Transcript
Speaker: This is Mission Texas.
Speaker: Welcome back to Mission Texas. Our next guest is a South Asian mom, a longtime community advocate in and Dallas, Texas, who has been organizing and advocating for South Asians, empowering them to vote and be civically engaged in a state that has the second largest South Asian population. Welcome to the podcast, my friend Chanda Parbu. Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited. Finally got to do this.
Speaker: Yeah. Oh my gosh, you're so busy and I'm so glad that you were able to make time for our schedule. Okay. We've got so much to cover, including what was going on with things like Beau French and his tweets and all the other things going on in the South Asian community. But before we do that, Chanda, I want to roll the tape back and ask you a little bit about how you came to be in Dallas, Texas, and also where you're at and the organization that you're leading.
Speaker: ah Yeah. So, ah can't believe I'm going to be saying this, but we've been in Texas as a family for 48 years. So I've seen firsthand sort of the transformation of our community. And we were often isolated. And there were so few of us that I don't know, kind of lost my own identity because there just wasn't that many of us. But fast forward today, we are the second largest state in the country of the South Asian population and currently one of the fastest growing still. So California is ahead of us, but I think we're on their heels to possibly be the largest. But I just saw a need after the 2016 election of really finding representation for our community. can't believe I'm going to say this, but it was almost 10 years ago. In January, it'll be 10 years since we started this mission to get a voice for the South Asian community. And it was very quickly that we learned that nobody was really paying attention to us because we would look for infrastructure that we could plug into to talk about the issues that we were facing. And we knew that we were not being registered to vote. We estimated that only 50% of our community was voting. And so it kind of started with voter registration. But when we were doing voter registration, we started hearing from our community the racial discrimination they were feeling out in the public, in their places of worship or at work. And so we knew that we had to do more than that. And we did ask, you know, how many of us are there on the voter rolls? And they said there were 10,000 of us. I said, that was wrong. 800 people came to my wedding, like 30 years earlier. And so I said that math wasn't making sense. Like that's 10,000 people right there. But we did have to do, so, you know, there was no data infrastructure. There wasn't any kind of information about what issues were important to us. And so we started building up what it meant to have a South Asian voice We were organizing here in the DFW area. We started off with five moms and then we put up a Facebook post one day it said, can 200 people across Texas that are South Asian who want to organize like this page and become a member. And in six weeks we had 6,000 people in six weeks. And we said, Oh my gosh, like, what are we going to do with these people? We don't have any infrastructure. And that again told us that was another inflection point for us. Like, oh my gosh, nobody's paying attention to us. They don't even know what our issues are.
Speaker: And we couldn't find infrastructure to latch onto. And so that was the beginning of what we started doing. um And it really started to create momentum because for the first time we united the South Asians across the entire state of Texas in organizing completely grassroots group, had no funding whatsoever, um and starting to develop what it means to have a South Asian voice in Texas.
Speaker: And ah once we started collecting the data, we realized we had a little bit of pinky power and that we could actually affect certain races. And so we were, you know, we were boots on the ground. Like I said, we were a grassroots organization. So knocking on doors for different campaigns, advocating for different campaigns, um fundraising. We did everything that you were supposed to do in a civic engagement space. And I think that was sort of the first time that electeds and candidates started to realize, oh, there's a community that we've never seen before. And so it really offered us an opportunity to have some kind of presence. And then um a couple of years ago, we became a nonprofit organization. And so we have a C3 and a C4 arm.
Speaker: And um that allows us to, once again, build the foundation of what it means to have a voice for the South Asian community. and giving us a voice not only at local tables, statewide tables, but national tables as well. um In 2024, we were part of Kamala Harris's gun violence um initiative. We were invited to the White House to represent South Asians in Texas. And so, you know, the momentum just went from nothing to like, oh, we recognize you as a as a community. um And so, yeah, that brings us to today. We are um the largest South Asian outreach in the state of Texas.
Speaker: And i don't know, we're looking at our numbers now, but ah we have over half a million touches right now with the South Asian community across Texas for this upcoming election.
Speaker: And i don't think there's anybody else doing that sort of outreach to our community. um But we do have in infrastructure in Dallas, Austin and Houston. And we went from five volunteers to almost 600 volunteers across the state. And so it is um a passion project, not only for me, but the village that we built. We're all very invested in making sure that Texas is a more representative community of what it looks like today.
Speaker: Well, i want to get into whether you now feel like you're more being heard and whether there's growth there, obviously. But before we do that, i wanted to ask you, like, had you always been so active in civics and politics? Like, was there like ah we we we like to analogize to Spider-Man, like, was there a radioactive ah bite? You know, what was the thing that bit you?
Speaker: Yeah. I don't know. um Maybe it's a DNA thing. I don't know. so I was born in South Africa and my family business, um the ANC, it was illegal for the ANC to meet back in like the 60s, 50s and 60s. And so our our storefront, well, actually the back of the store, was where the ANC actually, not the back of the store, but in the store was where the ANC secretly met. And so that was our contribution and to taking down apartheid. And said that's Nelson Mandela was, you know, a part of, you know, that's our connection to Nelson Mandela at the time. But no, I have not, you know, not to this degree. We were always voters. I think a good portion of every child in our family or my siblings were possibly high school debaters. And so there was always like a feisty political debate at every single dinner table. Um, but yeah, this was the the extent to which I'm involved today is very different.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, can you give us a sense of scale or scope with the South Asian population? We mentioned earlier at the top of the podcast, it's the, we have the second state in the nation with population of South Asians. Uh, is it growing here? Where is it growing? And how is it it becoming more engaged?
Speaker: Yeah. So, um One of the fastest growing counties in Texas is Collin County, and that's where we see the growth. It is also one of the fastest growing counties in the country, and the South Asian community is sort of in the forefront of that growth. And so I do see um continued growth, but it's all going to be dependent on our immigration policies. There's so many factors that are involved. There are a lot of people, because of the rhetoric that has been happening, are just like, we're done we're leaving. And so we do see a lot of people leaving as well. So it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next two years um on the effects of the current policies that are in place. Well, i noticed there was a recent city council vote in McKinney on an Islamic center. And I saw that there was ah a huge city council um hearing on that point. And then it got a lot of people out in the community. We saw a lot of candidates coming out for it.
Speaker: I believe it was passed. So how has that impacted some of the reactions? And is that a bellwether of what we're going to hear come November?
Speaker: Yeah. So I think this whole city council, like storming, I'm calling it storming, the city council meeting, started in Frisco of March this year. And I think it just, you know, everybody has just used the city council meetings, even though if they don't even live in the in the city are coming forward and just being hateful for no apparent reason other than to, um you know, make a statement about hate to begin with. But just the fact that the city council ah followed the constitution, followed the rules, followed the guidelines um for making sure that any religious group can have equal rights to, you know, whether it was a church, but the equality, they they followed through
Speaker: They followed through with the laws because I do feel like that was going to become a court case if they were denied the ability to build. So um I do think that these are points that does mobilize the community and for them to realize that there are forces out there that don't want us to belong, don't want us to be a part of the community, and are actively calling us invaders, calling us, you know, frightening things because You can't talk about the border anymore. So who else are we going to talk about? We're going to talk about the South Asian community because they're an easy, an easy target.
Speaker: Do you think they're an easy target because they haven't been civically engaged and so they can't, they don't count on their vote? i mean, we, we talk about ah the boogeymanifying effect of the Republican party today of making someone out of a boogeyman. Usually it's someone who's not voting or doesn't have a lot of perceived political power.
Speaker: Yeah. um Yeah. I think, First of all, I think for as long as I've been here, there is just a given that within the AAPI community in general, that if anything happens, you put your head down and you try to avert the tension and continue to live your life and just be successful. So just put your head down. Don't pay attention. Don't don't rock the boat. Just move on and don't say anything. And that's one of the things that our organization is actively working on. It's like we have to stand up for ourselves and if nobody else is going to do it. And so it's really important that we lean in. It's really important that we become a part of the community and where where the decisions are being made.
Speaker: You know, everything from showing up to a city council meeting, but also running for office is such an important part of um being a part of the system. and it's one of the things that we're doing as an organization is visiting our elected officials on both sides of the aisles to understand, um you know, what theyre what their role is in our lives, but at the same time, also making it comfortable for our community to feel comfortable. going into the office of one of their elected officials and having a frank conversation about something that's happening to them.
Speaker: And overall, I would say in that experience, we have found that very little is known about the South Asian community. And there's a lot of not misinformation, but just information they don't understand about our community and the things that are important to us. So that's been really helpful.
Speaker: Okay. Well, I want to piggyback on that. Like what, if somebody were to knock on a person's door, like I told you off ah our podcast, I told you was knocking doors this morning in North Irving, heavy population of South Asians, then what, how do we speak to them? I mean, it does door knocking work? And what do you believe is something that would resonate with them?
Speaker: Yeah. um it's One of our goals is to try to knock on as many doors, but we do try to have people that look like them. We've already been told in surveys that they would not open doors for somebody who doesn't look like them because of the fear factor.
Speaker: So when you're knocking on somebody's door, I think it's really important right off the bat um to ease their tension, that you're not there to sell them anything, and also maybe starting very quickly with an issue that's important to them so that they understand that this person really understands like who I am and what the important issues are to us. um We have an incredible network. that's one of the That's one of my prized assets for the organization. and that is that if you talk to one person, you're talking to like 100 other people at the same time. So um it's it's yeah it's definitely fruitful, but it's just getting that door open that's sometimes going to be the obstacle.
Speaker: Yeah, I think I was telling you that this morning I knocked like on a ton of doors and nobody opened, but one did. And this woman, shout out to her, she said that, I know everyone in this neighborhood. I'm on a WhatsApp with like 800 people. i'm going to tell everybody about this. And I thought, wow, that that's an impact. And finally, and she said, I'm going to go down and knock some doors with you because they may not open the door to you, but I'm their neighbor and they're going to open the door for for for me. And so I thought, wow, that's incredible. But I guess what I'm wondering, is there any geopolitical or cultural hurdles that you have seen or observed that makes it so that it is hard for them to be civically engaged or to not only get registered to vote, but actually end up voting?
Speaker: Yeah. um So we have a lot of people that came to this country like after college. And so the civic education was not a part of their education. and that is one of the obstacles that we are trying to overcome. So anytime we do an event, we try to go to temples, we try to go to mosque, we do community events. In fact, we did one in Capelle not long ago, um where we actually teach people like what it means to, you know, what is the difference between a federal estate a local official and how they're integrated into our lives. We have this really amazing flyer right now. And on the back of our GOTV flyer, it literally lays out like all of the different positions and how each position affects the South Asian community. So it's that level of um education, which is so important for our community feel like they have a connection to what's on the ballot. And so, um, we, you know, in 2014, 20% of our population came out to vote. We started our grassroots efforts in 2017 and 2018 was our big election where we united the community. We had a 60% voter turnout rate. And then in 2024, we're running at about 70% turnout rate. Once we got some investments, um,
Speaker: And on average, our community is voting two to three points above the state average. Now, I'm like excited about those numbers, but I do feel that oftentimes we get excited about what's on the top of the ballot. And so this year we have been very aggressive about what's on the bottom of the ballot and to get people really engaged because that's where the South Asian community actually has a little bit of political power um in actually affecting the the races at the bottom. Yeah. Yeah. And then also seeing a lot more South Asian candidates running. And these are nonpartisan races, usually in the municipal or school board races. In fact, in my area, multiple on the school board, multiple in the city council. We just had one in Irving and as you were talking about up in Frisco.
Speaker: So it seems like it's a positive push for that community. I'm just wondering if you were a candidate running even in a nonpartisan race. where you're trying to advocate for South Asians, do things like texting, door knocking, mailers, like how do like does the traditional methods of electioning, campaigning work?
Speaker: Not all the time. some they work generally? I don't know. Yeah, I think it is. I think developing relationships, just kind of like how you did um with that one person. But if you were a candidate, maybe follow up with that person because she seemed just like she was engaged. But Can we get a group of your people together for like a coffee and having a conversations? And that was like one of the things that we started and working on is that into in order to mobilize this community for our organization, it's 365 days a year to do um to do the work when we don't have a grenade thrown at us, like a grenade. I mean like hate. When something hateful comes our way, all of a sudden we're like, oh, how do we organize around that? But if we're not organizing in that way, like we want to be present when something does happen to my community. So that is like one of the things. And I think I would like to have I would like to do a teach it to candidates. It's like this is how you talk to our community. This is the vocabulary that you use. And I'm looking at what's happening right now. i think people are missing the mark on actually speaking to our community. um and the kind of language that you use. But it is work that requires 365 days a year, but also being present. And so when there are community events, are you showing up? And sometimes that's all it takes. It's like, oh, this person showed up. This person is just not a black and white bunch of letters on my ballot, but it's actually a human being. And to show up when it matters. And what we're also trying to do is when something happens in the community and somebody is looking for resources and we're like, okay, your state rep is the person that you want to call.
Speaker: And sometimes the state reps have been responsive and sometimes they haven't. And so people will remember that when they go to the polls. And so I think it's a full circle. It's everything from outreach, but then also being responsive as a representative um on coming out into the community and being present.
Speaker: Well, then I'm going to ask the question, what is that vocabulary that you think people should be using? What kind of wave top advice would you give the candidates in your teach-in? Yeah. So like I've been talking, seen i' just watching candidates online and coming up to, and they're like, we're we're really with the South Asian community. I really like butter chicken and i like the diversity. And I was like, ah oh, I need to hear right now. And so the first thing is to empathize because it is it is it is exhausting our community. And I think it's by design and to continuously have like things of hate being thrown at our community on a regular basis. And so people are kind of withdrawing and um so they need to understand the effect it has. So, you know the story that we tell is for every one hateful comment there is online, like that has a rippling effect into our community because there are, you know, a hundred other people that now feel emboldened to speak out against our community, whether it's online or in person. So one empathize and two, um Acknowledge what things are broken and calling out the hate, especially of elected officials, because when we're talking about elected officials, we're talking about infrastructure.
Speaker: The infrastructure is now calling out hate towards our communities. So call out the infrastructure. And then the third part is if you're a candidate, like what will you do to change that infrastructure?
Speaker: So I need for you to have those three components when you are talking to our community, because otherwise saying you like butter chicken and you like our clothes or you like our food is, you know, was like, that's, that's not doing it for me. It's just, not yeah.
Speaker: I'm so glad you love the food that we produce, but what are you going to do for me? Uh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I think those three components is kind of what I'm missing from a lot of the conversations and, um, You know, just also recognizing the diversity um of understanding AAPIs, because some people have told me we're reaching out to the AAPI, like you're not reaching out to us because ah South Asians are half the AAPI voters in the state of Texas. And so to understand, one, the power of our vote, um and secondly, that we're not a monolith. And so you can't have the blanketed conversations to all AAPIs. And then even within our own South Asian community, we have different religious affiliations, we have different cultural affiliations. And so just learning a little bit about the culture coming into the space, I think is really important.
Speaker: Yeah, I was going to mention, just having heard from this community, and you took the word out of my mouth, it's not a monolith, right? Even within India, which is only a part of the South Asian community, they have their own states, and within their own states, their own language, and then their own culture. Yeah, and then you have all these other, like, it's Hindu, Muslim, and I'm wondering, how is somebody who's running this organization, how do you handle that? I mean, how do how do you represent all those many different voices?
Speaker: So when I moved to Texas, I didn't have any Indian friends or South Asian friends at all. Not until ah i got into college, but once I saw them, they were all like mine, like they were my family. And it I started to realize over time that there was these nuances between everybody's religion and and what part of India they were from and their different cultural differences.
Speaker: And so um I had no idea, no concept, because, you know, if you were if you were anywhere from South Asia, you were like my family. And um as we have grown, I just see a lot of those divisions. So it's been a little bit of a learning experience for me that we're not sort of united um as I would like for us to be. So it is a bit of a challenge, but we do come into this space. And I'm very strict about the people that are part of this community.
Speaker: And to saying that when you come into this space that we do not, you know, we do not ah fight each other um on our differences. And there are certain things that we can all be united on. And that is some of the issues that our community is facing. um And also just reminding them sort of the Christian nationalists who don't want us here um and the hate groups that don't want us here. And they're so prevalent here in North Texas that ah really reminding people that this is this is what binds us together and we're weaker as separate entities. And so it's really important to come together on these issues. So we have some rules about how you engage in the community and we will kick you off the island if you are disruptive to the Zen that we're trying to create.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, I mean, to your point, what are the then issues that you're hearing or observing that are so important to the South Asian community, either here in Texas, or as you mentioned, you're involved nationally?
Speaker: who um So i think hate, we we do surveys, and I think hate comes up as almost the number one issue right now, especially here in North Texas, um which is different. So Texas is big.
Speaker: It's like four and a half Georgia. So I feel like managing like four different states and each state is different. What happens in Austin is very different from what happens in Dallas. Like every time we bring up what's happening in the DFW area, the Austin the Houston people are just kind of like turning their heads like that doesn't happen. So it is different. Whatever, Dallas. Yeah.
Speaker: Whatever's happening up there. But um so it's very different and um education, has always been front and center for our community. We tend to be in the northern suburbs of every major um metroplex. And so education and funding education is a top priority. i know property taxes is definitely something that always comes up for our community. And health care, we're 22% of health care workers. And so there's
Speaker: There's a lot of issues. It's not just one thing, but healthcare, we are 6% of small businesses. And so for small businesses, how it relates to healthcare and accessing healthcare for their employees and making it affordable. And then as healthcare professionals, it's like they're really concerned about things like the vaccine requirements. And they're also concerned about access to healthcare care and how they've seen things being taken away from patients and they can't do their jobs. And I think this is just a random thing, but the amount of misinformation and disinformation about medicine is really stressing some of my friends out who are in the, who are physicians.
Speaker: And they said, like, we're not prepared to talk to people about proving science to them. But it is so stressful that they're like, i'm going to retire early because I can't, I just cannot handle another day of having to explain my, you know, 10, 12 years of um education to a person who wants me to give them some medication that is not in their best interest.
Speaker: Like whatever Donald Trump wanted people to take during COVID or whatever that was. I don't even want to know what that was. Yeah. yeah Well, you're preaching to the choir here. I have healthcare provider parents who also feel the same way and actually did retire and had to close their small business because of it. And you know, it's hard to not see how folks are being squeezed out as providers and also as patients. You know, we're trying to get good access access to health care, affordable health care. And right now it's not. And um so, I mean, I think that what you're saying is that issues pertaining to South Asians in a lot of ways is an issue that ah we all kind of care about. And we can look at our neighbor and say, we care about the same things and they're not the boogeyman.
Speaker: ah But ah the thing that we have not talked about, I think we have to get to, which is some of the recent events. within the Republican Party and then the response by some of our other electeds, which is ah Beau French and kind of highlighting what's going on in the Republican ticket and his tweet about UT Austin students and the incredible win that UT had and all the kids celebrating college football. And of all things, he's saying it's a bad thing.
Speaker: I want to know, Chanda, what was from your observation, the response of the South Asian community? And then how did you see both Republicans and Democrats respond? Yeah, you saw ah you went after our kids and that was not There was there was an immediate um an immediate reaction. And I think for all of us who live in North Texas, we're like, oh, but that wasn't the worst thing he said. I know. We've known Beau French. We've known that guy Yeah. It's been around for a long time. So really educating my community like, oh, this is not a one of, like this is actually happening. But I think the bigger picture is that there are um there are lots of different representatives who are currently buying into his agendas. and I think there was a meeting earlier this year where're so we're even four of the top officials who are running on a statewide ticket were also part of that community. And it was like, we wanted to deport 100 million people out of this country, including their American-born children. And so, and you know, that to me is like the most startling comment that should probably get more attention, but it's Texas and you don't mess with football. So that was like the perfect storm to actually amplify. But I think what
Speaker: ah you know, I like what I was a little bit upset about is some of the responses thanking like the Republican Party or some people on the Republican Party for calling it out, which I'm glad that they did. But also like you can thank them. But at the same time, you need to call it out aggressively to saying this was not right. And let's not let's also be clear that many of those individuals who we were thinking had also thrown us under the bus on various issues, calling us H-1B scammers. They're not Like, oh, my gosh, we've been talking about the H-1B scam for over a year now, and there's yes yet to be a prosecution. There's yet to be a case on it. But, like, show us the evidence, because anytime you talk about that, anybody that's brown is getting, you know, um we have kids born here who are being accused of being H-1B stealers just because they're brown. But this is, you know anytime they start talking about H-1Bs, even though there's a lot of people who aren't,
Speaker: we just get this blanketed sort of um designation towards being whatever they're calling them for the day. So I would have liked for people to saying, thank you for calling it out. And we stand united against racism and hate because, you know, when I'm in office, I will not stand for this, you know, any elected official and that we will be held accountable. So um I think it's also sad that people will but call him out. but they're not willing to not vote for him because it's like, yeah, but we're going to support him. That's like a slap on the wrist. So I think there should be a point where we saying, you know, if you're going to say this is unacceptable, then we should not be voting.
Speaker: Yeah. we've We've seen that around the country. Like we've seen people that have um done something and then we're like, we're done. Like that person needs to come off the ballot and it happens. So I think there should be ah ah it needed to be a little bit harsher, especially since it's not new. you know, it's so I mean, though French, as we've mentioned many times on this podcast, has said many racist things. He said we should deport Native Americans. As you mentioned, we should. deport hundreds of millions of people. don't know how you're going to do that. And then he said, who's worse? I think it was like Jews or Muslims or something on a tweet. He walked it back. And then even Dan Patrick was saying he's like too extreme for our our state, which is, you know, fascinating from him. But the...
Speaker: But it seems like, as you're saying, people like John Cornyn might say, this is wrong. Please take this back. Or there's other folks who said, please delete that message, Beau French. And yet, as you're saying, he's still on the ballot and he's still going to be voted for by a bunch of Republicans. But I guess, has this provided more of a spotlight on that kind of racism here in Texas? I saw it all over the news. And even I'm so proud of John Rosenthal, who's going up against him. Shout out to him. yeah talking about it.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. It's made national headlines. And so we've gotten calls from national newspapers, not newspapers, but last national media um asking about, you know, asking about what's happening here in Texas. I think that's, um you know, that, okay, it's a terrible thing, but it put a spotlight.
Speaker: Ken Paxton and Beau French have put a spotlight on Texas like it's never been before. And I think that's why they're calling the state like purple for the first time is kind of what I'm hearing. But it required because I think people just look at Texas and they're like, oh, y'all are cute. But no, we're not going to try anything there. It's too. There's no hope. But I think there is so much hope for making better outcomes um for Texans. And so I'm slightly grateful that people are paying attention to us. not under the current circumstances. I wish they would have paid attention to us by just looking at the data and really looking at our voter base and seeing the potential of what we have. If you invest, they will come out. And I'm proof of that because there wasn't investment in my community. And now we have this turnout that's higher than the state average on a regular basis. But that's just proof that if the investment is there, that we can actually make the difference.
Speaker: Well, I mean, to that point, are you seeing elected campaigns reaching out more to the South Asian community or and are they reaching out enough? I think there are certain campaigns that have been doing it and doing it really well, but I just don't feel like there's like I said, the the language is not quite there. um And sometimes like the way they talk about the South Asian community, there's just a lot of misinformation about who we are. So nobody has really sat down to have a conversation with us to saying, help us understand the South Asian community. And um I think what makes us unique and different as an organization is there might be a leader here, there might be a leader there, but we're the whole freaking state. I can tell you, I can tell you the data, I can tell you the language, I can tell you what's important, and but no, I don't feel like the overall South Asian community has been accurately been sought out. We're approximately 2% of the vote, Beto O'Rourke lost by two and a half points. We have a large, we have the highest voter turnout of any minority community. And so our votes are up for grabs. And so what are we doing? And there's a there's a low threshold of how you get that vote. It's easy to do. And you've just got to give us a few minutes of your time. But I don't see that really happening as much as like to see. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, if I've heard y'all and talked to enough voters, it seems like a lot of them either have not been voting or don't consider themselves necessarily partisan. And so do you see strides in that positively in those directions, either towards one party or the other, or as you're saying, above average voting?
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. um i think we have always concentrated on people who um aren't voting. And so that's always been sort of the basis of the work. My theory is if we're not talking to new people on every single event we did, then it's a failure. And so I think that's one of the breakthroughs that we have been making is people who are just kind of sitting on the sidelines. And just for example, like our temple that we had been a part of for a long time, just assumed that everybody there is educated. They're already registered to vote. Like in the three sessions that they had, we registered all over a hundred people back in the day, but that just tells you that nobody's reaching out to our community. and that there is this opportunity. um
Speaker: The work that we're doing as an organization is really um you know putting a South Asian lens to it, whether it's you know um graphics that look like them or something that speaks to their what's going on in their universe. And we've been on the ground, so you're gonna see a lot of language around um you know the things that they need to hear. So I think there's a connection like, oh yeah, politics is fine.
Speaker: there's somebody that's actually going to bring us together. And I do feel like as an organization, people are really proud to be a part of SAVE because it is an entity and it is like a family. So there's, like I said, we've been part of this for 10 years and people are excited to be a part of the family kind of united. But um when we do even look at something like the constitutional amendment, which we had a 2% voter turnout rate, And that jumped to almost 10% for our community once we started organizing. And when we look and see who that 10% is, it is people that are organizing with us. And so we do make really good voters. We do produce really good, strong, all the way down ballot voters. But there's just not enough investment in our community. So I don't have enough money to do what I need to do. Just out there. Shout out to Save and Chanda. Give them some money. Well, I wanted to follow up on two things. One is the outreach. um I will just say anecdotally, when I was knocking doors this morning, the lady was saying, no, no one knows about Tallarico. Like nobody knows. And he's the top of the table. Everybody's talking about I just assumed everybody knows about this guy and she's saying no. And she, but to their credit, they were, his campaign was knocking doors and providing literature in that community. And so she was very glad to see that. But that's to that point of like, some folks are not really engaging that community, even though they seem very, in you know, they are aware of public schools, and they're, they're highly educated, they have advanced degrees, and yet they're not even paying attention maybe to that, or they're not being a pain of attention to. um
Speaker: And then the other piece I wanted to follow up on, which was It seemed like to me there's a theory of the case with turning out vote. It's either focus on the voters who are already registered and then we can elect more Democrats. Because if we did that, you know, we're a low voter turnout state, but we've got enough registered voters. But to your point, you're saying, at least in your opinion,
Speaker: neck of the woods, it's people who are not even registered. And so how do you see that? I mean, are you focused mostly on your population? Or ah how do you perceive that, like messaging to an already registered voter, like what I was doing today, i didn't go to any doors of non registered voters? Yeah.
Speaker: um So we don't really i wish we had some kind of document or some kind of app that lets us find unregistered voters. Yeah, would be just like the million dollar tool. um We don't we don't.
Speaker: Yeah, we try our best to be in places where we can register as many South Asians as possible. But that has been an uphill battle for us. And with the limited resources that we have this year, we are concentrating. on those voters that we already have on the voter rolls and that are coming through the system. And as soon as they come through the system, we are actively trying to reach out to them and saying, congratulations, you're a voter. We want to engage you. And so i'm trying to be on the forefront of of getting them to become um good citizens, good civically engaged. But ah most of our work is towards um voters and making sure that they don't can sure they're not on the suspense list. We had 20,000 people on the suspense list.
Speaker: And um we we we tried to call as many as we can. but and And a lot of those people should have been removed because they had moved. But we found a good number of people. And I can't remember what the number is. But last I checked, it was about 50 people that we actually to re-register because they had no idea why they were on the suspense list. But just for safety, we did re-register them. So it is about protecting the vote and getting out the votes of those people who might be left behind.
Speaker: Yeah, I wanted to ask about that because so many people say that we're a voter suppressed state, that we've got draconian rules to get people registered. Now we're finding that people are even on the suspense list. Dallas County and all these other counties are saying they're lagging behind and actually putting people in the system. And so I'm wondering, does that disproportionately affect your the South Asian population?
Speaker: um I haven't seen and to what proportions it affects other communities. and So I'm not sure what the data is. I'm not I don't know if I can speak to that. um But I know that the minute something happens in our community, like we're buying those lists and we're trying to figure out. We are a very granular organization. So we try to get to the weeds of the work. And right now, what we're really trying to do is to develop a pattern. And so how can we, we have a bunch of data gurus who are like, well, let's figure out what the pattern is here. and if we can figure out what the pattern is, then the next election cycle, we have a template to put on top of it and saying, okay, these are this is how we figure out, you know, who's most at risk. And so i'm thankful for all of our data gurus. who are really trying to help us refine. But I think that's also like kind of my pet peeve is, um you know, one of our staff members is like, oh, we're really worried about this purge thing. And I was like, yes. He goes, well, that happened before and y'all were worried about it then. And I was like, yes, we're worried about it all the time. She goes, oh, I thought this was the first time it was happening. i was like, no, it happens all the time. But then also just to recognize the fact that, yes, there are going to be people that should be off the rolls. and acknowledge the fact that we do need to clean up our voter rolls because it means that my money towards those people who should actually be reached is being more effective. But at the same time, um you know, our goal, I was telling our staff, our goal is to find the patterns.
Speaker: And so to continue to see if we are being targeted and who's being targeted and why does it continue to happen? But for any campaign or any infrastructure, I want to see people build that infrastructure as well, because we do we do like set out an alarm, but we also need to figure out like how how big of an issue is it? How many people actually should be off the polls?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I want to segue a little bit to one of our last questions, Chanda. This is normally Alex's segment, but we like to do a segment called Good News because we believe we have to start evangelizing the good parts of our state and um and also within the Democratic Party, but also maybe within your group. So ah personally professionally, Chanda, what is something that is so good in your life that you just got to share it?
Speaker: i forgot to I forgot to think about that question. have to think. but if this Because right now just feel like I'm in turmoil like all the time. um What is something good? We're a month away from the ah election. Isn't that right? We got a few more weeks to early vote. Yeah. Something good?
Speaker: Yeah. I feel really confident about where our community is going. i think we've made a huge difference. um I'm like in the wild sometimes. I was at a convention where I didn't expect to know anybody and nobody to know me. And like half a dozen people going, we know who you are. We know what you're doing and just excited to be there. We know you are. We know the group. But just, you know, that was that just made me feel really good because sometimes we just feel like we're and this little speck in Texas. But there are people who are following us, um even though we might not have had that face to face contact with them.
Speaker: But just to know that we're making a difference because they were very excited and they're like, we're so proud of you, you know, really like what you're doing. They might not be volunteering with us like um most of the people that we're in contact with. So sometimes I, you know, minimize who we are by the number of volunteers we have. But there's this whole universe of people who are in an ecosystem and in the vibe of Save Texas. So. saving one voter at a time is our motto. So it's out there. Yeah. but that That was a feel good moment.
Speaker: Well, I heard a save when I ran in 2024. So shout out to y'all back then. you have any plans after the election? You got to sleep, watch some TV? What are you going to I think my husband is kidnapping me for a retreat because he's, even though we live in the same house, I don't think he sees me ah me. I sleep at three and wake up at 7.30. just doesn't see me. So I think ah we're headed for a retreat and I'm hoping to take a trip to South Africa sometime soon. um But we'll see if that happens. So i I think I do need a little time to decompress, but I also know that the work that we need to do is ongoing and continuing. So there it is some big plans of work that we want to accomplish next year. And that is build coalitions and partnerships and really work on that, which I think is going to feel good.
Speaker: And then we just hope that things that was supposed to happen in 2025, but the executive action, the executive ah orders kind of threw us into a loop and got us doing other work that we weren't expected to do the entire year and supporting our community through that. So I'm hoping that next year um will be sort of a really feel good year of building collaborations and ah coordinating with other organizations.
Speaker: Amazing. i love that. Well, I'll briefly say for my good news, um I mentioned last week that my family was going to Austin. i for whatever reason, mistakenly made some travel plans during the right before the election.
Speaker: Big mistake. I'm now trying to make up that during the week while i go knock doors on a random Tuesday, but i we had a great time and it was raining down in Austin as it was here in DFW, which is great. We had such a drought. It actually was a little bit dry while we were at ACL. So we didn't have we weren't rained on. So that was that was great. um And my daughter went. So we're kind of not only am i indoctrinating her in the ways of campaigning As you may remember, Chanda, I would bring my kid around to everything, yeah but ah also the ways of a music festival. So we're really, I really love that. And what's going on down in Austin. I saw tons of Tallarico shirts and signs. It was awesome. But you do like, could we ever have a booth there?
Speaker: You know, like ACL, like you've got thousands and thousands of people. And could we do more in that? um But that's my good news. That's your good news. All right, Shonda, our last segment, I'm going to ask you to have the last word.
Speaker: Are Democrats going to flip Texas? And how are they going to do it? What do you think? ah I think it's ours to lose. So I think um the universe is saying that Texas needs change. And so I'm feeling optimistic. And now it's just up to the rest of us to put everything and everything that we have in truth. into this race, into all the races, all the races, every single one, all the way down to the bottom of the ballot.
Speaker: It is ours, because it does feel like the momentum is shifting in our favor. And so we just have to show up, show out and get the work done. All right. Well, thank you so much, Chanda. Where can people find you and where can they find Save?
Speaker: ah They can go to saavetx.org. And we have events that are happening all around. I think we're going to have here in DFW, ah We have an event in Frisco for early voting.
Speaker: And um there are a couple of South Asian events that are in the works, which um are happening. But you can go to our mobilize and things will be listed over there. Well, we'll share it on on our social media. All right. Thank you, my friend. Appreciate you. We'll sign off by saying God bless Texas.
Speaker: Thank you so much.
Speaker: you
