paul to to Barack Obama, to Bernie, to Donald Trump, there doesn't seem to be any sort of ideological cohesion there other than there's a sense that these are candidates who were very intentional about bringing people in and making them feel like they belonged.
00:59:30
Speaker
that fair to say? Yeah, I think that's right. i mean, they talk about these Trump rallies as they're like social events. That's where you see your friends. You know, I mean, that's the way it is for us, too, with the Democratic side. Yeah, I just think, I mean,
00:59:43
Speaker
It goes back to 1980 when we started, we decided as a society, we're going to get corporation let corporations take all the extra profit from worker productivity and not distribute it to workers.
00:59:55
Speaker
And, you know, in the 40s, 50s and 60s, that was shared. um Corporations have just been stealing money since 1980 and shrinking the middle class. And if you're in that group of people, you just keep voting for change because nobody's articulated
Podcast Wrap-up
01:00:10
Speaker
why that happened and and nobody's articulated how we're going to get out of it. So I think Democrats need to step up to the mic on that one.
01:00:16
Speaker
Well, ah my friend Alex Andrade, thank you so much. um If people want to follow your race ah with Kevin Burge, where do you ah have them follow you? And also, what do you got going on outside of politics?
01:00:28
Speaker
It's Kevin Burge for Congress. um You can Google that and you can sign up to be a volunteer. You can donate. um That would be really helpful. We have a contested primary, so we've got to we've got to win the primary.
01:00:41
Speaker
um Outside of that, i'm just I moved to Austin and I'm trying to you know, uh, figure out how to afford a UT game ticket. Alex and I were talking about that before.
01:00:52
Speaker
So I took my kids to the games where we had really bad opponents so I could get a cheaper price, but I don't know how I'm to to these, these other ones. Um, but I'm loving life and having fun. I'm up to Dallas a lot to help Kevin and, uh, love doing this podcast with you guys. This is really cool. And once you start, um,
01:01:11
Speaker
putting them out there. I want to share them with all my friends. I think this is really important to do sort of the long-term thinking, you know, the, the rehashing today's news is kind of been done a lot and not getting this anywhere. So this is really thoughtful and really appreciate the, the effort you guys are putting in.
01:01:30
Speaker
Well, we'll check in with you again, I'm sure, and see how the race is going. Okay. Thanks guys. Thanks. um You can follow us on all socials at Mission Texas Podcast.
01:01:41
Speaker
Email us at missiontexaspodcast at gmail.com. This episode is edited by Juan Jose Flores. Our music bumper is by Adam Pickerel, and our cover art is by Tino Sohn.