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The Politics Chicks is a progressive politics podcast and politics news show hosted by Christy Branham and Monica Healy.
Every week, we sit down with candidates, elected officials, journalists, historians, policy experts, advocates, and everyday Americans shaping the future of our democracy. We go beyond the headlines with thoughtful interviews, fact-based analysis, and candid conversations about the issues that affect our livesāfrom elections and public policy to healthcare, education, civil rights, and the economy.
Whether weāre interviewing members of Congress, first-time candidates, medical experts, or community leaders, our mission is the same: to inform, challenge, and inspire.
If youāre looking for a politics podcast that values evidence over outrage, curiosity over division, and hope over cynicism, welcome home.
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@ThePoliticsChicks
Christy: Welcome to the Politics Chicks podcast. I'm Christy Branham.
Monica: And I'm Monica Healey and I'm singing Baritone Today.
Christy: Ah,Monica's sick, so she is being a trooper and she's pushing through this today, so we're glad that she's here. And thanks Monica for showing up today. Even though you'd rather be in bed right now
Monica: Here I am.
Christy: We've got a really cool guest today. Chad Mashke didn't set out to become a political voice.
He just got tired of not having clear answers. A Minnesota native father of three and project manager, Chad found himself increasingly frustrated watching what was happening in his district and not being able to easily verify what was actually true.
Monica: So instead of sitting in that frustration, he did something about it. Chad created MN06 Watch to track what was really happening using real data and primary sources. What started as one person looking for answers has turned into something much bigger. A system built on one simple idea. Give people the receipts and let them decide for themselves.
So Chad, welcome to the show.
Christy: Yeah. Thanks for coming.
Chad: Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.
Christy: This is really cool. So we met in a roundabout way because you started talking with Doug Chapin, right? Who is running for Tom Emmer's seat in District six, and then he kind of introduced you to us and I subscribed to your Substack, which I would highly recommend. It's very informative if you are a data person. a data wonderland. Like he's got graphs and tables and I'm like, yeah, I love this. I love this 'cause I love data. but we'll talk more about where they, people can find you at the end of the podcast. Chad, you are not a journalist or a politician, you're a dad and Blaine, Minnesota.
What made you decide to start MN06 Watch?
Chad: I've always been really interested in politics. I grew up in a Republican household. My dad has always voted for Republicans. We talked about it. I grew up out in Plymouth and that was Jim Ramstad district way back when there were more moderate Republicans. And I always looked up to that style of being a Republican.
Fast forward now 40 years and I'm up in Blaine. I'm got Emmer as my representative and I started this mostly out of frustration. Like a lot of us, after the 2016 election, I actually volunteered to be on the Blaine Traffic Commission. It was just being started up and I was nominated by the mayor at the time.
Served two years on that commission. I spent then I had my daughter, so we went from two kids to three kids, so I didn't go for another term. And just life took me away. But now 2024 happens, election of Trump. I sat back thinking, what can I do? I'm one voice. I don't have a platform.
I'm not a journalist, not a political scientist by any stretch. I did go to school at St. Thomas for political science when I originally started, which ironically enough is where Emmer went to school as well. So like I've always had this interest in politics, but I never did anything with it. I stayed like informed about what was going on and then.
When Operation Metro Surge happened, I just had to do something with the skills that I had
Monica: Well, And speaking of that, you with Metro Surge. You launched this venture two days before Alex Pretti was killed, and how did that moment shape everything for you going forward?
Chad: Yeah
so talk about jumping into the deep end when I'm trying to like, figure out what's my cadence gonna be, what am I gonna go about doing, and like, how do I even want this structured? How do I cover Emmer to start with? And then Alex Pretti is killed two days into it. And that morning I was pretty dialed into what was going on Twitter and the coverage that was happening and seeing the posts from DHS of.
Pretti's gun, and then Emmer amplifying it. And while he's amplifying that story, his one and only tweet about it is he's not gonna jump to conclusions. And just seeing that contradiction right away oh, I'm gonna put this gun out here, say he had a gun. But I'm not gonna jump to any conclusions about what happened and why Alex Pretti was killed.
I could not handle the dissonance that was going on with that. And then he didn't say anything about Pretti again for weeks. I don't remember if he actually even did, I stopped counting the number of days that it was, that he was not addressing it. He would cheer lead, he would call everyone paid protestors.
He would say The Marxist people are out and he just would try to say, when I'm out in my district talking to people, which we can have a discussion if that even happens. This is not, yes. Yep.
Christy: when is he? But we'll talk about that later.
Chad: Yep. And it, he's would always say on national media, local media, this is not what I'm hearing from people.
We know there are protests outside his office. We know all these different things happen. He's just trying to represent it differently and I just could not fathom it. So I think I wrote three or four different articles that weekend and just kept on trying to cover it and like find my footing as I was going.
Christy: Emmer is a a congressman that is not very well liked nationally. Now my parents are hardcore maga like my, they think that. Trump is the greatest thing since sliced bread. And when I told my parents that I was, working with Doug Chapin, just to, with having on our podcast and all these things and told them that.
Doug was running against Tom Emmer. They were like, good, we can't stand him. Like it's just really, it's amazing to me that there are a large amount of MAGA out there who actually do not like Emmer at all. He is not a very likable person, so
Chad: Actually a couple of weeks ago, and I think this is what got me on Doug's radar, I wrote an article about how somebody went from a rhino to being the whip. And it documented all of the different, like changes that he has gone through, his different ways that he speaks about Trump and everything.
And then I tried to quantify it too about how frequently he talked about Trump and how like glowingly he did and this just using the transcripts and his tweets. It doesn't surprise me because MAGA they've got a long memory too, so they remember it. Like Trump There's plenty of flaws.
He, if you are willing to say what he wants you to say, he will use that to put you in a position to do it. And Emmer has responded how an opportunist would,
Christy: Yeah, MAGA has their own form of virtue signaling where if you drink the Kool-Aid and follow the party line, you're going places, and if not, then you get primaried.
Chad: And a couple of years ago too Emmer was facing a challenge from the right in a primary, and Walter Hudson, who's the Albertville state rep who has his own issues going on killed that to a ally himself with it. And I think, Emmer. Responded by moving even further, to ward off any potential in the future.
Christy: You talk about receipts not rage. So what do you mean by that and what does that mean in practice?
Chad: yeah, so in all honesty, it's not my favorite tagline. It sounds a little bit, yeah, it gets across what I'm trying to do and I just took off with it because to me it means like everything that I'm doing, I've got a primary source. I'm trying my best not to editorialize here.
You can definitely hear like I have my opinions about what I'm doing. What I'm gonna present to you through my writing is hopefully it not, hopefully it is gonna be the primary source. Everything can be traced back to an article, his tweet, his wording, his contradiction. I'll use his own words against himself.
So to me that's what it means, is that I'm gonna bring you those primary sources and try and pull out my own rage on it or my own opinions and let you connect the dots and be able to see what is going on. Is are we really being represented how we would like to be, and is he doing what he says he's gonna do?
Monica: Well, I have to hand it to you to be able to do that because Christy and I write ourselves and I find it pretty much impossible to leave any commentary. Out, but I there's some value in that in focusing on the primary sources instead of the commentary. you, Do you find it hard to leave that out?
Chad: Sometimes, and I've got ways of checking myself, and you should, when I'm writing, like I will be animated and be like, yes and. Hey, I made a connection here and like something, it makes sense. I'm like, oh my God, like something's illuminating. So like I do have those emotions even as I'm going through the writing process with it.
But then I have to try to make sure that I strip that out because I do just wanna present the facts to people to me the commentary. It should be easy to draw from it, but I want them to be the ones to make those connections for it. 'cause it lands a lot harder. 'cause how often does someone tell you what you should think or if they show you here are the examples and here's what's going on and let you draw it, which is gonna last longer for you?
Christy: That is certainly a talent because I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that in my writing. I'm too opinionated.
Monica: Same.
Christy: Do you think people, why do you think people want information or validation? Is it because they're confused? Is it because they're mad or is it a combo of all of the above?
Chad: So this one I wrestle with because I think people want validation. There's no doubt that they want to feel like, Hey, the way that I'm already thinking is good. 'cause that feels good, right? It's self-reinforcing. You get your little bit of a dopamine hit and it just makes you feel better.
I think more people need information on what is actually going on, and that goes all, all across. That is just us. We can get so siloed into our just different echo chambers where it's good to, you don't have to agree with somebody, but just being able to see their point of view and what information they're drawing on can actually make your own opinion stronger and your argument stronger to be able to be like.
Oh, they're saying X, but really they're taking it either outta context or they're not understanding something or they really do have it. And maybe I'm gonna need to reframe what I'm thinking 'cause we're all human making mistakes is a human thing and it's very easy. So long-winded way of saying I, I think definitely people want that validation 'cause it feels good.
And so you've gotta stretch yourself to get outside and go get that information.
Monica: as you pointed out, I think there's some value in providing that information and letting people draw their own conclusions and that in turn does provide their validation. What what kind of feedback are you getting from readers?
Chad: Yeah, it's been really positive. I think the people who have subscribed are like really enjoying it. They are sharing it and the Substack lets you see all of your different stats on the articles that you ascend and the open rates and the views are really good and they're really consistent for me.
So I think the people who have found it. Really do find value in it. It can be dense. Some of sometimes I can be long-winded and different things, and I have a lot of material that I get can choose from because I've got a very vocal rep covering here. So sometimes pairing it down to make it so that it isn't too long is the hardest part for me.
But I haven't heard that feedback from anyone that, Hey, it's too long. I think is Self-selecting audience that I have right now, but they are sharing it and I think that amplifying really do does matter too.
Christy: Yeah, your Substack grew really quickly, like not just like a little trickle, like it blew up.
Chad: Yeah. And it reached the right people too sometimes. Sometimes it's luck on who sees it. I don't know how to build a social media following. I don't know how to do any of those other different pieces of it, but I'm out there trying and responding because I think that if people go and see it, that they will see that it.
Does present the facts through there and everything is sourced and that they will even, like I said, even if you don't agree, you can see that there's value in seeing that side.
Monica: Emmer holds a a lot of power in Washington because of his position, I'm in California right now and I'm surprised when I talk to people how many people don't know who he is. Have you found, and may maybe you don't know from the statistics that you can glean, do you have readers that are outside of the district?
Chad: There are some readers outside of the district. There's few readers outside of the state, so it has been mostly definitely Minnesota located and one of the readers outside of the state is my friend who I was testing stuff with, so I don't even know if he necessarily counts, but he, yeah, his, you would think somebody.
With the whip job, the third most powerful Republican in Congress would have a larger profile especially with the amount that he aligns himself with with Trump on there. He was at the holiday party in Mar-a-Lago, so you would think he would have that and he just, for whatever reason, doesn't seem to and so yeah, that getting the audience outside of Minnesota is a stretch when you're covering someone who doesn't.
For whatever reason, have the profile that you would expect someone in that position to have.
Monica: It surprises me because I talk to a lot of politically savvy people, and Emmer standing right over Trump's shoulder in, in photos and in video shoots, and people don't even know who he is.
Chad: And at the house leadership press conferences too. Like he is always right over Mike Johnson's shoulder, and I think the speaker gets to be really vocal. Emmer's like moment in the sun was when he was nominated for the speaker, and that lasted all of 40 minutes before Trump killed it essentially.
Christy: Yeah.
Chad: So that was the one time where he had a national profile. Like I said, it lasted about 40 minutes there, and it's not for lack of him trying. He will get in front of cameras anytime
Christy: He is on the news. All he's on Fox every fucking weekend. I like will flip through and his mug is there.
Chad: Yeah, and he is not shy about sharing that on YouTube, which makes it a little easier for me to be able to go and get the info I need too.
Christy: Chad was actually at our event that we just had this past Monday it feels like it was a thousand days ago and it was really just Monday and it's just, it was really cool, but leading up to it, we had a lot of balls in the air. So I built this super complicated spreadsheet that I thought was gonna make Monica roll her eyes back in her head.
But when we started using it, it was really helpful because I like automated a bunch of things in it just to make it so it was less work for us and to have a centralized spot, but. It took coding to do that. And you said you're not a coder. How did you, it's not easy to build those tools, like those spreadsheets took me all day to build, to be honest with you.
How do you build the tools you use to track tweets, transcripts, donors, and votes?
Chad: Yeah, so I'm not a coder, but I've always been good with databases. Like growing up I played baseball with, and my dad was a coach, so I had our scorebook and I learned how to input all of that into Excel and have it auto add. So we'd have each game have its own tab and then a, summary sheet soso I've always been good with databases, even though it wasn't coding. Coding. There's a little bit of coding when you're talking Excel, but it's a completely different different animal. So I've been good at that, but I've not been. Up to speed on coding. We got our child Osmo, I believe it is, has little coding things where like it's a game and the, yeah, the iPad.
So he, up until a year ago, he was a better coder than me. And really, it's not that I'm a good coder now, it's that the a ai tools have gotten so much better. So I'm able to tell it what I want it to do and how I want it to build the. The site, the structure, the database, and it can do that. So I still have to go out and find the data, but it will structure it in a way that then it can be automated to pull that information in an ongoing way.
And it's gone through lots of different iterations. And I'm a project manager by trade, and I've gone through and got my like. Certifications and Scrum. So I understand that software side of the development cycle, which is really cool. I still get to use those tools. They're those skills that I have and now the scrum meeting that I run is actually with AI and it implements it.
So it's a different set skillset that is very useful now.
Christy: So what program do you use? Is it Excel? Is it Google Sheets? It looks like it's spreadsheets, right?
Chad: So it's all actually like JSON files and it can get really wonky in there. And, but Claude is what I'm using the one that got banned by the Department of Defense for not wanting uh, surveillance on citizens. So that's what I'm using to, develop it all and it, like I said, tracks that information that I help structure it.
And if you go to the MN oh six watch.com, there's analytics on his tweets and his transcripts and like you can link into. All the transcripts that are there, and it's the other AI that's out there is transcription AI and that's a game changer. It's been a game changer for journalists for a few years now, and I'm learning more and more about that and like how to leverage that as well.
Monica: What's your daily workflow look like?
Chad: yeah, so I've got a full-time job too, so I'm trying to like fit all this
Christy: Oh, good lord.
Chad: on top of that typically like I've got multiple monitors on my desk, so like I have Twitter essentially going. And I will forever call it Twitter. I don't care that it was
Monica: Same.
Christy: Same.
Chad: So I've got that over on one side.
So I have an idea of what's going on. I've got a couple lists set up, and so throughout the day I'm paying attention to how it is. I've got alerts set up for ems EMS tweets specifically. So there's not one that goes by that I don't see within about five minutes of him posting. Then I will, around one to two is when I try to do all the data collection and put everything together, even though like I've got an idea of what I want, if it's a national story that's going on and I wanna tie that together, if it's something local and we, I want to run with that and I've got a list of different ideas, that's a running list of things that I can do, which lets me.
Execute it a lot quicker and essentially get from. Pulling all the information, pulling whatever votes are there. 'cause I've got a vote tool that will run and grab all that information. And leveraging all that and making the article, it takes me about an hour and a half to, to do from beginning to end with it.
And it's it using Claude again to help iterate different things and to. Then I will write it and edit it. But just getting and synthesizing all that information that I have, because I, I have way too much info for one brain to be able to synthesize.
Christy: And you're using your data basically to identify contradictions is how I am seeing it. your priority is looking, where there are contradictions and to point those out so that people are informed about them and to have them. Wrestle with that actual cognitive dissonances going on there about what they're being told and what's actually going on.
Chad: Yeah. Yeah, that's like my biggest pet peeve. I very much dislike when someone will tell you something to your face and then do the exact opposite or tell you something to your face and then turn around and tell someone else something completely different and politicians have been doing stuff like that forever, but we haven't had a way to hold them accountable and say, why did you say this to me?
But you said something else when you turned around and talked to my dad. And so those contradictions just jump out at me, especially somebody who talks as much as Emmer and he so often will use, the same type of phrases as he is talking about things and you can just tell, and I'm more in his head than I would like to be, and I can tell like when Operation Metro Surge was going on, it was getting the worst of the worst.
The rapists, the murders, and the pedophiles And, but then at the same time, he would go onto Fox nine talk with Amy Hackert and say, we all need to tone, tone down our rhetoric. It's which is it? You're calling people that you're calling Tim Walz, Jefferson Davis.
You're making phone of Mayor Frey on one hand, but then you come on local TV where your voters are more likely to see you and you're gonna tone down the way that you're talking. So yeah, those contradictions have. Been what I I have that whole series of kind of rhetoric versus reality. And it's not just the verbal contradictions.
It's if his vote doesn't match or if donor info doesn't match. And we just got a newFEC quarter one data dump. So that's the plan for Sunday.
Monica: It's a a relatively new venture for you, how have you decided what your posting looks What what kind of cadence are you looking at?
Chad: Yeah, so I thought daily accountability was the way to go, especially when Congress is in session on there and just being able to be consistent about providing that to help gain that audience. Especially when I don't have a social media following, I don't have the background. I didn't have contacts that could help amplify what I was doing at the time.
So I, I think it's really important to just show up every day and do the work. And if good work is being done, it will eventually be found. It's, it can be frustrating to be like, oh, I want more than 10 people to see this one that I did right off the bat. But Having that cadence is important.
And then I was thinking, what are the things that I would like to, would've liked to have had covered for me? And like that daily, what is he doing? What is he talking about? What isn't he talking about? What is 'cause your decision of what you don't amplify too matters as well. So kinda I wanted to know what I wanted included if it was an audience of me.
Then adding on that rhetoric versus reality gave me a way to go deeper in once a week onto different topics. So that's where like my cadence came from. It was all based on what do I wish I had?
Christy: So we've had Doug on the show a couple times and he's talked about the SAVE Act, but that's something that you've highlighted quite a bit in your work. so why don't you tell our listeners what. Most people think the Save Act does because there's two different sides of it, right?
There's the side that people think it does, and then there's the side that it actually does. Let's start off with the side that people think it does.
Chad: Yeah, so simply put, most people think that the Save Act is. A form of national voter ID and maybe they know about the proof of citizenship part that is tied to it as well with registration. But that tends to be all that is communicated. All that's amplified, especially if you are looking atonly sources from the right.
And I don't necessarily blame people for only thinking that's in there 'cause that's what they're told. And if you don't want to go look into it. Then, that's, that goes back to the whole reason I started this bringing the information out. So they are told that 80% of people support the Save Act when really it's 80% of people support voter id and you can't conflate the two, but that's what's being done.
Monica: And what does the SAVE Act do?
Chad: So the save act actually does a heck of a lot more. The DHS will get the voter rolls from every single state. They will analyze it through their own SAVE database. That database was designed to be used for benefits, and it has, it's. Just a ton of false positives in there. Also in the Save Act, you're not gonna be notified if you are flagged on that database that has a confirmed amount of false positives on it.
You don't get notified to be like, Hey you're off the roll. Or you need to verify your citizenship before you can vote. So imagine showing up on election day. You've been registered for 20 years, you go to show up. And they say, oh, you're not on the rolls anymore. You're like, oh, I have my driver's license with me.
Okay. That doesn't work to register you either, because the only driver's licenses that will are ones that prove citizenship. There's only five states in the union whose real IDs prove citizenship. So they've made it so restrictive that the voter, I. It is. Yeah. And the voter ID part is more restrictive than 35 of the 36 states that have voter ID laws.
So they are just amping up all the different parts of it. It also introduces additional penalties for election officials that if they register you and you don't have the right documents or didn't have it with you, or there's even a question. So if you're married and you didn't bring your marriage certificate.
Or my mom was born in Florida. She has a different last name than what's on her marriage certificate, which is then different on her ID now, how that won't work and they put in where any citizen can sue that election official, so it doesn't have to be the government doing it. There's one Georgia man who brought 800 different challenges to voters in the last election.
He could sue the election officials 800 times.
Monica: Dude needs a hobby.
Chad: Eh,
Christy: Does this guy have a job or is he a paid protestor for the right?
Chad: I do not know, but he was using a different replacement system to be, that was designed to be able to easily submit those challenges.
Christy: You just said that you're doing all this, you're doing all this data crunching and compiling and distilling all this data so that it's in bite-sized pieces so people can un not only understand it, but incorporate it in their decision making regarding Emmer and what he is doing. But you also, because in all your free time took the time to draft a voter ID bill that. You feel should be the way a voter ID bill should look. Can you tell us about that? Because that's fascinating. And God, where'd you find the time to do that?
Chad: I dove way too deep on this because I'm actually one of the people who thinks that voter ID is a good thing. It's one of the earliest fights my wife and I actually had I was supporting voter id and this was back. Had to have been 15 years ago now when it was up for Minnesota to have an amendment on.
And yeah, that was one of our first fights was how could you be for voter id? And I was, until I learned more about the legislation, that it didn't have a free component to it, like citizens should be given that free id, if it's gonna be voter id. And the more I learned.
Christy: poll tax, if they're not given a free id.
Chad: It is essentially a poll tax for sure, and there's a time component of it to the going to get your documents in order.
Who's more able to go do that is the people who have resources. Even if it is a free id, there's still a little bit of an element of that potential poll tax. If you think of time as being money and who has those resources to go and to drive. And if you're talking about rural places, it can be, Hey, I need to take half a day off work to go get everything in order.
So even in the best of circumstances, with that free part, you could still make that argument.
Monica: What did you learn about how other countries handle voter id?
Chad: Yeah. So every other country that has it issues their citizens that ID without fail for free. So it is really what I wrote into the the legislation that I proposed, the proof of concept? It is based a lot on what other countries are already doing. providing it for free, letting, the database show and like when you move, not needing to reregister, it'll just check it against their existing database that is already there. And hey, I've proved citizenship. I had my id. So Chad Maschke becomes cm 1, 2, 3, 4, whatever it is in the database. And when I go to go register at the next place, here I am, here's my name, and it will pull straight from there.
So other countries are already implementing things like this. Granted, we are a. Bigger country than a lot of those. So like some of the implementation can be trickier for us, but those are the concepts that it needs to be based on essentially is how do we do it the right way with disenfranchising the least amount of people and any implementation like this from the get-go.
There are gonna be those one-off situations, but where does the risk benefit with how few fraudulent illegal voters there are? Like where's that risk benefit? And currently it's if we implement this like using the SAVE act, we've got like an 800 to one disenfranchisement where we're we'll disenfranchise about 800 citizens for every documented one illegal vote.
That's not worth it.
Monica: No.
Christy: So Minnesota has unwillingly stepped into the limelight this year as a state of laser focus. And trust me, we're all Minnesotans on this podcast. this is not cool. It's not fun. It sucks, but. Because of that, fraud different types of fraud are in focus here.
And you actually did some research into how Minnesota as a state actually verifies voters* * and vet them to avoid fraud. So why don't you talk to our listeners about that and inform them about how we do it here in our state.
Chad: Yeah. So Minnesota, whenever you hear about us, you just hear about the vouching system, right? And how that is at risk for all this fraudulent potential voters. But there's actually six different layers of verification that are already in place. You never hear about that even from Democrats.
Nobody will step up and say, Hey. Vouching is good and here is why and what we already have in place. So we've got as part of the Help America Vote Act, there is a federal database that was made. it's been in place since 2002, and the Help America Vote Act is the legislation that was written by James Langford from Oklahoma, a republican senator.
So it is not
Christy: when he had a soul.
Chad: yeah. Yes. Yep. It was, there was a time for that. And we analyze against that database, right? And the Help America Vote Act is also. The piece of legislation couple months ago that Emmer Stauber Fischback and Finstad proposed to hold our funds, Minnesota's funds unless we turned over our voter rolls.
That is specifically the piece that they were going after. So that's one of the six. We also use a verification called Eric, that's an interstate data partnership that. Let's us check against the other states who are part of it. There used to be 33, I think there's now 25 because of a pressure campaign that has resulted in some states leaving it, even though it has been found to identify people who register across states who move and just helps keep the rolls clean.
So that's another one. We have automatic voter registration with checks at the department vehicle motor services. We've got the one that people say could just be forged whenever, where we've got the verification where you attest that you are a citizen. That carries five years and deportation.
So there is a deterrent into that as well.
Christy: So do you think that misunderstanding is intentional on the right?
Chad: God, I want to give people the benefit of the doubt. That's just my inherent nature.
When you continue to keep on pointing out the different arguments, and if you've been in my Twitter feed at all, you will see I've been almost exclusively focused on one topic and with the Election Integrity Network and the way. Like I'll present things. I will ask them, Hey, if anything's wrong, go ahead. Let me know if I have something wrong in my explainer. Correct it, I will correct it on there. So I'm trying my best to assume positive intent. But when you keep on then seeing the same thing over and over, and even this morning, it's another 75% of Americans support the SAVE act.
You're not listening to the will of the people. It's like I have told you countless times and you've responded, so it's not just Hey, this little account that they don't see, they've actually responded that when people find out what is in that act, 61% of people oppose it, not just don't support or not have an opinion, actively oppose it.
Christy: I think the right really relies on the fact that they can spoonfeed information to their constituents and that their constituents are gonna believe them. And if they conveniently leave out pertinent data that would, might sway their decision. They never see it. They never hear it.
So they just assume what they're hearing is correct.
Chad: Yep. Yeah. And it's conflating that information too. So saying 80% support the save act, and then you link to a poll if you actually look at the question. And who takes the time to do that? Except me, I'm taking the time to do that. Yeah. And then you see what it's actually asking and then what is the methodology and different things like that.
And like those are the thing that nuance that matters that. Just is not being looked at and they're exploiting they're effective.
Monica: Yeah. the right is constantly harping on voter fraud to keep the wrong people from voting, but voter fraud is actually exceedingly rare.
And we already have groups like Election Integrity Network. And what kind of role does that play?
Chad: Yeah. Voter fraud is. So rare from every study that has been done, Utah did their entire voter rolls and found one or two instances where somebody was registered. And even registration doesn't prove fraud. So there are all of these studies that have been done and they will just look at those studies and say it's impossible to detect.
So how can you do it? It's like the absence of finding. Something or the scale at which you think it should be found is not proof that it exists. Like it's just a logical fallacy that they are playing right into, and not only them, this is just the repeated pattern, right?
That they are amplifying it and sowing that distrust. Which is creating the problem and going back to that the me supporting the voter id, my reasons for supporting it have changed over the 15 years, right? I thought it was a bigger problem 15 years ago than I do now. Now, part of me supports it because I want to stop hearing about this and get rid of this strawman argument that's going on, so like the reason has changed for it, which is why I think it's really important to implement it the right way.
Christy: Let's move on to Emmer's two accounts. Why he needs two Twitter accounts. I don't know, but maybe you can explain that to us a little bit more why he has two different accounts and what did you notice when analyzing? Them against each other compared with the data that you're accumulating.
Chad: So his two accounts, he does use for different purposes. He's got his GOP majority whip one that he'll use for amplifying the party line for getting the. Information out there. It's a little bit more reserved than his personal account. That's at Tom Emer. That one's got more of the inflammatory rhetoric.
It's where you'll see him calling different people names. It's also where you see him do his endorsements. So he does not do endorsements for candidates on the GOP majority, Whip one. Those all come from the personal one, which I'm assuming is some campaign finance reason for that because the majority whip one is a congressional account.
So that's the basics of the two differences is one is more. The Republican talking head one, which his name changed too when he became the GOP Majority Whip. you'll see that with the speaker of the House. When they become speaker, their Twitter handle changes to Speaker Johnson from Reo Johnson or whatever it was before.
So that, that explains the two of 'em. But you definitely see the rhetoric and the messaging is just vastly different.
Monica: let's just touch on this final subject about, you mentioned your system could scale. What would that look like?
Chad: So when I was building all the data collection for Emmer, I realized it was nothing specific to Tom Emmer that let me do this. He does document his stuff a little bit more on YouTube and all of his appearances, so that's one little difference, but really there's. No difference in going and checking Tom Emmer's Twitter versus checking on Amy Klobuchar's Twitter.
So the whole process of the way that I was collecting the data can be scaled across essentially the entire Congress if we wanted to do it that way. Or if there were different races or different things that people are interested in. So scaling it up and doing the data collection is actually probably the easier part.
Figuring out what that looks like in the long run and how we can make it useful is a whole nother question. And it goes back to that the primary sources and the receipts not rage for me. Like how do I want to. Use all this data collection find the contradictions, maybe get some of that and use AI to find some of this, but use my judgment on, Hey, is this actually real or is it not?
And then be able to present that as. A website as a a whole nother avenue where people can go and be like, Hey, I wanna find out about my representative in California 16. I have no idea who that is, but just go in there and find out the, what's their voting record? Oh, why'd they vote this way? When they're supposed to be an environmentalist, oh, they've got oil money in their donors, and just all those different things that trying to put more information in the hands of more people.
Monica: you you are clearly very data driven and in the weeds with the data, and our listeners are going to be pretty well informed. So there might be a little of preaching to the choir here, what could the average American do right now to be more informed?
Chad: To be more informed, I think just increase your curiosity, try and see, and challenge yourself to look outside of what you believe to be true and find out and see is it actually true or is it just, that's all that I'm hearing. So that is what I am now internalizing and just hearing more and more of what I already believed.
And then it becomes a truism to yourself. So I think we can all benefit from that. And just stretch yourself and keep on growing and that, I know that sounds like a cliche, but I really think in a time right now we are re like coming back into our own groups more than ever when we really need to be doing the exact opposite and reaching out and making those connections to other people.
Christy: Chad, thank you so much for doing this work and joining us today. And why don't you tell our listeners where they can find you.
Chad: Yeah, so I've got my substack at MN06watch.substack.com. I've also got the website at mn06watch.com. That's got a lot of the data and I do have an articles page on there where every once in a while there I create a little bit extra onto the articles and Substack doesn't let you do some of the cool interactive features, so I'll repost them on there as well.
Yeah, if you subscribe, follow along. It helps a lot. I'm doing this because I think it's the right thing to do and I want people to be more informed. So there's the free version. Everything that I have done is available for free. If you wanna subscribe, there is the option to also do a monthly or an annual subscription
Christy: I did do a subscription and it's very reasonable to subscribe to your Substack, so if you have the means, Chad's Substack is definitely one that deserves a little bit of financial support, so I'll just put that plug in there.
Monica: And thank you for what you're doing. 'cause it helps people better understand how they're being represented.
Christy: And this conversation is a reminder that you don't need a title to make an impact. You just need the willingness to show up and do the work.
Monica: When everyday people start paying attention and asking better questions, that's when the real change begins To our listeners. If you are finding meaning in the stories we're sharing, if something moves you, challenges you, or makes you see the world a little differently, please like, comment, and share.
Christy: and follow us everywhere at the Politics Chicks on Substack Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Monica: Thanks for being a part of our community. It keeps shining your light so we can find each other in the dark.
Christy: And remember, we're stronger together. Chad, thank you again for being on today. This was a great interview. Yeah, we really appreciate it.
Chad: Thank you both.
Christy: All right, and we'll see you on the flip side.