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Ep. 41: The Surprise Shake Up Within the Texas Democratic Party (Liza Hameline & Chris Servin)
62 Plays7 days ago
This week we're joined by two newly elected members of the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) the governing board of the state party: Liza Hameline, a longtime North Texas election judge and Irving-based organizer; and Chris Servin, a Tarrant County field organizer who is the co-chair of the statewide Hispanic Caucus. Both bring a data-driven, door-knocking ethos to the party's infrastructure. They discuss their surprise elections and what the SDEC really does within the Texas Democratic Party.
Plus: Alex's good news is filing a motion to intervene in federal court to help defend Texas's open primary law; Liza's is watching 85% of her SDEC delegation turn out as brand-new faces; and Chris's is launching the Senate District 9 Tejano Democrats chapter in Fort Worth.
What we cover:
- Liza's path from corporate lawyer to precinct-chair recruiter after 2021 redistricting split Irving into four school districts
- Chris's phone-banking marathon to win the statewide Hispanic Caucus seat — and why "can I count on your support" is the most underused question in politics
- Chris's work on the coordinated campaign's VAN-based outreach strategy and how it identifies persuadable general-election-only voters
- Liza's take on what "progressive" means on the ground: down-ballot races, city council wins in Irving (District 6 and District 3), and voter registration at faith communities
- Chris's plans for the new Senate District 9 Tejano Democrats chapter and reaching underserved rural counties
- Why Dallas and Tarrant Counties are the highest-ROI turnout targets in the state
- Building "fun," inclusive local party infrastructure as the real 2030 strategy
Follow both:
@liza_hameline
@chrisisserving
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#texaspolitics #texasdemocrats #bluetexas #fliptexas
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Mission Texas'
00:00:07
Speaker
This is Mission Texas. All right, welcome back to Mission Texas. This is our second episode in a series where we are talking to leaders within the Texas Democratic Party to get an insider perspective on what's the party really doing to flip the state.
Meet the Guests: Lisa and Chris
00:00:26
Speaker
And this week we have not one, but two amazing people who were elected to the SDEC, which we heard about last week with Nick k Nickens. One who represents a geographic area North Texas and the other who represents the Hispanic Caucus, but they're both very involved in campaigns, including the coordinated campaign here in the state of Texas.
00:00:44
Speaker
so we're going to get into the convention, the fall, and everything else. So welcome to the podcast, Lisa Hamline and Chris Servants.
Community Ties and Mentorship
00:00:51
Speaker
Thanks for having us. Thank you. Full disclosure, ah I've got a fellow parishioner on on the pod here. oh yeah. Yeah, we both go to First United Methodist Church in Dallas downtown. where Yes, where Representative John Bryant is, um I call him my spiritual and political mentor. And I imagine, Alex, you share that. Yeah, and he's not just a member there. He was ah an intern for the church because never too late to learn things. He's at Perkins School of Theology. Yes. And he actually graduated. as much as he has led my own spiritual formation, I was on his teaching committee. The United Methodist Church said, you're over the age of, they don't normally have third career pastors. And I said, John, when has that ever stopped?
00:01:39
Speaker
Right. When has that ever stopped you? And so he had a special appeal to like the big, right. And he is now, you know, a pastor, a full fledged pastor. Yeah. So, and it could be wrong, but I think there was like one other person in the Texas house who was a seminarian.
00:01:55
Speaker
Um, i don't know who was that? Who could that be? Yeah. Who could that be? yeah who could that anyway that be Well, that's such a big part of our podcast is to be able to talk with more fluency about religion and politics and being able to feel comfortable doing both of
Lisa's Political Journey and Redistricting
00:02:10
Speaker
those things. But I digress. Lisa, Chris, I wanted to start off on this podcast a little bit like we did with Nick, which is why should our listener or the broader public care about what's going on the Texas Democratic Party, including maybe the reason why each of you decided to put your name in to be on the SDEC? So,
00:02:29
Speaker
Ladies first, Lisa. Okay. Well, thank you. and But shout out to Chris because right his race is way more exciting than mine. You'll hear about it. I'm so excited.
00:02:41
Speaker
I'm Lisa Hamline. you know Like Kate, i am a lawyer by trade. I'm a mama. I like to say I learned how to walk and talk in Texas, but I learned how to swear in New York. So my first memories of life are are right here. And then you know i moved to upstate New York.
00:02:57
Speaker
which is rural. And in the eighties, we saw industry leave. And so I've had this pull to Texas. I've always had this pull. And so we've been, you know, we've been here for 25 years. I've raised my kids here. But practicing law, like, just wasn't, it wasn't doing it for me. And I really wanted to do something different. And so in 2024, I followed what my voters were doing. I'm an election judge. I love being an election judge. I love talking to voters and telling them go to the county convention. So I went in 2024. And that was the first time that my congressional district, CD6, was, you know, gerrymandered. And, you know, Kate and I used to share a congressional district, which was 24. And then in 2021 redistricting, they just completely chopped up my city of Irving, which is in Northwest Dallas County, which is 260,000 residents, voters.
Challenges in Elections and Infrastructure
00:03:53
Speaker
and we are a minority majority state of city. We have a 57% Latino population, 20% Black population, and a close to 20% AAPI population, which is majority Muslim.
00:04:10
Speaker
And so that 2021 redistricting was deliberate. It facially violated the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act and was immediately the subject of the litigation. But that's when I got involved. What do you know, Lisa? You're just a lawyer. I mean, the Supreme Court has said otherwise.
00:04:29
Speaker
Anyway, sorry. Continue. I've been in the corporate world. I knew what the numbers were I went straight to the data. While I am a lawyer, I was and i worked as an in-house lawyer for a number of years, right?
00:04:40
Speaker
As lawyers, we know we need evidence. I needed to make the case for why at that point Colin Allred was going to flip the state, how we could actually flip Texas, right? We've been going that way. Beto came so close, all of that. And so I i dove into the numbers and I knew new immediately that we could flip the state if we had 2020 turnout with Beto 2018 margins, if Kauffman County, Ellis County, Johnson County just went up a little bit. And in fact, Ellis County has been going up four to five percentage points every election. I spent a lot of time with Kendall Scudder, our chair,
00:05:23
Speaker
newly elected chair for his first full term, knocking on those doors in those rural counties and bringing a progressive message to our rural counties.
00:05:34
Speaker
And in September, I came back to Irving and nobody was knocking on doors. Nobody was talking to voters. And I didn't have literature that had my candidates in my gerrymandered district, my House candidate, my congressional candidate. I didn't have any lit.
00:05:53
Speaker
By the end, I remember knocking 4677 precinct up in in just below right on the county line.
Campaign Organization in the SDEC
00:06:04
Speaker
And I didn't even have literature. I was just knocking on doors. Wow. you're just like, I'm Lisa and please vote for this candidate for whom I don't have literature, but yeah write their name down. And wow. Where you're going to vote.
00:06:17
Speaker
Your vote is really important in here. And, and I, ah right. And after that, Right. I had two takeaways. Number one, build infrastructure, recruit precinct chairs in Dallas County and mend the relationship with our Muslim brothers and sisters, because the 2024 election.
00:06:35
Speaker
who was passing out literature was some path on Story and McCart, right, on all of the major outlets passing out literature about voting for third party. May I ask though, like, is that what got you to run in the SDEC though? I mean, I know you've, and I just, because I know you, that you started the Beltline Democrats, but just to contextualize this within the party infrastructure, like, what did you think you would accomplish by being on the SDEC? And Obviously, i want to get Chris to introduce himself, too. Yeah. So essentially, as i you know as Nick has talked about, the SDEC is the party infrastructure. It's the State Democratic Election Executive Committee. And it coordinates your your actual job. If you read the job description, right the first thing is to coordinate all five of your county chairs.
00:07:24
Speaker
right or Or at that point, we had nine county chairs. And that's the first thing that I saw. Our county chairs were not coordinating. The second thing is, is that you help candidates and you turn out the vote.
00:07:39
Speaker
And, and right. And that wasn't being, you know, done. In 2024, we elected in CD6, a very strong progressive, right? It was a kind of a new generation, Jennifer Murphy Vick, who is now SDC and CD1. And so she took care of in 2024. We had nine counties. She took care of everything past Navarro East. I mean, it went all the way to Palestine. And then, right, the folks on the ground in Navarro all the way to Johnson Hill, I had coordinated all the county chairs. I mean, I'm just, I'm a people person, right? I just knew them. I met them. Just what I saw was we needed a different message. Originally, I wasn't going to run for SDEC, but we knew that we needed to run somebody
00:08:28
Speaker
for the other seat in March of
Chris' Entry into Politics
00:08:31
Speaker
2025. So I'm going to get wonky again. I mean, it was just like everything was happening, but I knew Kendall. I knew Kendall. I was the national delegate.
00:08:39
Speaker
So I spent a my entire time in in Chicago at the DNC in 2024 was spent with Kendall and with Angel Viator Smith, who is now president chair of the Progressive Caucus. Because of what was happening with the Texas Democratic Party, with this put you know, just right challenges between the progressives and what I will call the old guard. There were some out and out fights on the floor of the convention. And so I ended up. Oh, I didn't know that. Lisa, fill in some tea over here. Like middle school, like an actual fist fight.
00:09:18
Speaker
Let's just say I am a fierce Kendall champion. I mean, look, we're friends of Kendall's too, so. That's so interesting.
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah. we we're gonna get I wasn't involved at all. I just wanted my state to flip. And what I saw was all this inner party fighting that was not helping turn out the vote and was actually preventing turning out the vote. And I think for me,
00:09:45
Speaker
That is what SDEC means. That it means that we are fighting very hard to turn out the vote and that we are fighting for candidates who are willing to do that and not for candidates who are just going to go to fancy fundraisers, bring milquetoast message that voters on the ground aren't feeling. So I think that's the best way for me to say why i felt, I mean, folks have asked me to do a lot of things. But this SDEC role for me means that I have the title for the work that I have been doing for the past 20 years. All right, Chris, you're up.
00:10:24
Speaker
I've heard a lot about your election with the Minus Panic Caucus. Yes, a lot of people. I've heard. And what's funny is that I think. We had Julio Salinas on, who yeah was the prior chair, now running in the Rio Grande Valley, won the runoff. The Democratic nominee.
00:10:39
Speaker
The nominee. Yes, won his primary. Yes, he is the nominee. Even after the runoff in McAllen. Yeah. Yeah. And we didn't talk to him about his position on the Hispanic caucus within the SDEC. So now we get you.
00:10:50
Speaker
so tell us about your race, because I heard it was a bit of an upheaval. And I'll just give you some context, Lisa. I think I had a same similar experience that in El Paso, I was hearing that there are people were wanting to shake up the SDEC, that we were trying to elect new people to it, to, as you were saying, the old guard. And I there's some like tension with wanting to protect the people that come in the past, like be appreciative, but also say we need to move forward and have new ideas, new people and,
Voter Outreach and Community Connection
00:11:19
Speaker
and figure out what we've done wrong. So,
00:11:22
Speaker
I think I was hearing that too. And so it's very interesting to have heard you tell me about this and also about Chris's race. So, okay, I've i've presented it to you, Chris. So tell us all about it. Yeah. So, well, first and foremost, I just want to say it's great that we had so many people running i in the Hispanic caucus. Like the congressional districts, it's split up by male and female, or rather two people of different gender identities. So I want to say there was 39 people running because unlike a congressional district, it's the whole state.
00:11:51
Speaker
It's all 200. It's all everyone. So like I live in the 24th congressional district. So are only I think four people ran. Yeah. Yeah. CD24. ah Only four people ran for that SDEC position.
00:12:04
Speaker
um But because the Hispanic caucus, it's statewide. I mean, it's people from all over, you know, Hidalgo County, Dallas County, Hayes County, people from all over. So I want to say thanks to everyone who stepped up and who wanted to make a change, especially to Julio Salinas. who, like you mentioned, is the the now the nominee for Texas House District 41. And believe me, we're to everything to make sure that ah he gets in there. He's another strong, progressive voice. And I want to make sure that the people of McAllen have proper representation, someone who actually wants to stand up and fight and represent them. And he's one part of the puzzle. But it takes a village.
00:12:38
Speaker
A little bit about me. ah My love for politics really blossomed and grew as a kid because my parents, they're working class immigrants from Mexico. And I remember as a kid helping them study for their citizenship exams, which is pretty much just a history and civics class.
00:12:54
Speaker
But when you don't have the same you know access to education that we have here in the United States, and especially if you can hardly even speak the language, you know moving from another country, it's a whole...
00:13:05
Speaker
struggle and process. But as I grew older, I realized that this American dream, if you want to call it that, that my parents believed in had really gone away and deteriorated. ah Just to put into context, they, my mom worked cleaning houses and my dad worked at a meatpacking plant when I was a little kid.
00:13:22
Speaker
And they were able to get a mortgage, buy a car, raise a family, which is completely unimaginable nowadays. And I believe strongly that the Democratic Party, time and time again, we've shown up for working class people throughout our history, and we have that obligation now.
00:13:37
Speaker
But I felt that as of late, the party had sort of capitulated to big money to interest um and, you know, corporate donors, just put it frankly, and that we'd really gone away from our working class messaging.
00:13:50
Speaker
And that's why we've, you know, sustained, that's part of the reason why we've sustained as big of losses as we've seen just in this past decade, because we've really gone away from our working class messaging. ideology to stand up for the common people. And I don't think I've ever said this publicly, but I guess I'll say it now. i was filling out the Google form to be a delegate for the convention.
00:14:09
Speaker
And I just check mark the wrong box or anything. And I so essentially I signed up to run for the SDEC without even realizing it until I had people reaching out to me saying, Hey, what you're running. how How can I what do you what do you need help with? I'm like running for what dog catch? Like, is this a is this like a joke or something? But ah I saw that my name was on the Google form. And I'm like, well, i'm not going to withdraw it.
00:14:34
Speaker
So, you know, was pedal to the metal. you know, a lot of great orgs like the Progressive Caucus and Mothers Against Greg Abbott. um I'm very thankful to have received their endorsement in this race.
Political Origins and Inspirations
00:14:44
Speaker
And I'm very big on voter outreach. You know, that's what I do in in my day to day work as a field organizer for campaigns.
00:14:52
Speaker
um So I made my best effort ah to try and call, reach out, text, email all the delegates in the Hispanic caucus. Mind you, there are a thousand and fifty four people who had registered to be delegates. And I'm one person and I have a full time job. So you know, between on my lunch break, I would just go down the list, call the delegates, leave a voicemail, shoot them a text, just making sure that I can reach out through any weeds necessary.
00:15:16
Speaker
And I think I managed to call about 500 of them. So half, you know, 50% ain't bad. um But the people I couldn't reach out, I made sure I had an email list set up, told them a little bit about myself, why I'm the best choice. And I was fortunate enough to, uh,
00:15:31
Speaker
eventually win ah with the help of a lot of progressive voices and people I'd reached out to and had been responding to my calls, texts, and so on. So um just to go voter outreach, that wins elections because I was the only one that reached out to them. So even when I was making calls, they would say, you know, you're the only person that's called me. So that means something, you have my support. And it really goes a long way. i think that's a lesson there for voters in general.
00:15:56
Speaker
yeah ah And people say, well, i didn't no one asked me. Exactly. That could have been the the the only thing that stopped them. Exactly. Especially asking, can I count on your support? I mean, right then and there, people they're go to people very rarely say no to that question, or they'll say, I'll think about it, or I'll have to look into it. But just go on that extra mile to just ask personally, and obviously not every candidate can do this. If you're running for president, you can't ask every person, I directly, I count support? But especially the lower down the ballot you go. and Yeah, city council, you know school board, things where it's a really more concentrated local race,
00:16:30
Speaker
I mean, and if especially if you don't know either of them and one person asked you and the other one didn't. It's like, well, OK. But, you know, the SDC, I think it's great. We have a lot of progressives that did win ah their ah seats.
00:16:44
Speaker
ah So I'm really excited to see what we do going forward as the governing board of the Democratic Party here in Texas. We're going to do a lot of great work. I want to hear a lot more about your roles and what specifically you'll do for the party. But first, yeah and I love to start here.
00:16:59
Speaker
And that's at the beginning. I want to know your origin story. I want to know the radioactive spider that bit you. I want to know the super serum that entered your veins. How did you become who you are? Because let's be honest, politically engaged people were kind of weird as far as the normal population goes. Like they look at us, they're like, why?
00:17:19
Speaker
um Most people actually don't consume political media at all. Like the fact that someone is listening to us right now means you too. are part of the Fellowship of the Nerds. Yeah. Right? Welcome. Part of our community.
00:17:31
Speaker
what What is it that inspired you to go from normal citizen to politically engaged person? I guess i was the the
High School Inspirations and Positive Messaging
00:17:40
Speaker
radioactive spider bit me a little bit earlier than most people, but you know seeing that process that my parents had to go through to become citizens here in the United States already kind of was a primer, I guess, um to get me activated in the future. But it wasn't until...
00:17:55
Speaker
around 2017, that um when Beto was running for that Senate seat, you know, I was i was in high school. I'm going make you guys feel old. I was barely in sophomore year of high school when that happened. um But, you know, seeing this guy in, you know, I'm, you know, 15, 16, and I'm seeing this, I'm like, I really like what he's saying. Wow, like, he seems like a nice guy. He's a good speaker. And then from there, you know, doing volunteer work that continued, again, when he ran for governor, except I was in college at that time and I was part of the UNT college Democrats.
00:18:26
Speaker
Um, and we hosted Beto, um, on campus and I'd never seen, you know, the convention hall, uh, so full of students. Can I pause you there? So you, you, you get inspired in high school, you joined the college Democrats at UNT and yeah, I mean, Beto blows it out. He's packing the halls. Um, but I want to know more about that specific time when you were in high school.
00:18:48
Speaker
What is it about the Beto campaign energy that is inspiring to you? Like, was it a rally you got to attend? Where were you in high school? Like, what was the conversation like at the the cafeteria table? Like, tell us about that time, whenever you're going from person who's interested, maybe, and you saw your parents go through this too. Now I'm going to get involved. I'm like, cause not a lot of people join the college Democrats. I was one of those people, but it was like similar to you. Like I was inspired by another skinny a guy who, ah you know, Barack Obama, skinny, charismatic guy is what was meant to say.
00:19:26
Speaker
I always been a fan of history um and social studies. So ah just seeing that, you know, Texas, know, was on the precipice of change. Obviously, I didn't know like, oh, like all the intricate details about like Ted Cruz, who Ted Cruz was and what he stood for. But I just you didn't even know who Ted Cruz was. yeah like like Like you mentioned, you know, well, I saw this guy first, you know, I saw Beto first, and he spoke to me. Maybe if I saw a clip of Ted Cruz, I'd be on, you know, the a Republican podcast right now. No, I doubt it. Ted Cruz doesn't have the same kind ah yeah yeah as the kids say. but you know and you know i even had teach Obviously, as a teacher, you can't really you know say anything explicitly, but I remember talking to my history teacher at the time.
00:20:09
Speaker
Like, what do you think? I'm putting her in a real tough spot, asking in front of the class, what do you think about this political election? And, you know, I don't remember her exact words, but intuitively I understood that, you know, she didn't like Ted Cruz that much either. And ah that this Beto guy, this O'Rourke guy, you know, he's worth listening to.
00:20:27
Speaker
And I think part of that is seeing a trusted adult, someone who I knew was intelligent. She was my um American history teacher. um So seeing someone who clearly has an understanding of American history, She's very intelligent and well-spoken that she's, you know, even though she didn't explicitly say because she couldn't, um, but she seemed, uh, leaning towards Beto.
00:20:49
Speaker
Um, uh, really, um, opened my eyes to realizing that, hey, you know, if I don't like how things are going here in Texas, well, we don't just have to sit and deal with it. There's always avenues for change.
00:21:02
Speaker
And it goes beyond Beto. ah It goes beyond beyond just an individual person. um But just knowing that um if if someone, if a non-voter, because I couldn't vote, if someone like me could hear that message um and, you know, be inspired to, you know, eventually,
00:21:19
Speaker
you know, join the college Democrats to eventually become a member on the SDEC. ah Then ah that message also ought to reach voters and people who already tapped in and engaged.
Early Engagement and Grassroots Campaigning
00:21:30
Speaker
um So I think it was just such a critical insight, Chris, yeah because again, you said he didn't even know who Ted Cruz was. So if someone is running a campaign exclusively about how bad their opponent is, yeah that's not going to get someone like you Exactly. Excited at the cafeteria table, right? Yeah.
00:21:47
Speaker
So thank you for sharing that. Liza, how about you? We go way back when I was a young mom, right? Young lawyer with young kids in 2008. I had, you know, was on, right? I had a friend who lived in Chicago and she was like, Liza, you've got you know, you've got to pay attention to this guy, Barack Obama. And so I was living in a young lawyer.
00:22:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Right. And so we had at that point, right, we knew we had right go back to the law. Part of the reason that Obama did so well is that a bunch of kids looked at the law and figured out that Texas had a caucus. And so I remember going and I was right. I was team Obama. And it was funny because my neighbor at the time had put a sign that was very misogynistic against Obama.
00:22:35
Speaker
Hillary in the backyard. So the only person who could see it was me. And I was like, what? Right. I mean, it was just, yeah. And so I was right. An Obama delegate. I went to the county convention and then kind of nothing happened.
00:22:52
Speaker
Right. Like nobody followed back up. And in 2010, Annie's List came and they, that's um for folks who don't know, Annie's List is a pack in Texas that's modeled after Emily's List, um which is a national pack that supports women pro-choice candidates. We talked about Emily's List on the ah Katie Padilla stout episode.
00:23:13
Speaker
Yeah. Emily is an acronym that stands for early money is like yeast because it makes the dough rise. love that. Yeah. So they had reached out to me and asked me to run for, I guess, what is now the HD 105C. And they said, oh, well, support me. And I just looked at it and I said, okay, I have this big law job. I have these two kids. How am I going to live on?
00:23:40
Speaker
I can't support my family on, what was it, $7,000 a year? like It just didn't make any sense. It's still $7,200 year. Yeah. um And ultimately, like 2010 was a bloodbath, right? it was the tea party.
00:23:53
Speaker
But again, think about that. It was the tea party. And what was the tea party doing? It's exactly what Chris and I have been doing. Talking...
00:24:03
Speaker
to voters about why their vote matters. what Why is their vote important? They had very clear, it's funny, I take the Tea Party messaging, you apply it to today.
00:24:16
Speaker
i mean, they were just talking about the wrong thing, you know, right? I mean, we're we're talking about death panels again, right? But it was never the Democrats. We didn't have that kind of cohesive on the ground message. And there was kind of no follow-up until I was frustrated about my city being just left behind, like I talked about, right? Knocking on doors with no lit. When my dear close friend of 20 years, David Pfaff, decided to run for the at-large seat for city council, I could tell because, right, I've been working with Chris and all the Tarrant Young Dems um because of my work as a national delegate, I knew what was happening in Tarrant County.
00:24:58
Speaker
which is that we were being targeted by West Texas billionaires. And who did I learn that from? From young House member named James Tallarico when he- Sounds familiar. To Ellis County in the 2024 election,
00:25:12
Speaker
And that was the only person we could get to come to Ellis County in the 24 election. The statewide candidates were not coming to the very district that I said, if this goes up five points, we can win the state. We knocked on doors for David in the runoff with the progressive caucus. And we talked about vouchers. And I remember that in Dallas County, right, they were having a similar city council race.
00:25:37
Speaker
And said, why are we talking about vouchers? That's a state issue. And I said, that's because that's what's coming up
Engaging Diverse Communities
00:25:43
Speaker
at the doors. When you knock on doors and you listen to what voters, right? I said, hi, you know, I'm knocking on doors for my friend, David Pfaff, right? He's endorsed by this. He's endorsed by this. And their first question was, what is he going to do about vouchers? And your answer cannot be nothing. He's running for Irving City Council, not the state legislature. That is the wrong answer. But I knew David. I knew him well. He was a good candidate. I could talk about the work that he had done and his family had done in Irving with the Irving Schools Foundation, the work that he had done with the Chamber of Commerce to ensure that corporate money was coming in to fund our robotics programs and that he could do that in
00:26:26
Speaker
Coppell and in Carrollton Farmers Branch, because again, the city of Irving is so gerrymandered. We have four school districts. I know that because I live in the same area as you, and we have Coppell ISD, CFB ISD, Irving ISD, all in the same area.
00:26:42
Speaker
and you know, sorry to interrupt, Lisa, but ah so much of what you're saying is resonating with me. When I was knocking doors in 2024 for my own election, i mean, this was a primary. I'm only knocking on doors of highly turned out Democrats.
00:26:56
Speaker
And in North Irving, I was consistently talking to people who were South Asian, mostly Muslim, and they were consistently saying, Kate, i'm not voting in a democratic primary. And I refused to vote for Biden. And I thought, I talked to some guy who said, who's also like Eucharist, very much got activated by Beto and had become even somebody, a volunteer for his campaign. And he told me, Kate, I'm, and I could see his voting history, consistent democratic primary votes.
00:27:24
Speaker
And they were saying, I'm so torn up about what's going on in Palestine that I refuse. And I am not going to vote in this Democratic primary or for Democrat come the fall.
00:27:36
Speaker
I thought, oh, no, this is not going to go well for us. And I can't just say as a state House candidate, well, you know, I don't deal with, you know, foreign policy. But look, I'm ah i'm in the military. So I obviously have to I have an opinion. And we talked about these things. And it just To me, what you were saying earlier about reengaging the South Asian vote within the Irving area and also talking to the issues that are affecting the Muslim community is so important, especially here. and And I also agree that it feels like, and I'm not trying to criticize our Dallas County folks,
00:28:11
Speaker
But I'm also in Dallas County in the western part. And sometimes we don't get much out here. And i we're the only game in town, Lisa. And yeah what do we what do we do for these candidates? And I'm very appreciative of Cassandra and her team because they are consistently out here. and y'all and Kevin Burge and his team because they're they are knocking on those doors. And what are y'all's...
00:28:34
Speaker
perspectives on, and I'm hearing you that you're both progressive, you want more progressive people on the SDEC. How are you seeing that compared to what's going on nationally? Like what does a progressive in Texas mean? Well, well first of all, I want to touch on kind of something that you said um about how you, when you were block walking 2024, you heard a lot of people saying, I'm voting Democrat or for, you know, mainly for the Gaza issue you mentioned, but we saw that across the board with a lot of demographics, especially in the Hispanic community and especially, you know, down here in the um RGV. um They didn't want to vote for, you know, our democratic nominee that we had
00:29:11
Speaker
in 2024, either whether it was Joe Biden or, of ah you know, Vice President Harris. But I think now the Democratic Party, you know, with, you know, with charity towards all and malice towards none, we have to say, hey, if you have buyer's remorse, if maybe you did vote for this current administration, maybe you voted for ah the current president three times every time he ran. But if you don't like what's going on, we have to present an avenue and an opportunity for change. you know We don't have to ah you know talk down to them or say ah you know this, that, and the other on their past voting records because now it's the election is going to get here in November, whether we like it or not. Sink or swim, it's going to be here. So we need to make sure that we're reaching out to people who...
00:29:56
Speaker
You know, they don't like the current direction the the country is going, regardless of their voting pattern. Obviously, we need to activate our strong key Democrats that show up consistently time and time again. But I think there's merit in ah reaching out to people who, like I said, they have buyer's remorse and they're realizing that what they voted for isn't what they're getting.
00:30:18
Speaker
ah But we have to provide an adequate change from the status quo and say, we're the Democrats. This what we're providing. We can't just show up you know during ah early voting, knock on their door and say, hey, can you vote for us? No, we need to build up that relationship over
Building Community Relationships
00:30:32
Speaker
time.
00:30:32
Speaker
I want to say now, but really it should have started already in curating that and saying, we're the party of change. We don't like what's going on either. This is what we're going to do about health care. This is what we're going do about your property taxes, what we're going to do about gas prices and so on and so forth.
00:30:47
Speaker
um And Chris, when when people, some some people i think wrongly assume when you say people with buyer's remorse, oh, well, you just want to talk to Republicans. No. These people are Trump people. They're you know they're irredeemable.
00:31:03
Speaker
They're not coming back. But I think that's wrong, right? yeah we We know that this is the high watermark for people identifying as independents in this country.
00:31:15
Speaker
And the vast majority of people aren't showing up in a party primary at all. yeah Right. So um we're talking like nine out of 10 Texans did not vote in the primary, despite like huge turnout. No. And i I think that is, you know what we saw in 2024 was not, you know, when you look at the priest, the precincts in Irving, If you just look at the top of the ticket in 2024, we had, right, we were totally blue in every single precinct in Irving in 2018. And in 2024, there are like 10 red precincts. But if you just look under at the bottom, most of those precincts are blue for Colin. They didn't go red because our voters were voting for Trump.
00:32:01
Speaker
They just didn't vote. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Yeah. No. And even in a presidential year, right? Like with yeah with Trump on the ballot, we're talking maybe eight out of 10 voting Texans are not voting in a primary. And, and so to me, what being a progressive means is talking with voters and listening to voters in every single election.
00:32:27
Speaker
And so that means city council races. um And so in September, not just the big federal elections, right? Right. Not because actually the big federal elections are not going to flip Texas, right? That James Tallarico cannot flip Texas by himself. Gina Hinojosa cannot flip Texas by herself. but If anybody could have done it, it would have been Beto and he couldn't do You have to have down ballot candidates. And so that's why last September,
00:32:58
Speaker
I was doing a voter registration at big meditation festival that one of our Hindu temples in South Irving was doing. They asked me to come. I partnered with Powered by People and the League of Women Voters to just right, to have a voter registration
Success in Local Elections
00:33:13
Speaker
table. And just having that nonpartisan table show up in a faith community was a big deal. Now, did we register a lot of voters?
00:33:24
Speaker
Not really, but that was a relationship we made so that, right, when an election is coming up, those faith leaders contact me and, right, I say, okay, here's, right, who can help with voter registration.
00:33:38
Speaker
And So this faith leader said to me, in back in September, what are we doing for city council in Irving next year? Because they knew how bad it was when the when the West Texas Billionaire PACs were coming and targeting Irving. i We had an over-million-dollar city council race in 2025. We just had an over-million-dollar city council race in Frisco.
00:33:58
Speaker
Like, there is a massive amount of money for these little races. And what i said was- Because they understand that they're important. Yeah. Right? Exactly what you're saying. Like the infrastructure that's going to create change and statewide level happens on the ground. It happens on the ground. And so I said to this faith leader, y'all need to get a candidate.
00:34:17
Speaker
Not me, right? Not me. Y'all need to get a candidate. And they did, right? Right. And so this year, instead of having to knock on 5,000 doors with all the Tarrant County young Dems, the Dallas young Dems came and knocked on doors with Fahad Ahmed in District 6 up by UK. Right. Chris came and knocked on those doors. right I was up there.
00:34:47
Speaker
Right. You were out there. Right. We knocked on doors and turned out 54 percent brand new municipal voters because somebody had knocked on their door. And we talked about what our voters were concerned about. Save our public libraries.
00:35:04
Speaker
Right. That's what's happening in the city of Irving right now. Our libraries are under attack. Right. Right. Keep ICE out. Why was that important? Because ICE is all over Irving and picking up folks who have not committed crimes when they're dropping kids off at school.
00:35:21
Speaker
That's happening. Does any of that happen? Now, the library really does have to do with city council. And of course, Fahad talked about streets and all of that stuff. But you have to have an entrance.
00:35:32
Speaker
And so he won and we turned out more voters. And then when there was a runoff, the packet sort of like receded. And that that race in District 3, which is right on the Tarrant County line, largely became an act.
00:35:46
Speaker
It was just a race of who had more experience, who had the vision. And so, right, i I could just sort of stay out, right? Because people were doing the work. They were knocking on the doors.
Untapped Blue Voter Potential
00:35:57
Speaker
And we saw record turnout in that race as well. And so that the pack backed off is like when you punch a shark in the nose. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, right. we And that's why Fahad's race in the north was so important. It got to the point there was a third candidate on the ballot who had dropped out that the pack was actually calling people to have people vote for that third candidate who wasn't even on the ballot. to force the runoff.
00:36:20
Speaker
They're dirty and nasty and they're doing it on the local level. And so what being a progressive means to me is supporting those get out the vote messages, talking about like in this upcoming election, yes, talking about James Tallarico, but really talking about how important our county clerk races, our judge races, our you know our House 105 race, talking about why those down-ballot races and and ensuring that, I mean, for for for Irving, it is going to be, we are the engine that will help flip the state because we have more Democratic voters who are just not voting. and If I'm hearing you correctly, then i think something that we've heard from other people too, and this goes with the data that in 2024, Dallas County, we didn't have, we didn't turn out the blue vote, right? We, it was pretty low.
00:37:14
Speaker
Tarrant County growing needs. I think we've made the case that it's got the highest ah ROI possible here in the state Texas. We just got a little bit more organized and turn out those people, but it's, it's not just ah organizing. It's also consistently talking to voters, turning them out and convincing them why to vote for us with the correct message. And, and something that we heard from Cassandra in my neck of the woods is that she was wants to consistently talk to voters and she finds the constitutional amendment race. Like that's an excuse to talk to voters. I'm going to go out and immune the polls. I'm going to talk to the voters then too.
00:37:48
Speaker
And I'm hearing you say the same thing that, and I know Chris, you have a very field organizing background with the coordinated campaign, but is that it's frustrating to me. And I wonder if you share the frustration because so many people are talking about the national political environment. So many people are talking about James Tallarico, And again, I'll say this on every podcast.
00:38:07
Speaker
I'm not saying don't don't give him money or give him attention. But if you're going to give him 50 bucks, give your down ballot racism 50 bucks too. like That's where your money will go farther.
00:38:18
Speaker
And what I'm so encouraged by is a pack that came out in Tarrant County today that is the Frontline Pack, I think. yeah yeah And they're saying the same thing. And I'm like, yes, like we are all on the same page. We are singing from the same same sheet of music.
00:38:32
Speaker
And so do I have that correctly, Lisa and Chris, on what your theory of turning out the blue vote in these areas where we can easily get blue voters?
Coordinated Campaigns in Tarrant County
00:38:43
Speaker
Our voters need to understand why their vote really means something. Because if Dallas County does not turn out in like 70% and for 70% Dems like Blue Austin does, we can't. We have the votes.
00:38:59
Speaker
I mean, that's part of the reason that the Texas Democratic Party moved their head office to Dallas County. And why do you think the Republicans are holding their right emergency convention in Dallas? Emergency convention. That's good. like i know. that a middle term I don't know what they're calling it. That's what i'm calling it. Yeah. Where you actually have to pay to be a delegate. Have y'all heard that? that true?
00:39:20
Speaker
Is that true? Yeah. It's like you, it's like a $10,000 package to be a but delegate. There's like different levels, but yeah, it's, Yeah, I saw it was like very like, it's, it's's it's amazing too, because the thing I saw was like very clearly chat GPT generated. It's like if you're going to charge people to attend your emergency convention, you can shell out for a graphic organizer. lot Well, Chris, I mean, I'm wondering your perspective to as someone who's within the coordinated campaign and what that field will be like, come November.
00:39:49
Speaker
Yeah. So I think right now ah the, the chief work that we're doing on the coordinated campaign, I'm the Tarrant County field organizer um is right now where, where we're big on, if you've ever used van, which for those of you don't know is voter action network, that's what any democratic candidate uses to, if you've ever block walked and they give you that, you know, like 20 digit number and you're like, what is this? And they say, oh, just copy it into the thing. that's That's what VAN is. How they make that list, pretty much it's just the backend data with all the registered voters.
00:40:20
Speaker
um Right now, what we're doing on the coordinated is we're identifying all of these people that they don't vote in ah primaries. Like you mentioned, Alex, you know, majority of Texans, they don't vote in the primaries. They just vote in the general. And really, they just vote in the presidential election. i mean, very rarely do they vote in midterms. But right now our focus is on reaching these people that we have no way of knowing if they're a Democrat or Republican, you know, they only vote in general elections, reaching out to them and saying, Hey, uh, you know, we're with, you know, we're with Texas together.
00:40:52
Speaker
Um, but we're not here, because we're trying to sell you a candidate necessarily. We just want to hear what are your concerns? What do you want to change above all else? Um, and you know, we're hearing a lot of things like, uh,
00:41:04
Speaker
Well, a couple earlier this year was gas prices. That's what the top of everyone's concerns. But, you know, now, like I said, we're walking Fort Worth. So people are talking about the school board there. And I'm sure they're going to tell you talking about, ah you know, data centers um and, you know, whatever flavor of the week issue is really pressing because, know,
00:41:23
Speaker
It's not just most people, they don't just have one issue and that's, you know, what's at the top their mind. No, it changes and it evolves depending on, you know, what concerns they're facing. You know, maybe it is gas prices because that's what they're noticing is coming, um you know, out of their checking account most often, you know, all these stops ah and it's adding up.
00:41:41
Speaker
Sometimes, hey, my kid goes to Fort Worth ISD and now it's getting taken over by the state. You know, what are we going to about that? So firstly, we're we're hearing about the issues of the people here in Tarrant County. And then we're asking if they're more likely to support ah the Democratic candidates like James Tallarico or the Republican candidates like Ken Paxson, which when you phrase it like that, you get a lot more candid responses from people as they let you in.
00:42:05
Speaker
you know, maybe if they don't tell you explicitly, I'm going to vote for James, their response to, you know, the name Ken Paxton can usually tell you. The reason why we do that is so that as we get closer and closer to not just the election, but early voting, we know who our key follow ups are, um especially here in Fort Worth.
00:42:22
Speaker
If we have, for example, ah and in one precinct, hey, you know, 30 people here said they're likely to vote for the Democratic candidate, then absolutely, we have to reach back out again to these people and and let them know, hey, early voting is going start.
00:42:37
Speaker
This is your polling location. This is what you need to bring. um Can we count on your support? um Not just for James Tallarico, but you live here in Tarrant County no for, you know, Elisa Simmons, or, you know, if you live in, you know,
00:42:48
Speaker
which county commissioner, um, depending on which precinct you live in, can we count on your support for that county commissioner? Can we count on your support for your Texas house candidate? Can we count on your support for Taylor or Matt?
00:42:59
Speaker
Um, Something that we want to make sure is that we're here for all our Democratic candidates. Obviously, people know the ones at the top of the ticket the most, like James and Gina. We're here for all our Dems, regardless of their position or place on the ballot.
Celebrating Achievements and Community
00:43:14
Speaker
Well, people need to know about the broader ecosystem. Perfect segue to our next segment. My favorite.
00:43:19
Speaker
Good news. You know, Texas Republicans are good at sharing their gospel. spreading their message and Democrats to get better at it. So we got to start flexing those muscles. So I want to know what everybody's good news is personally, professionally. Literally, as I was getting on to this podcast recording, I was finishing up sending some proposed orders to federal judge Matthew Kazmarek in the Amarillo Division of the Northern District of Texas.
00:43:45
Speaker
And the reason why I was doing that is because Secretary Nelson is expected to resign her office on July seventeenth as as you were alluding to. And who is being reported to replace her is terrifying.
00:44:00
Speaker
yeah So the reason why that's relevant, though, is because there is a lawsuit where the Texas Republican Party has sued to invalidate Texas election laws, ah trying to say that they violate the First Amendment so that they can close their primary and require people to register with their party before they're allowed allowed to participate.
00:44:21
Speaker
Big problem there is In the state of Texas, we have the largest veteran population anywhere in the country. And over half of the veteran population identifies independent. You're basically telling like the 1.5 million veterans in Texas, you know, over half of which identifies independent, ah telling them you're not welcome in this primary where a lot of times it's the only game in town and they have the longest winning streak statewide in the country. So because Ken Paxton was the attorney general who
00:44:53
Speaker
decided not to defend Texas law at all, completely abdicated his responsibility, and filed a consent judgment agreeing with the Republican Party of Texas. Secretary Jane Nelson was the only person willing to defend Texas law.
00:45:07
Speaker
But because she's on her way out, and Governor Abbott is now pro-closing the primary, he said that publicly at the Texas Republican Party convention, we're really worried that no one's going to be left in in the case to defend Texas's laws. And so luckily, Veterans for All Voters, a nonpartisan organization I'm a part of, um received a grant from unit Unite America to hire my law firm to file a motion to intervene.
00:45:36
Speaker
um So I filed that this morning. That's my good news. So we'll see how it goes. Yay. Stay tuned, listeners. i also appreciate Lisa's hat. She's wearing a VoteVets hat. So go shoot that. Yeah. Shout out to VoteVets.
00:45:50
Speaker
You know, I mean, that's yeah. That's your good news. Yeah. Shout out to my husband, lawyer, veteran. um Right. are All our veteran candidates um that are running. know For me, it was it's been right. Finally winning my race. But certainly Chris's race was really, really, really exciting. And so I think, you know, my good news is that I think our state is headed in, um you know, the right direction. I was elected with 85% of my delegation. in Chris's race, right, we have two young Democrats. Yasmin Flores from Dallas County is um our, you know, right, is the other one. there's There is generational change. You know, my good news was seeing at our state,
00:46:39
Speaker
caucus you know at our caucus at the convention, we had 85% brand new delegates to the state in our caucus. And so for me to get up, be up there and to see everybody and know everybody by name and know all the work that we've done. And yeah. And so for me, I think it is just finally seeing the engagement. My good news is that I was able to finally just take a little bit of a break. Yes, you need it, Lisa. You need it. We forgive you for being in Oregon. yeah Yeah. And get all that. And you're still, you're still on our podcast. So you're connected. All right, Chris, and I know you have a hard stop before we leave, but yeah what's your good news?
00:47:24
Speaker
I get, you know, five winning that SDEC race, you know, it was super great to connect with people all around the state here and the issues that, are you know, ah obviously I know what we what's needed here in North Texas, but here and what's needed all throughout the state, especially from people in my delegation in here then say, hey, well, if you're going to run, you should talk about this. And i'm like, okay.
00:47:46
Speaker
I'll keep that in mind. Now I know what the people that I mean i that i represent now, what's important to them. So now iotis falls on me to actually follow through. um and I've reached back to many of them saying like, hey, now that I'm in there, let's run back what what you think you need as someone who lives you know in a rural county or in a you know place where a a Republican ran unopposed for 20 years. how How can we support and what do you think needs to be done Um, we're starting up the Senate district nine Tejano Democrats. The Tejano Democrats one of the oldest, or I think it's the oldest, uh, his, uh, Mexican American, uh, democratic group in Texas.
00:48:26
Speaker
Um, but there isn't, there was, but not, not so much anymore. There isn't a group here in Fort Worth. Um, so if you live in Fort Worth and you want to get involved, you'd have to go all the way to Dallas. It's like a 40, 50 minute drive for some people. At least it is for me.
00:48:38
Speaker
So we're starting up the Senate District 9 Tejano Democrats so that the people here in Fort Worth have a closer chapter ah that they can attend more routinely. Cool. I love it.
00:48:49
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it's great. So a lot of a lot of work that to be done, but super exciting time. Nice. Yeah, well, I will be quick. Similar, i feel like my good news is that in this podcast and talking to great people like you guys, I found the community that I never know I needed and the family that I I'm so glad to be a part of, and I'm so proud of our podcast and the community and the listener and fellowship that we have here.
00:49:12
Speaker
We, as we mentioned on our last one, we have had 40 episodes so far, which is insane. We started this podcast because we thought we needed more independent media and to tell the stories and voices of all those doing the hard work in this state. We love championing the down ballot people and the organizers like yourselves who are doing the really hard work. And so if anybody has an idea of anybody else we should have on the podcast, please message us. And i'm the good news for me is that we continue to get people to reach out to say, hey, I would love to be on the podcast, or i think you should really have this candidate or somebody I've just never even heard of. And I'm just so grateful and honored that people are doing that. And to think that we just, we're both parents and lawyers and have a full-time job and we're trying to do this just to help and It's been really fun and to build that community with people like you. And I i don't think I would have met Chris or Lisa had I not been on this podcast. And I'm just so grateful. Maybe I would have, but I'm just grateful for the podcast for that community. So if you're listening, you are a part of it we're so glad you're here.
Final Thoughts on Flipping Texas
00:50:12
Speaker
All right. We got a few minutes till the end. And this is our last segment where we like to give everyone of our guests the last word. So we are your soldiers. You are the general. We're both in the military, so we like a military analogy here.
00:50:26
Speaker
um We've heard a little bit about what you think it takes to flip Texas by the next census, because we have to in order to ah save us from a generation of Republicans in the White House, because we're going more congressional seats. But what is your take on how we are going to take back the ledge, how we're going to take back Congress, and what do we have to do in our state? So we started with Lisa at the top of the podcast. Chris, what are your thoughts?
00:50:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think ah voter outreach is the name of the game, making sure that we're not leaving any stone unturned. um I think that, like I mentioned earlier in the episode, we have to reach out to voters and let them know that we're an avenue for change. You know you might not agree with ah the Democratic Party on you know every single issue, but at the end of the day, we all have these core tenets that we all agree with. We all want affordable healthcare. care We all want to be able to afford to live in the same place that we grew up in. um Now we might have differences on how we approach that solution, but by any measure, um these are some things that Texans and Americans as a whole agree on.
00:51:33
Speaker
And like I said, if you don't like the way the current administration is going, the Democratic Party, we have not just a responsibility, but I dare even say an obligation to reach out to these people and say, we have an opportunity for change.
00:51:48
Speaker
um And that's what we're going to provide. but We need your support. And we hope that we can count on it in November. Just make above all else, making sure that people know that they have options. They don't just have to deal with the current administration, um that there's always an avenue for change.
00:52:03
Speaker
Liza? If you see a problem, right, it's yours to do. Showing up and thinking that somebody else is doing it. The really amazing thing right now is that you can have a huge impact because we're building something that's really new.
00:52:19
Speaker
You know, your superpowers are needed, whatever that is. And that doesn't mean everybody has to knock on doors. We need folks who can, who are good communicators. You can be a part of, of something really exciting and we need to,
00:52:34
Speaker
We need to plan. And that starts with not just November. It starts with, right, what are the things that we are going to ask for in the ledge? Like helping voters understand what is going on in the ledge 2027, right? Continuing to...
00:52:49
Speaker
recruit local candidates, um recruit precinct chairs, and make write the Democratic Party fun. I mean, that's probably my biggest takeaway for the next two years is to make the Democratic Party fun. And that means our Beltline Area Dems Club, that means our Dallas County Democrats, and that means our Texas Democrats, right? That we can party like a Democrat. But if you're going to be a community that excludes, we're not going to flip the state. you have to have a message. And and the message is,
00:53:20
Speaker
we're listening um yeah and talking about what folks on the ground. Well, thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Chris. We will tag you in all of our socials and also in our show notes. So thank you. Please follow them, support what they're doing on the SDEC. And I will say to our listeners, see you next week and God bless Texas.
00:53:46
Speaker
you