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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 lives—from elections and public policy to healthcare, education, civil rights, and the economy.
Whether we’re interviewing members of Congress, first-time candidates, medical experts, or community leaders, our mission is the same: to inform, challenge, and inspire.
If you’re looking for a politics podcast that values evidence over outrage, curiosity over division, and hope over cynicism, welcome home.
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@ThePoliticsChicks
Monica: Hello, welcome to the Politics Chicks podcast. I'm Monica Healy
Christy: And I'm Christy Branham
Monica: Today we're joined by Matt Gromlich, educator, researcher, community advocate, and candidate for Louisiana's fourth congressional district. Matt is taking on one of the most powerful figures in Washington, House Speaker Mike Johnson
Christy: Matt's campaign comes at a time when Louisiana has been at the center of major voting rights battles, court rulings, and election controversies.
Christy: We're looking forward to talking about what motivated him to run and what he's hearing from voters across the district
Monica: Well, welcome to the show
Matt: Thank you for having me
Christy: This is your second appearance on "The Politics Chicks," but the first time was kind of like a mini jump on the day that they canceled your election
Matt: It was
Monica: And, and your, your life is a little crazy, I'm sure, with-- and we'll get to that about the, the district and the primary and what the governor did. But let's start with you. You describe yourself first as an educator. Uh, what made you decide that teaching wasn't enough and that it was time to run for Congress?
Matt: Well, teaching is always enough. Teaching is great. I, I love teaching. I, just finished my 14th year. My background is science and math. I taught K-12, primarily 6-12 science and math, and then I got my doctorate, and then now I teach future high school science and math teachers here in Louisiana. So I love teaching.
Matt: I love my students, and my students and how they have been impacted by the government and by the decisions made at the federal level is why I'm jumping into this. It's for my students. It's for my community. I've seen the negative impacts that federal legislation can have, and I just want to provide a better alternative for everybody that I care about.
Monica: Always a teacher doing things for your students
Matt: Yeah
Christy: Yeah. And did you teach in primarily underserved communities when you were teaching six through 12?
Matt: I did. My first year teaching, I taught in North Carolina at a private school, and I loved my students. I loved the families. It was a private school right across from Duke, and I kind of saw that my students were okay, that they had so much family support. They had, you know, every resource available to them, and I knew that I could make a difference somewhere else.
Matt: And so I ended up moving to Las Vegas and teaching in the Valley at underserved schools and in underserved communities out there with a lot of Hispanic students, a lot of students who, uh, they and/or their families had different statuses in the United States. A lot of their parents were not documented, and I really felt that that was where I was being called to teach and to lead and to grow.
Christy: And you grew up in a military family and lived in nine states, so it seems like you have all these different areas of your life shaping you, right? So how, how did that experience shape your views of public service and community?
Matt: Yep. So my dad was in the Coast Guard 33 years. We moved around all over every two, three years. We moved to a different state and truly, you know, at, at the time, maybe not some of the best experiences as a kid having to fit in, move to a new school, but it really shaped me and my family and my siblings where you get to know a bunch of different types of people, interact in so many different ways.
Matt: You get to meet people who have different beliefs, who have different backgrounds, who speak differently. Like, I remember moving from North Carolina to Massachusetts, uh, between sixth and seventh grade, and so that was a really unique time. Like, oh, everybody has, has accents. They use different words. And I think it also shows you just the diversity of America.
Matt: So many people in America don't leave their state or move out of state, and I was so privileged and lucky to be able to move all over the country, East and West Coast, North and South, and see all the potential that we have and the diversity that America has to offer.
Monica: Christy and I often talk about how important it is for politicians to have experience in the real world before they go into politics, and, and your teaching experience lends itself to that. And the, the experience of moving all over the country is something totally different that so many people don't have.
Monica: I'm sure that brings great perspective to things. And
Matt: I think so
Monica: you talk a lot about listening rather than delivering soundbites. What are voters telling you that national politicians seem to be missing?
Matt: It's a really interesting dichotomy, I think, running for office and then knowing what the role of a politician is, a legislator is once you get into office, because they're very different skill sets. A lot of people don't have both or you're stronger in one area. I know that I'm much stronger as a legislator, as a researcher, as a writer, as a listener.
Matt: And on the campaign trail, I think part of my message is just delivering that to people where we don't need the sound bites, we don't need the performative politics that we've been seeing. People want real, and they want somebody who they know that they can trust on day one will actually go in and make a difference.
Matt: And so it's, it's a little-- it's been a little challenging in the beginning trying to explain who I am and how my background fits into the political landscape. But I think once people get to know me and get to hear, and I get to hear them, that we really come to an understanding of this is what we need in the moment.
Matt: We need people who will be strong legislators, not just strong orators
Christy: Yeah. You're the second doctoral earner and the second doctor that we've talked to this week. We, interviewed Kristy Janigo, a local candidate in Minnesota, and she-- we had no idea that she had a doctorate, so we're like, "Should we call you Dr.
Christy: Janigo?" Um, but I think that says a lot because higher education really does mean something. It means you know, acquiring not just the skills you were just talking about, but critical thinking, because you've got to formulate a thesis and defend the thesis in order to earn a doctorate, correct?
Matt: correct. Mm-hmm.
Christy: So you're not a career politician, you've got all this life experience. what advantages and challenges does that create when running against someone as established as Mike Johnson?
Matt: One of the hardest things for me when I first started was, and Monica, I'm sure you got the same spiel as a teacher of, you know, keep your private life private. So don't be on social media, don't have Facebook, don't friend your former students, don't friend parents, don't put your life out there. Anything that you put on social media can be used against you, and we wanna protect our jobs, and we want to have this air of professionalism, and that doesn't coincide with social media.
Matt: So when I first started running, I know that I can do the job. I know that I'm the best person for the job. And the landscape has changed in how you campaign, and part of that is social media. So I had to figure out how to use a bunch of the social media platforms that I did not have before, be comfortable being on social media, and having people see all the different facets of me that I somewhat kept more private in my previous life.
Matt: And a lot-- So I've, I've had to catch up a lot in that respect. Whereas a lot of people know who Mike Johnson is, good or bad, he's very media forward and, and people know who he is, so there is some catch up that I've had to play there.
Monica: that's a leap for you, you have leapt well because you have a great social media presence
Christy: Yeah, you're everywhere. We love it
Matt: I try. And I have a great team too, so it's not just me. I think one of the most important skills and aspects of a true good leader is that you understand where your deficits are, and you put people in places that complement and add to your team, and that you don't have to be the best at everything.
Matt: You're putting the best people in those places
Monica: Was that hard to compile a team being a, a first-time candidate?
Matt: Very, very
Christy: Yeah.
Matt: It's-- It was interesting. So I, I knew that I wanted certain people on my team. So when I was deciding to run, I knew there were four people that I needed the okay of. So one was my mom, who is still was and maybe still is, but we're switching, a Republican. Um, but she voted Democrat for the first time in 2024, so I'm proud of her.
Matt: She raised four Democratic kids, but it takes her a little bit longer. So, but one was my mom. She's my biggest cheerleader and supporter of this race, of me. Uh, one was my therapist, who like, "Am I mentally in a place where I can do this over time? Like, you've seen me and my development." He's like, "Yeah, Matt, you're the strongest that you've ever been.
Matt: 100%, let's go." And then my partner, Fernando, making sure that he was on board because this just doesn't impact me. This is our entire life changing. And he jokes now and he's like, "Well, you know, when I-- when we got together, you were a professor. Now you're a politician." It, it's a huge change. And then, uh, fourth is one of my former students, Courtney, who is my executive assistant.
Matt: She does everything for me, and I knew that I would need somebody who would be able to fill in all these gaps. So yeah, I started building a team. Those four people, check, check, check, check. On the political side-- So like that was, you know, the support side. On the political side, it is difficult. You don't know all the positions that you need filled.
Matt: You don't know what you don't know. And not being in politics, it's definitely been a learning curve
Monica: So first-time candidate and you're jumping in with both feet. Speaker of the House is, is you-- who you're challenging. So that's gotta be a little daunting. So why now?
Matt: Why now? I saw in 2016 how Trump and Administration 1.0 truly impacted my students in Las Vegas, especially my Hispanic students, and how terrified they were every single day not knowing if their families would be home when they got home from school. And in 2016, I wasn't in a position where I could run just in my career and my personal development financially, intellectually with the position. Fast-forward 2026, and we have Mike Johnson literally is my representative. I moved to Louisiana for this position, and he's the sp- he becomes Speaker of the House. He is my representative. Trump gets reelected. It truly just felt like, you know, whether you believe in God, a higher power, a force, a being, it, it felt like I was put into this position for a reason
Christy: Well, let's not give Mike Johnson any laurels because he is the-- As far as Republicans were concerned when they were choosing a speaker, he was the least of all the evils that was put up. He was the only one who could end, end up getting some consensus on that vote. So
Matt: We, we still don't know how that happened from Louisiana
Christy: Yeah. Well, I think because he was such a strong supporter and he was totally in support of Trump immediately after January 6th, he was trying to fix it for him immediately, I'm sure.
Christy: Yeah. Loyalty is everything to this administration, so... And you've criticized Johnson for not holding town halls, as we just talked about social media. Now we're switching to, like, human-to-human communication and actually interacting with people and if, and, and occupying the same physical space as them. How important is accessibility, and constituent engagement to effective representation?
Christy: Because you've really criticized Johnson for just totally ditching your district.
Matt: Absolutely. I, I think it's extremely important, and that's the aspect where a lot of politicians-- I understand that you have to be in Washington half of the time, or mean, with this current House, they're never in Washington. But you, you know, you're in Washington a decent amount of time because you have to work in committees, you have to pass legislation, and then the rest of the time you're in your district.
Matt: Every single day that you're back in your district, you should be interacting with constituents. Those are your voters, and really the idea of a representative is that you understand the needs of the people who elected you, and you're working in Congress to help the country and to help your people. How do you know what the needs of your constituents are if you're never talking to them?
Matt: If you only use social media, then it's the loudest voices or the most bots or whatever. When you're in person, you really get to understand the needs of the community, and that the needs of the community are different depending on what part of the district you're in
Monica: This is the guy who continually sends Congress home to supposedly work in their district. So they're not working i- in Washington, and he's clearly not working in your district. When was the last time he did hold a town hall? Do you know?
Matt: I've been here six years and it hasn't been since I've been here
Christy: Hasn't happened? Well, and it's gotta be frustrating too to see him take-- doing multiple media hits a day on various channels, um, you know, whether it's Y- Newsmax or Fox or whatever, and he's on the weekend shows every single weekend. So he's finding the time to engage with legacy media, but he is not finding the time to engage with the people who sent him to Washington, so I can totally see your frustration with
Matt: finding the time to campaign in other states for other candidates
Monica: Hmm.
Christy: Mm-hmm.
Monica: But he never seems to be aware of what's going on and, uh, that Trump has done. "Oh, I'm, I'm not aware of that. I haven't heard of that."
Matt: I don't know. I don't know. I'm not aware
Christy: It's kind of alarming that these people who are in elected office right now, their fallback is, "I don't know about that. I haven't heard about that. How are you going to combat that if you're elected, right? How are you going to approach it? How would you approach a situation where you're really sincerely not aware of the facts?
Matt: I think it's very similar to how I interact in the classroom. So as a teacher, we know a lot of things. We're teaching topics and content that we're fairly familiar with and that we've studied and learned. And sometimes students ask questions that do catch you off guard, that are not something that you know off the top of your head, that are tangential, that don't really align, and I love those types of questions.
Matt: The answer should be like, " You know, that's a really great question. I don't know the answer to that because I've never really thought in that way before, but I'm gonna get back to you on it because I want to know the answer to that question in the future." So truly being, like, authentic and genuine in your answer.
Matt: We know that Mike Johnson is not. It's not that he doesn't know, it's that he doesn't wanna talk about it and be held accountable. But if you don't know something, I think it's okay to not know something. I actually-- One of my former principals and I got into, uh, an argument, and I ended up going somewhere else because he said, like, "You should always know the answer."
Matt: No, education and learning is about asking questions that don't have answers sometimes, so now we have to research to find the answer. That's why I'm not just an educator, I'm an educational researcher, because there are questions that we don't know the answer to right now, and the fun part is being able to design an experiment or read the articles and pull together information and conduct research and, you know, collect data to find those answers
Christy: And Dunning-Kruger has gotten us where we are in this country right now. Everyone's an amateur expert when they really know nothing, so
Matt: Right? The number of, um, like pool experts there are at the moment is crazy.
Christy: Right.
Monica: Oh, right. Yes.
Christy: God.
Monica: Green Water Services
Matt: Yeah, that's everybody
Christy: even get us
Matt: pool expert. Yeah.
Christy: Oh my God . Okay
Monica: So Louisiana is, is a little unusual, and when we were talking to you before we started recording, you were talking about parishes, and I'm assuming that that's similar to most states' counties, correct? So how many parishes are in your district?
Matt: Well, a month ago, there were 20 parishes or parts of 20 parishes in my district. And then the Supreme Court came out with their Calais decision. The governor suspended our elections during the election process after 42,000 absentee ballots had been returned. And then the state legislature decided that they were gonna take that opportunity, because they're majority Republican, to redraw the congressional maps, and when asked why, they said, " Because we have the majority and we can."
Matt: So my new district, they removed six parishes from the 20, and then they added in one. So now I have, like, the 15 there that 14 of them I have already campaigned in, so that's great. There's one brand new district to me, or one, one brand new parish to me that I need to start campaigning in. I was there last week.
Matt: And then there are the six parishes that I had campaigned in that, not just me, all of the candidates that were running, we agreed on this map. We'd campaigned in those areas. We'd spent time, money, effort, energy, resources, and now those parishes are a part of a new district, and all of those constituents now have to learn a whole new slate of candidates
Monica: And all, all of this came down, you know, while you said people had already cast their ballots and right before the primary. And, and your name and the names of other people in that district were still on the ballots. Do you have any, any knowledge about what those numbers were for votes?
Matt: On our ballots, we had not just the House race, but we had a Senate race, we had some amendments. They counted everything else. They have told us that they did not count the House ballot part at all. And I was on a live last night with one of my fellow candidates who's running District 3, and she was saying at this point they've actually not-- They're not allowing anybody to request any of that information.
Matt: It is not allowed. It is not, like, legal. They're-- If they have counted them, we'll never know. Maybe they've never counted them. We're not gonna get that information. It's just gone
Christy: And the last time we talked to you literally was the day this went down. Like, we had planned a strategy meeting with you just to talk about ways that we could help your campaign, and we get on with you and you and your campaign manager were just like, "Whoa, what is going on?" we ended up doing a quick just mini podcast, and by the time I could get it edited and up, like the information was like totally outdated.
Christy: And do you wanna talk a little bit about what happened there so people understand just exactly how quickly and almost nefariously this has gone down?
Matt: It truly, it was insane. The, the speed at which all of these changes happened was two weeks. And like you said, I was trying to keep people updated. I was making videos. By the time I did a, a slight edit 20 minutes later, the information had changed. So we went from, we have a primary May 16th. Uh, the Cali decision happened April 29th, I believe.
Matt: April 30th, the governor came out and said, "Okay, we're still gonna have the primary, except not the House elections. We're gonna suspend the House elections," without any information to back it up. So now there's chaos and confusion. What rationale is he using? Can he do this? Is this allowed? Are... You know, is this just talk, or is he actually going to put teeth behind it?
Matt: So there was a whole, like, 24-hour period where we didn't know. And absentee ballots had already gone out
Christy: Yeah
Matt: 42,000 had been returned successfully, and the start of the early voting in person was two days later. So we have this whole period of time where we don't know what's happening, but early voting's starting, so do we tell people to vote on the first day of early voting?
Matt: Do we, Monica, like you were saying, do we, like, tell people to wait and hold off until the last day of early voting or actually until May 16th until we figure out what's happening? What is the best strategy? And then it becomes this, like, strategic game theory of voting, and that should never be the case.
Matt: So all of this is
Christy: was the--
Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Yes. And part of it was because our Governor Landry had five amendments on this election ballot as well, and a year and a half ago, he had four amendments that Louisiana, we struck down all four, and it was a huge blow. So he wanted a win, and it looked like, and it did actually happen, all five were struck down on May 16th as well.
Matt: So causing chaos and confusion to hopefully maybe get some of his amendments through, to get less people to vote. It was just insane. And so we paused that, but early voting's still happening, and the Senate and the, uh, school board and Public Service Commission and amendments, all of those are still happening, but not the House.
Matt: So do we tell people to vote everything ev- because our names are still on the ballot, but they don't count. Then they're saying, "Well, if you vote for the House seat, even though it's on the ballot, then your ballot might be disqualified, but we don't know yet. But if you don't vote, then there's a potential that a court could retroactively count those ballots."
Matt: So then there's the game theory there. It was just, like, so much confusion purposefully. And then this whole time, the legislature, the Louisiana legislature, like, immediately takes up redrawing maps
Christy: Because of course they did
Matt: Of course they did
Monica: And, and all of this is confusing and stressful for the people that are on the ballot, but then you look at the electorate and a lot of people are just gonna throw up their hands and, and not vote, and that's sort of the end game, right? Voter suppression
Matt: Yeah, and we
Monica: means possible
Matt: Absolutely. We have terrible voter turnout in Louisiana anyway, and there's a lot of apathy and there's-- I mean, we have so many elections in Louisiana that there is confusion and, and people don't understand, and part of our job as candidates a- and as elected officials should be to educate our voters.
Matt: Like I said, I was making videos every day, multiple times a day. But how, how can you really, as somebody who's not super involved in politics, you go to work, you take care of your kids, you make dinner, you have a life, how are you supposed to stay up to date when I can't even get you the most accurate information?
Christy: Right
Monica: What, what would fair representation look like to you? Like, let's say you, you get to Congress and what can you do to help your state to have fair representation?
Matt: I think one thing that we can do collectively federally is uncap the House. Right now, you know, we have 435 seats, and that was capped in the '20s, and each person represents now between 700 and 800,000 constituents. That's a lot of people. That's a huge geographic area, and it causes states like Louisiana to fight over your representatives.
Matt: Right now, we have six. If we were able to uncap the House and to have smaller, proportionality between your representatives, then we likely, or may not, hopefully won't have some of these districting battles that we are having now. Um, also, I think anti-gerrymandering laws need to be put on the books.
Matt: The, the crazy thing, the takeaway from Louisiana legislature is, well, we can't gerrymander based on race, but we can gerrymander based on partisanship because the Supreme Court has said that that's not illegal. So, over and over again, you heard them on the floor, " Well, we're drawing a 5-1 map because we can."
Matt: Like, that should not be allowed either. How, how are, how can representatives choose their constituents? How are we allowing this?
Christy: Yeah. Well, it just, it seems like there's such an absence of decency in all of this, and I think that's what I find so, disconcerting and so disappointing that we're looking at the levers of power being used in a very inappropriate way to suppress votes, right? I mean, we did call it what it is, is voter suppression.
Christy: What lessons do you think the rest of the country could take away from Louisiana's experience? Because with the redistricting maps that are coming out on the regular this very well could happen to another state.
Matt: Mm-hmm.
Christy: what would you say, that the, the country should be paying attention to so this does not happen in other states?
Matt: It's hard because of how our election system is set up, where it is at a state level. There's a lot of opportunity for governors, AGs, to hold that power and to change election laws, or at least election timings and, uh, types of, of primaries, caucuses. I think what-- one thing that we on the ground did really well is as soon as all of this craziness happened, like there were a lot of lawsuits that were passed, and also we, not me, we Louisiana, uh, submitted a petition to recall our governor and our attorney general.
Christy: Mm-hmm.
Matt: So within a week of all of this, we had people in Baton Rouge who filed that petition. It's all over the state. There are filing locations everywhere. Hundreds and hundreds of people are taking leadership positions to be able to get these signatures. We need 600,000 signatures in total, roughly, by October, I think 13th is the date, somewhere there.
Matt: And I do think that our reaction to the situation on the ground did help other states. If you look at like South Carolina and Georgia, who were potentially going to make some changes to their electoral maps, they ended up not doing that. Now, is it fully because of what we did? I don't know, but I'm sure that it helped if elected leaders see that there are consequences for their actions
Monica: you've said that voter turnout isn't great in Louisiana, and I'm sure the, the confusion and the chaos around all of this did not help. I'm hopeful that leading into the midterms there will be en- enough concern, enough anger to drive out voters. And, and we've seen that across the country, that the Democratic voters have really been motivated to come out.
Monica: And, and people are going to start feeling some of the, the crunch of what came out with the big awful bill from last year. And you've spoken about Medicaid cuts, rural hospitals, school meal programs. Which issue comes up most often when you're talking with constituents?
Matt: That's tough. It, it really depends on where you are in the district. If you look at my district, so it's basically like the whole western side of Louisiana, and the issues that are facing north Louisiana are very different than the issues facing south Louisiana. I think that, I mean, of course, medical care access is huge across the district, across the country.
Matt: Uh, education in Louisiana is a huge concern for people, especially for young families who are just having kids, thinking about having kids. They're leaving the state because they don't want their students in the public school system here, or they're putting them into private schools. So I think those are kind of the, the larger issues that everybody's facing.
Matt: Uh, if you're looking at more localized issues that people are facing up here in the north, water quality is a huge issue. Our water is terrible, failing grades, and then with data centers coming in, it's only going to negatively impact our water and our environment even more. So that and data centers, huge issue up here.
Matt: Down south, carbon capture is a huge issue, and I've had to make myself, you know, very aware of, of what carbon capture is and how that works because it's not something in northern Louisiana. But yeah, there's so many different
Monica: I don't even know what that is
Christy: don't know. Can you explain what carbon capture is in a nutshell so that we know what it is?
Matt: Yeah. And I'll, I'll give a super brief, but I actually started a podcast with one of my, uh, volunteers in residence here.
Matt: It's called "Why It Matters." So if you wanna go check that out on YouTube, "Why It," like M-A-T-T-E-R-S. Um, episode three just dropped, and we talked about carbon capture. So there are a lot of different ways that you can capture carbon.
Matt: think with everything, like there's, there's good and bad. It's all about the processes and the regulations. And so if you have the right process, you have the right regulations put in place by state and federal legislators, then it can be good. You're taking carbon dioxide from the air, or you're taking it from off-gassing of pollutants, or in our case, like oil and natural gas.
Matt: The problem comes with the lack of regulations, as we see in Louisiana for a lot of things. A lot of these industries are not regulated, and the process in which we're using. So like, Iceland is a really great example of doing this well, where they're taking carbon dioxide from the air and they're putting it into pressurizing it into a solid.
Matt: That's great. What we're doing in a lot of Louisiana is taking carbon dioxide from off-gassing, uh, of pollutants and these oil and natural gas industries, and we're making it into a liquid, pressurizing to a liquid, using old pipelines and piping it underground deep enough to where, in theory, it won't be able to permeate the surface. And the problems with that are many, but that these pipelines that we're using weren't traditionally made for this. They were made for like oil, and so we're getting like pipe ruptures, and then you have all this carbon dioxide going into the air, causing people to go to the hospital. And then we also, if you're like putting all this liquidized carbon dioxide underground, what happens when we have hurricanes or tornadoes, which we do, and then it, you know, comes out?
Matt: Or how is that impacting groundwater? Uh, also there are a lot of concerns over eminent domain and people who sold their rights. And so if you sell your mineral rights or your ground rights, does that now give them access and ability to take the pipes that you agreed to for one thing and now retrofit them for something else?
Matt: So that's my like short and sweet carbon capture, kind of story, but that's happening in southern Louisiana. It's a huge issue. Environmental safety, human safety, eminent domain, property rights, um, a lot of things there.
Christy: What's the primary economy in Louisiana, just out of curiosity?
Matt: It again depends on where you are. Oil and gas are huge, especially in the South.
Christy: I was gonna say oil
Matt: mm-hmm, in the North, like in my part of the district, a lot of it is healthcare is a huge industry
Christy: there's a university there? Is that
Matt: universities, and then a lot of really large hospitals.
Christy: Okay.
Christy: That's interesting. That's like very opposite ends of the spectrum, right? As far as economies go
Matt: Yeah. Which again goes back to let's uncap the House, let's have more representatives, smaller districts, because truly my district, the geographic makeup of it, it's three like communities of interest. It really should be three different people who are representing this huge district because of how different the needs are of these people
Monica: What's one issue you wish national media paid more attention to in Louisiana for the whole state?
Matt: Ooh, one issue Hmm. That's hard.
Christy: all the time you need
Matt: Just one issue I, I do think just our-- the water quality, electrical grid, like infrastructure in general. As we mentioned, I've lived in a bunch of different states. This is the first state where we have regular, like consistent water boil advisories, where you'll get an email or a text like, "Don't drink the water for the next two days.
Matt: Make sure you boil it before you do anything." Not only does that impact individuals, it impacts businesses, because now if you're a restaurant and you have to boil all of the water before you use it to cook, that adds so much to everything that you're doing. Uh, also you can't use any taps for, you know, sodas or s- tea or whatever.
Matt: And so like the impact of just our low water quality on local businesses is a real concern.
Christy: And I want to point out the failures that you just brought up are failures that we point out in third world countries, not in the United States
Matt: It should not happen. There's no reason why this should be happening
Christy: Yeah
Monica: Well, we've got a, a lot of issues ahead of us, a lot of problems to face, and the world seems pretty dark, but let's, uh, end things on a lighter note. We have to ask about the 30, 36 chickens. 36
Christy: 36 chickens. I want chickens. We can't have them in my city
Monica: So talk about the 36 chickens.
Matt: And my 36 chickens and my three emus
Christy: You have Emu- you have Emus? Do
Monica: You have a Zoo.
Christy: You have a have a llama too?
Matt: No. I, I like, I like birds. I have my dogs and then birds.
Christy: Okay
Matt: what do you wanna know about them?
Christy: I don't know. Like, are emus as mean as I see them on, on YouTube or are they actually friendly?
Matt: They can be. So I raised all my-- I have all three of them from chicks. So the first one that I had was just him, and he, like, slept in a crate by my bed for months. And so he's my baby. He's so sweet. Go out, I'll just pet him, he'll sit down beside me. Uh, the younger two spend more time with each other than me, so I handled them less.
Matt: Uh, my, my girl Kate, she, she's kind of mean sometimes. She's, you know, but she's, she's just protective .
Monica: I'm totally picturing Emmanuel Todd Lopez. I'm assuming that you know who that is if you're an emu person
Matt: I don't
Monica: Okay, you'll have to l- I think it's Knuckle Bump Farms. You'll have to look that up on TikTok. It's this, this woman who she has all these animals and
Matt: Yeah,
Monica: yeah,
Monica: And she named him Emmanuel Todd Lopez.
Matt: Okay.
Christy: Oh my God.
Monica: So how did you end up with all of these animals?
Christy: 36 chickens. At least you're not having to pay for eggs, dude
Matt: Yeah, I did-- I have to find things to do with them. Right now I'm getting, like, two dozen a day. So I-- when I moved from Vegas, I was in Vegas, pandemic happened, I finished my doctorate. I wanted to look at, see what opportunities there were to teach at the collegiate level, and really wanted to move back to the Southeastern United States.
Matt: My parents had just retired. They moved to North Carolina. My grandparents were getting older, and they lived in Atlanta. So wanted to move, you know, a lot closer than Vegas, and-- Vegas is great, kind of worn out my time there. So I was looking at institutions, and I found LSU in Shreveport, and as soon as I interviewed, it was-- everything was perfect.
Matt: The classes that I would teach, the, the chair who interviewed me, um, like, seems like my mom. Like, it-- just the environment, the, the people, everything was fantastic. So I made the decision, like, well, in Vegas, you have these, like, tiny houses. You don't have any yard. You have, like, rocks, desert landscape.
Matt: If I'm gonna move to Louisiana and make this change, I'm, like, making this change all the way
Christy: You're making-- You're p- you're gonna own chickens
Matt: Yes. So I'm gonna live 30 miles out of the city in the country, like two acres, own chickens. And my dog just like saw real grass for the first time and a squirrel and like,
Christy: How do you keep your dog from eating said chickens?
Matt: Training.
Christy: Yeah
Monica: Uh-huh.
Matt: Lots of training. Yeah, their whole Facebook groups, that's how I learned.
Matt: Like, yeah, just leash, walking around, doing things.
Christy: These are friends, not food.
Matt: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep
Monica: Chicken are all friends, not food. Ah.
Matt: Yeah. And then so I got a few, and they call it chicken math, where it just multiplies
Monica: Chicken math.
Matt: Look up chicken math if you haven't.
Christy: Yeah
Matt: Uh, I didn't realize, but just like with dogs, there's so many different breeds of chicken, and they all have different traits. And as a scientist, I find that really interesting.
Matt: Genetics has always been really interesting to me. So started like reading listening to podcasts, learning about all these different breeds. I was like, "Oh, I want that one. I want that one. I want that one." And then, what are their temperaments? What are their egg colors? And then I started doing some breeding of my own.
Matt: So I have like different genetic lines, and I'm breeding like one line for temperament, one for different egg colors, 'cause you can have blue eggs, like brown, white, and blue, and then any mixture of
Christy: blue eggs. They're so pretty
Matt: Yeah. Um, So
Christy: and Joyce Vance have a lot in common. You guys should chat. She's all about her chickens
Matt: Yes.
Matt: that's what I would do in the summers, not teaching.
Matt: Well, I would teach a little bit, but then I was like hatching out chickens, going to the chicken doing my, my lines, my crosses, like my predictions. Uh, I've gone into... So now I have my former students who are now teachers, and so that's been really cool. Last year I went in and we did a whole month of like chicken and genetics and, and hatching.
Matt: And so like I went in, then they had to take data every day and candle the eggs. And then when they all hatched, I brought in like the moms and dads, and so they could see like the different crosses. So using that as an educational opportunity too.
Monica: Yeah, very
Christy: Chicken swap, that's not a word you often hear in conversation.
Christy: let's finish up with what's giving you hope because we always like to try to end on a hopeful note. So what's giving you hope about the future right now?
Matt: What's giving me hope is all of the people that I've talked to have been fantastic. I know that Louisiana gets a bad rap sometimes. It is a very conservative area by voting, but if you talk to each individual human, like everybody wants the same thing. We all want a better world. People don't have some of the education that they need or the media training that they need to make the best decisions, but deep down, like people's hearts are typically good.
Matt: And going through this whole process, I was talking on the live last night, like I am, uh, an out gay man teacher running in Louisiana for Congress, and you would think that the reception would be negative, and it has only been like positive and encouraging and uplifting
Monica: That's great to hear. That's
Christy: amazing. Yeah
Monica: Where can listeners learn more about your campaign to volunteer, get involved?
Matt: Best place, website, mattgromlingforcongress.com. I'm on all the socials. They're all a little different, but variations of Matt Gromlich for Congress. But if you go to my website, then you can click contact me and you can find all my socials. You can-- There's a volunteer form, there's donations. Donations are huge now because instead of surviving till May 16th, we now have to push out our campaign till November 3rd.
Matt: So looking for, for donors, for volunteers. You can volunteer from anywhere in the country. We have a bunch of different volunteer groups. And yeah, just learn about me. I have Q&As on there. I have a, a media, like, update blog post on there as well, so you can keep in contact, and I have a weekly newsletter that I'm gonna push out right after this.
Christy: Amazing
Matt: that you can sign up for. Yeah, I'm trying to be everywhere in, in every way possible. And my new podcast, "Why It Matters," you can watch that on YouTube
Christy: Well, I'm gonna have to go download it today so I can watch it and listen to it. And we'll make sure to include those links in our show notes as well as the link to your ActBlue in case people would like to support a great candidate, even if it-- We encourage people, if you have extra money to spend on candidates, don't limit it to just your state.
Christy: You can donate to campaigns of individuals in other states, and we, we do that ourselves, so I'll make sure your ActBlue is out there. So thank you so much for sharing with us today, sharing your story, Matt, and for stepping up to the plate to serve. It-- This is not easy. And we've talked to a lot of candidates who just, uh, get so worn out with everything, and it just, it's so amazing to see you still be optimistic about this and to keep pushing on despite all the bullshit, so we appreciate that.
Matt: Yeah. Thank you for having me
Monica: To our listeners, if you're finding meaning in the stories we're sharing, if something moves you, challenges you, makes you see the world a little differently, please like, comment, and share. It helps more than you know
Christy: And follow us everywhere at the Politics Checks on Substack, Threads, Blue Sky, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook
Monica: Thanks for being a part of our community, and keep shining your light so we can find each other in the dark
Christy: And remember, we're stronger together. Thanks again
Monica: Thanks, Matt