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Founder of Cat Ladies for America, comedian, and angry optimist, Blaire Postman, conducts real-talk, claws-out interviews with people trying to make things suck less in new and different ways.
we are just waiting
hello hello hello
we're waiting for people to filter in
come on cat ladies
cat daddies cat chaps
and our uncatted allies come on in
we're just gonna let this get revved up and warmed up
so we can make sure that we're actually going live on
everything that we need to be going live on
here we go let's see
are we going are we going yes
okay we are live here
and we are live there welcome everybody
hello gritty kitties
welcome to our monthly live stream recording of Caddy Chats podcast
where we talk to people working to make things suck less
in new and interesting ways
I'm Blaire Postman I'm the founder of Cat Ladies for America
I'm also your host and today
in the first part of the show
we're going to be talking to local
insurgent candidates who are bringing new energy
new vision and ideas to hard to win districts
in order to make things better
and make things suck less for regular people
and to help keep this country free and to keep it made as a
a government by working people
by regular people for regular people
serving regular people so we're gonna learn a lot about them
their specific races you know
what brought them to uh
jump into the race to begin with
but then we're also going to learn a lot about
how to find out more information
about these new voices
who might be running in a district where you live
or near you or for statewide office
I don't know if you guys know this
but there's been a
a little bit of news lately about certain new candidates
but we love we love insurgent candidates
we love new voices we love new energy
we absolutely need it we love new ideas
but we're also gonna talk about what we can do to inform ourselves
cause you know
not all these local races are gonna be
have articles in the New York Times or the Washington Post
so you have to look for them
their information in different places
and also um
after the panel we're going to
or actually during the panel
we're gonna ask the candidates
what are some things that local candidates who
you know aren't taking a bunch of money from these huge corporations
they don't have all kinds of money to burn on big advertisements
what's really important if you find someone who you support
what would be something in addition to maybe contributing a few bucks
what would be something that maybe we
as voters don't realize is really important and really helpful
so I am gonna start bringing folks to the stage
first here we have see if I can
here we go first we have uh
coach Levon Barnes from North Carolina
running for the North Carolina House District 64 House delegate seat
and next bringing to the stage here
my mouse is very sassy today
ah here we go
we have Dan Schwartz of
who is running for the 1st District US congressional seat
in the 1st District of Maryland
and Conrad Kable hopefully is gonna be able to join us
he's gotten a little tied up
which happens in these if you're
if you're running for a local race
you're doing a lot of things at once
so hopefully he'll be able to join us
but if not we'll catch him at another time
and for now let's everybody
a big round of applause from where you are of uh
I think my computer just decided to let me move okay
big round of applause for everyone
for Dan and Lavon thank you very much
and thank you guys for being here
well thank you for having us
I mean I'm excited
thank you Blair
and yes
there are cats behind Dan
just so everybody knows that there are
in fact cats behind Dan
uh and so I'm a cat
I'm a cat representing for my daughter today
not to be outdone we did meet Levon's daughter briefly beforehand
and we asked her to leave those behind uh
for us um
so I'm gonna start with this question
and Levon
I think I'll just send it to you first
um
why are you doing this why
why you you're a teacher
you're a coach you got a nice family there
what what are you
this is crazy why are you doing it
because I'm crazy no
I'm just playing
haha haha
uh no
it's simple uh
I'm doing it to try to make my family's life
my students and their family's life
and everybody else that lives in my county and state life easier
uh and it's simple
we are not experiencing any of this right now
in the state of North Carolina and
and partly because we don't have working class people uh
in any of those seats and so uh
it's because my community has asked me to run
it's because my students and families
who I have been able to serve um
they've asked me to run that's why I'm on the ballot
okay great
and Dan
same to you you
you know you got a nice family
you're you were a busy guy
um what
what made you decide to run
yeah thanks Blair
so you know my congressional district
it's just 90 minutes from Washington DC
right across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge
but we are the one of the most under represented
and underserved districts in the country
and for eight terms now we've been chaired
we we've been represented by Andy Harris
who is the chair of the House Freedom Caucus
the most extreme group in Congress
people out here are not extremists
they want to be represented by somebody who's from here
who shows up here and who will listen to them
and I got really sick of seeing my wife
who's a family nurse practitioner
take such good care
of her patients every single day in our rural community
and when she comes home at the end of the day
instead of being able to relax with us
she has to go to war against the insurance companies
my congressman Andy Harris
is a doctor himself
who takes his campaign donations from those insurance companies
I believe that's a scam my 15 years in Washington
my career I spent fighting scammers
working on behalf of state financial regulators from all 50 states
I have experience in government
that being said I'm just a regular guy
I've got a family I've got a lot of bills
I've got two cats three dogs and
and I think we need more regular people in Congress
amen and just I
I showed um
just show it again this is where
cause you know
we think about all these big cities
and everything this shaded in area is
is the part of Maryland that Dan represents
it's an enormous geographic area
and then I'm gonna take that down if it lets me
and then this is I had to make my own
there wasn't one readily available
this little seat there with the inset
that is um
about an hour uh
between it's between Greensboro and Durham
is that right and so yeah
it's about 30 minutes either way
so it's not it's
it's not even really a suburb of either of those things
it's sort of further out than that
and so what um I
I guess I'll start with you Dan
you mentioned a couple of the impacts specifically
we hear about big issues nationally that resonate
we hear about things like affordability
we hear about things like healthcare
we hear about um
things like maybe corruption in addition to
or maybe if you want to drill down further
even on healthcare what are
what's a very specific impact you see where you live
of these big picture issues
well
I think all of these national issues are local issues in my district
affordability availability of healthcare
um but I'll
I'll give you one that's kind of unique to my district
here on the Chesapeake Bay
we have a lot of communities where already
people have become climate refugees
they've had to move away because of sea level rise and
and because of our warming environment
and because we are not investing in the infrastructure that we need
to allow these communities to live their lives
without dealing with flooding
that causes their school to become an island in their town
for example and when the city of New Orleans
and the southern part of our district was hit by Superstorm Sandy
about 13 years ago and it was underwater
Congressman Harris turned down disaster relief funds
that were offered by the federal government
and in the big beautiful Bill
he worked as hard as he could to zero out $36 million
that had been allocated by partisonly
by Congress because um
Congress knows that
that a flood doesn't care if you're Democrat or Republican
and they know that every $1 you invest in
that is gonna save $6 down the road in disaster recovery
so um
you know that that's a unique issue that
that my district feels maybe more acutely than some others
or feels it similarly to any other district that
that has a lot of waterfront
but um
you know we
we need to to invest in our communities
regardless of who lives there
whether it's a Republican town
a democratic town we're all Americans
and it's and when you mention something like uh
the the bipartisanship of natural disaster
I mean it's
a lot of people used to think uh
of mostly beachfront areas of being susceptible to that
I lived I was talking to Levon before we got on stage here
I lived for many years in Wilmington
North Carolina which is very southeastern
I lived less than a mile from the beach
where a Hurricane came on one of the last years I was living there
straight basically direct hit
but it was inland more towards uh
where Levon is that
that face those issues and it's not as if the people of Maryland
I live in Maryland too
by the way
it's not as if the people of Maryland and your district specifically
haven't been paying their taxes to pay into that
so that's really kind of shocking
uh Levon
over to you like
what is something that is a big picture issue nationally
but what is a has a very specific
or how you see it manifest specifically in your district
well I think that we actually have uh
similar um issues um
it's one year ago in one day uh
away I guess
one year in a day uh
we got hit by Tropical Storm Shantelle
that directly impacted my district in uh
Alamance County and it flooded uh
not just MEB in North Carolina where I actually live
but going all the way down the Hall River and sacs Bahah
and what had shown is a lack of um
we have a lack of funding
a lack of emergency preparedness uh
so those those national issues do affect all the way down to the state
because things like medicate expansion um
you know we are in a rural area and
and access to care here is an issue
and a lot of that is because of the cutting of those types of funds um
so how I mean
you know we have folks who
who are 30 minutes 30+ minutes from like a major city in
in the county and we run out of ambulances all of the time
uh huh
you know we have to actually go to Durham or Chapel Hill
yeah I mean
we actually have to go to Durham or Chapel Hill to
for emergency services things like that
so like and you're not that close
I mean we talked about it
a minute ago but you're at a good hour
at least yeah
at least a good hour uh
depending on the traffic especially depending on the traffic
traffic yeah
and then I would say like
you know affordability
it's gonna be a term that we will hear
throughout the entire course of this um uh conversation
I call it a cost of living emergency
people right now
are facing cost of living emergencies in Alamance County and
and throughout throughout the course of uh
America to be honest with you because uh
the lack of you know
things like raising the minimum wage
the lack of making sure that um
you know uh
women have um
when they're giving birth
they have enough enough weeks for maternity health
like a lot of these things um
you wouldn't you would be surprised
um the cutting of the department of education has direct impact
here in North Carolina so
and and both of you
you know
live in rural areas of your states
respective states and we saw the big
and you talked about this in some detail
Dan based on your wife's work
but there's the big beautiful Bill
the biggest cuts as I understand it
are yet to come for in a lot of
in a lot of areas and Levon
how do you expect that to affect the hospitals in your area or
I heard that there's a lot of closures possible
it's already affecting us
I mean it's already affecting us um just
just services I mean
North Carolina has been quote unquote the laughing stock of America
because we were the only state
as of like maybe
I don't know 96 hours ago
they did not have a budget
I was gonna say a a budget
so
uh and part of that budget
was fully funding Medicare for the rest of this year
now I want you to understand that the rest of this year it's
it's less than six months
correct and so how's that going now
uh
listen it is a
it is a if I could curse on here
be a extra
well I'm not
but like you know
it's a crap shoot out here man
it's a lot of folks out here my
my uh
opponent who's been in this seat for 14 years
is so out of touch with the people of Alamance County with so
is so out of touch with in his progressive ways that he's voted um
I mean he is voted to to
to not really fun to help medicate until years
until like maybe the other year um
he's voted to cut out elections um
and make a lot of makes folks who are trying to cast their vote harder
and when we look and by the way
just cause I made the map
so I'm gonna use it again
yeah if it lets me
come up here I'm looking at you there
oh look at all that look at all that blue
look at all that blue around there
so you guys haven't had a you
I don't think
you've had a democratic representation in the state house for uh
since 2020 so like uh
2022 actually
Ricky Hart yeah
you guys like to redistrict every three to six weeks
so it's yeah
you know
literally so um
we have had a representative in District 64
maybe ever in District 63
which is the next district over
that represent we had Ricky Hartado in 2022
and then they gerrymandered it just to get him out
like literally
they literally just they just inverted the
they inverted the the districts um
just to get him out
but we are the only red county from Raleigh to Charlotte of I 85 40
and so and then I'm gonna ask Dan this question too
but so we're talking about some of the things that um
kinda suck right now um
what your leadership representing your districts is not doing
and we've just kind of touched on the surface
but now we're you're gonna make things suck less
so for example Levon
whether it's healthcare or affordability or something else
what can you from the state house do
what is part of your agenda
what is an idea that you have to make things suck less
oh well
number one is um
fully funding public education
uh we are number one
North Carolina's number one in business uh
in the United States No.
46 in what we pay teachers
and No. 50 dead last in how we fund uh education
so we know that businesses are gonna wanna come here
they they are here
but yet if you don't have a thriving school district
public school education system
then they're gonna bring in everybody else except the folks who who
who live here um
that's one thing and the other thing is a fair wage tax
um right now
the North Carolina legislature has awful constitutional amendments
on the ballot this November
that look really good
and one of those is capping income tax and property tax
and um
I would say to that if
if you tax a billionaire fairly
he's still a billionaire if you tax a millionaire fairly
he's still a millionaire but taxing a billionaire
the same way that you're taxing someone getting paid hourly
is disgraceful and all it's gonna do is continue to create a um
a class gap uh
that we already are seeing growing wider and wider and wider
where the middle class or or
or young people who are trying to ascertain their first home or
or whatever cannot do that
I can't do it at all so yes
so that's just that's and
and your I just know this from personal uh
experience I have with both of your states
in North Carolina
the housing prices have skyrocket over the last decade or so
so yeah
that's just another another part of it
and so for Dan
you know same
same question you're gonna make things suck less
and hey you're part of the if
when you win when you are part of the Maryland delegation
I can't vote for you
but I'm super interested in how you're gonna help us out
yes great question Blair
I'm gonna give you a few things that I'm gonna do
one following on the education point
I want free lunch for every kid in school across the country
there is no reason that we are the wealthiest nation in the world
and we can afford to bomb kids overseas
but we can't afford to feed them in our schools
and my congressman just presided over a farm Bill that
that cuts $260 billion from the snap program over the next 10 years
that is food that our kids need in their bellies to learn in schools
food that pregnant women need in their bellies
to have healthy pregnancies
and food that our older people need to be able to stay healthy
so that's really important
UM2 this is
this is an older demographic district that I live in
about 85% of the voters are 55+ in my district
we need to protect and strengthen Social Security for the future
there is no reason that people that make less money
are shouldering the the greatest burden
and so therefore we need to scrap the cap and
and make everybody pay their fair share
um when it comes to Social Security
so that we can we can have a
a program that still exists in the future
and finally I really need to work on rolling back a lot of the damage
that was included in the big
beautiful Bill because when you
when you put together the cuts to critical services um
in the in the big beautiful Bill that people rely on
and when you put together the president's tax plan
and when you put together the
the president's tariffs all of which are supported by my congressman
a lot of people in my district
are gonna go from just teetering in middle class
to poverty one in four people in my district rely on Medicade
and half of them are children
so to have a doctor who's
who's trying to cut as many people off Medicade as he can
representing us I think is
is really reprehensible and I just wanna put up
cause we're getting comments in uh
in the chat here just relating to what you just said Dan
they're just they're really screwing over their own
I've changed the words a little bit
their own voters their own rural voters um
and they're really it's
it's a
it's it's as if they do not have to answer at the polls sometimes
and I wanted to show something too um
about the um
about the state um
budget uh for teachers in North Carolina
Sarah who oh
Sarah is our actually our uh
one of our chapter co captains at the
at the Raleigh Durham chapter
just talking about how the health plan approving
basically teachers are
it looks like
teachers are gonna have to pay more for their health insurance
that they get is that
is that what it sounds like
yeah that
that literally just dropped uh
it's so convenient that
that dropped right after they passed the budget
where they quote
unquote gave us a
a raise but the raise is not across the board
um they gave public education
shout out to Sarah I teach in Durham
so Riley Durham uh
chapter that's what's up um
but um
yeah we're gonna get you some cat ear merch so you can get really
yeah so they passed the state budget
they passed the 8% raise now
most people would look at the whole number say oh
8% that sounds really good
but it's a caveat it's over two years
our budgets are biennium so like we
we we don't budget every single year
they budget over two so it's 4% here
4% here what's inflation right now
it's over 4% so beginning teachers got a good
nice little bump but veteran teachers like myself who are entering
entering my 24th year as of tomorrow
to be honest with you
our wages actually going to lose
when I'm losing I'm making less money
and then now when you rate
rate our um
help I mean
you make our healthcare cost more
now I'm taking in less and less money because uh
probably more work just a hunt
yeah I mean
a hunt it is
it's a fight I come from a family of teachers
I am not a teacher but I
I can play one on TV um
and my so my hunch is that uh
you will not be doing less work for that money
teachers are never absolutely
absolutely not and then they
you know they dog and pony this budget where um
they waited till after July
they're not giving us any retroactive pay from what we did last year
so like
in what world do you pass a budget
and not retroact
what workers have done throughout the course of last year
and say all right
we're gonna give you this thousand dollar bonus
or this thousand dollar one time thing which
you know
is it gonna be taxed so it's gonna be less than a thousand dollars um
and then you're gonna rate they
they switched our healthcare from Etna
and we were at once at Blue Cross Blue Shield
now we're we were at at
excuse me with Etna
and now we're gonna go back to Blue Cross Blue Shield
so like it's a lot of like
switching doctors yeah
I mean it's gonna hurt so many more people because they just playing
it goes back to what you said Blair
there's a lot of folks out here running for office
that don't even have to leave their house
they're not even in tune with their district because they
they have a R or whatever next to their name
and they just automatically
because they gerrymandered it so bad
can just get votes well
guess what those days are coming to an end
because their own people are pissed off
they are and so what is Dan
something that is going on in your district
it could be really small it could be like one person doing it
what is something that you've seen in the community
or ideas to help people that is inspiring to you
um great question
um there's a lot of awesome stuff going on in the district
there's a lot of organizations
that are trying to get food to people that need it
I talked about hunger in the district
a lot of it goes unseen
and I've encountered so many churches across the district
that are trying to get together as much food as they can
and giving it out um
one of these uh
churches in particular has recently opened a shelter in Salisbury
where people can come it's not a overnight shelter
but they can come and get some coffee
get some job training get off the streets um
you know seek some advice from people who can give some coaching
uh so again a
a lot of different organizations
funded by the generosity of individuals that are trying to get food
trying to offer resources
a lot of them tell me
that their costs to provide this aid have gone way
way up and that
it is really hard for them to continue to provide these resources
and to budget out for the future
and we shouldn't have to rely on the goodness of
of people's hearts
to help the most vulnerable people in our communities
you know what
what what
what could you do with the cost of not really
fixing one reflecting pool
probably a lot probably a lot
um well
and it's it's
it's in it's at once
really inspiring
to hear the stories of people in your district doing stuff
and it's really important
and we are very big here promoting mutual aid
but
I think the more people realizing they have to get involved with that
and the more they're taking money out of their own pocket
the more they're it's actually showing them how their governments are
are the representatives are failing them in these places
and they're happy to do it
but it is these are just normal people with regular jobs
and who are spending now their weekends and so forth
helping their neighbors and it's actually great
and we love it
but also they now have a insight into what is not being done
and so love oh
go ahead I'm so sorry
if I could also just add along those lines the
the other thing that's inspired me the most on the campaign trail
and I've been doing this for 15 months now
is people like Levon who are willing to step up and the
even though they have a full time job teaching our kids
and are willing to serve for whether it be local or state office
cause a lot of times these are thankless roles
and you don't get paid enough to make it your full time job
yeah and so Levon
thank you if I've Learned anything on the campaign trail
it's people stepping up for
for local and state office are really doing the
the work that makes a difference the most in people's day to day lives
and what you really need are strong federal partners
and that's what I hope to be absolutely
thank you for that and Levon um
same to you I mean
what do you see you know
we talk about all the stuff that sucks
what do
what do you see in your district that maybe regular people are doing
might even be a model for something that you could
you know build legislation around or support
well I mean uh
what I always say is that um
you know we have more that brings us together than it does divides us
uh when we get rid of the
the fear mongering and all the
all the rhetoric um
what I see in Alamance County is a fight
is fight I see folks who are
you know and
and non profits working with private sector
working with just just the
the Kool Aid the
the two girls that are selling lemonade on the side of the
in their neighborhood I think they all care about their community
they want their communities to thrive
they don't want to see anybody suffer
they they understand
you know we all understand the issues um
that we're facing you know
so the same thing like feeding our kids throughout the summer
um I think about like um
a Jackie Van Hook and uh
one of our school board members um
Tamika Harvey uh
they've been going up and down Alameda's county
feeding kids in neighborhoods like
sandwiches and all the different types of stuff
because we know that yeah
food security is an issue um
and that a lot of the the money that would have gone
that could go towards things like that
are being sucked away in the reflecting pool and building an arch
and all those other types of stuff
so like uh
I see I see fighting
Sax Bahah Sax Bahah is like a
I call it a little slice of heaven in Alamance County
it's like a little hippie enclave
um and they got hit so hard during Chantal
that they just immediately came together and and
and dug themselves out of the muck and
you know whether it's blasting out canoes
with a whole bunch of MUD and stuff in it
I saw so much of that and I was on the front line with them uh
you know like
clean the stuff out like
it just inspires me every single day uh
to see people come together
regardless of what their ideologies are
regardless of what their color are is
and say you know what
this is my community I live here
I wanna see you do well
imagine imagine that in our actual legislators that
that we have that were paying uh
to do their job imagine that
we just we just want them to do the same things
that regular people are doing all the time who
you know early support that stuff right
to help make a way for it
to prioritize the things that the people care about
um so we um
what can people do to help candidates like you all
you're both uh
fighting running against candidates
who are the incumbents they are probably pretty well funded
I bet Andy Harris in particular
the congressional races are even more expensive than the state races
but proportionately to the kind of funding you have
it's still a struggle no matter what
and what can people do in addition to donating
you know going and going right to the website
so they know exactly who they're donating to and
you know that's going to the campaign
for real for real
what can people do that they may not realize
is actually a big help to campaigns like Yours
Daniel start you well
in addition to money which is obviously important um
you know my
my opponent is taking all of his money from large corporate donors
and extremely wealthy individuals
he's raised about $2.3 million
he gives a lot of that money to the members of his
Extreme Freedom Caucus I have more than tripled his number of donors
but all of my donors are regular people
and we're gonna catch up based on
on regular people my
my one eyed cat toodles
yes sorry I'm bothering him in his
in his nap right now no
we demand it we actually demand it
this guy right here my buddy toodles
has raised over $125,000 for the campaign
um because we realize
you know send out a message from Toodles saying
I might have one eye
but I can see through the lousy excuse of leadership
of Congressman Harris and cats can't run
so vote for my dad something like that
we we quickly realized a little bit of positivity
and if we can make somebody laugh or smile
that goes so much further than the
the doom and gloom right now
so again um
money is important I'm obviously not gonna win
or out fundraise Andy Harris with a one eyed cat
we're gonna run a serious campaign here
but I am gonna beat him with people power
and if you all no matter where you are in the country
want to volunteer in some way for my campaign
you can go to my website shorts for congress dot com
you can sign up to volunteer
we can put you to work no matter where you are
I need people making phone calls
I need people sending postcards
I need people doing research
there is so much that you can do
um and of course
if you're willing to send five bucks or 10 bucks my way
that will really help us out
um not gonna lie
the toodles merch is pretty sweet guys
I'm just gonna say that yeah
we've got toodles mugs
toodles stuffies you
you name it he's a celebrity
um I'd also just
you know since we're on the theme of animals here I'll
I'll say my representative has
I believe a 3% lifetime rating from the Humane Society
a a 2% lifetime rating from the league of Conservation Voters
if you want your
your dogs to be able to swim in the Chesapeake Bay or anywhere that
that you take them and if you want to um
you know
have representatives that care about our local stray cat populations
and support TNR programs at the state level
um support my campaign
so uh
please you know
in addition to donating five or ten dollars to me
if you don't mind go
go and donate five or ten dollars to your local TNR um organization
they do great work there you go
and Levan what about you
what are some things that people can do to help your campaign that
in addition to or any campaign that's an insurgent campaign
I mean be honest
I think Dan said it all
I was just kind of like looking at how Toodles was like hugging hahaha
it was very like Harper hugging me
what's going on here but no seriously
in my character you could have a
you could have merch with you in those cat ears that's yeah
well clearly I'm gonna make sure
shout out to Kate Bar and in the slave crew
I'm sure that they're gonna
they're looking at this right now like yeah
I'm cat ears right now it's going on a postcard somewhere
but um
just like dancing like
my opponent is funded by big corporations
um he
he's he's not gonna raise as much money as
let's say Dan
but a lot of the money he does raise goes back to caucus
because again
he just thinks that he's gonna have this
this clear shot to win and I believe
because we have knocked over um
5,000 doors and we've made 4000+ calls and counting
that this one this election is gonna be won based on the people
and that it's the people's seat and not my seat if I
you know when we win
but writing postcards uh
making phone calls phone banking
we do phone banking via zoom
you can do it from your house
um if you want to do postcards and send postcards out
we can give you addresses
all of that stuff matters outside of yes
I definitely feel like then I know we're gonna get to donations
but you know five to ten dollars
I think there's almost a 870,000 people that
that follow you or in and around that
like if everybody just gave five or ten dollars
I mean Sheesh
how what
where that puts me and Dan right now
puts us in a in a really great position
and that's not much uh
that to to give but
but yes I
my donors
uh a regular working class people
and every single time that I get a donation from someone
whether it's from $5 sometimes one dollar
all the way up to 250 plus dollars
it means something to me because they believe in my vision
they believe in the fact that that
that we are better together than we are divided
and that they're sick and tired of waking up every single day feeling
like this burdeness and this heaviness of
what did he say what did he do
and how is that trickling down to my state
I wanna make your life easier
I want you to wake up and not have to worry about
do I have to work all four jobs to survive
I my campaign is based on kitchen table conversations that normal
everyday hardworking folks have
and the only way that can translate into into
into a reality is getting like Dana
myself and others um
in you know
we gotta get to a point now where we
where it's less about the corporations and more about the people
and so helping me in my campaign
honestly it comes down to
you know hey
if you if you're gonna travel to North Carolina any point in time
come holla at me if you're going to uh
keep applying for colleges in North Carolina come on
if you can write an email
or send an email out to a whole bunch of people that
you know in North Carolina or in around
do that uh
all of that stuff matters
believe it or not and so that's great
and just so everyone is clear
first of all we're gonna be sending out all this information
if you haven't already I'll put this up really quickly
um that are um
if you sign up for our substack
you don't have to pay I mean
we do take voluntary donations
but you never have to pay for any of our content
um if you sign up for us
when we send out the article version of this and post the um
podcast on Substack you will get all the information
all the links to these um
to their campaigns whether it's to donate
whether it's to sign up to volunteer
or do phone banking or whatever it is
and it's just cat Ladies for America at Substack
and anything you want to know about us
if you don't remember it from this
if you go to Cat Ladies for America dot com
literally everything is there
and so you can find anything that you need
but before we time in real quick
I'm sorry sure
go ahead I know the
another huge way that you can help me and Dan
is following our social medias
oh yes
all of our social medias I
I'm gonna follow Dan tonight and um
and and make sure that I shout Dan out
but like
if you follow us on social media
and all of my social medias are pretty much Levan for
and see from TikTok to threads to uh
Instagram uh
it's all that uh
if you're on Facebook it's Coach Levan Barnes
but like uh
if you follow us and you keep up the date with what we got going on
that helps us tremendously
and yeah
and we've just posted up again uh
y'all's information with those uh
with the social media handles
that's also gonna go out in that article
also if you like
go to our i follow these guys
so if you go to Cat Ladies for America Instagram
for example you'll find them in there in like
who we follow but um
it but we'll be putting those up throughout the night
um so before we let these guys go and get to our action part
which we are gonna be giving resources about things like where to go
what are toodles most burning political look toodles
toodles like all cats
is more of a it believes in monarchy
and so I don't know I mean Dan does toodles have a
hot issue the T&R probably
well he keeps telling me I should get rid of the dogs
I don't know um yeah
so divisive I'm kidding
such a divisive
yeah they get along just fine
although we have been pitting them against each other with fundraising
right I'll say
my little competition it's like a Girl Scout cookie sale
you know nothing wrong with competition
um my wife is seven months pregnant
and grass
I think both of the cats are starting to realize something is up
um we're having our third little one
congratulations grass
thank you thank you
we're having a little girl
I'm really excited oh my god
is this your first girl it's our first girl
we got two little girl dad
you look change your life girl
dad and I think we're still future cat lady
well we're gonna
we're gonna we're gonna
we're gonna get some future cat lady kids shirts
I think we're gonna have to do that
and to get that over there to you as soon as possible apparently
cause it's gonna be soon you've got quite a year
yes uh
young man um
so before I let you guys go
and we just talk to the folks who are following here
and giving them some tips on
in general places to go to research
we're gonna take a few actions here
our action captain Corey messaged us in the chat
and she's in the Finger Lakes region of New York
they're having some kind of storm
all of the power in the town just went out
so I'll be running that myself as best I can
I have all the information
it'll be great but before I let you guys go
and just thank you so much again
where in the world there's other candidates out there
we're lucky enough to have you guys to talk to tonight
it's just a coincidence that I have
I live now or have lived in both of your states
that's just a fun accident for me
but is there another candidate at any level of government
it could be the most it could be school board
it could be state you know Senator
US Senator um
who is running somewhere it could be near you or across the country
who has an insurgent campaign
who's trying to bring new ideas
new energy maybe has a bit of a tough um
have a tough district
or maybe a tough incumbent who hasn't done on much in a while
that you would like to recommend
uh Levan
why don't you go first it's tough to
to narrow it to one okay
well you know
we I
you know I gotta
I gotta like
stretch it so
Sophie Blanton in Alamance County
who's running for state Senate
he is definitely somebody he
he was he's a former actor alongside like
Denzel Washington and a great debater
so he
he's hilarious uh
I gotta shout out my um
my compadres at uh
can't win uh
one Claire Kipner
Jen Wise
uh Jen wow
excuse me uh
Andy uh
all of those have great great
great great um
stories uh
those so I would like
choose those three those four in particular
and those of you who were on our last uh
Katie chats live will
and or from another podcast uh
our friends at can't Win Victory Fund
who are based in North Carolina
and they help people run these kinds of campaigns to
to help them learn how to do inexpensive but smart
different kinds of advertising or
or publicity and how to you know
get out there and canvas and how do you get volunteers together
they help them with all that
so we'll we'll put their link in all this stuff too
um and what about you Dan
anyone you recommend yeah
well I just gave my guy Levon a follow
and again I'm really impressed
not only by teachers who work with our kids
and are so selfless in doing so
but also people running for state office
I think that's in a tough district especially that's yeah
um harder than what I'm trying to do
running for federal office in a tough district at the federal level
I'm a big fan of this guy
Andrew Sneed
who's a candidate for Congress in Alabama's 5th Congressional District
he pulled together over 100 of US candidates
running in tough districts
to come out with this thing called the Take Back Congress Pledge
it's a five part pledge term limits
no stock trading five year ban on lobbying after leaving Congress
a statutory code of ethics for the Supreme Court
and working to overturn Citizens United
that's the five parts he's pulling all of us together
I was the first congressional candidate in Maryland to take the pledge
um but he's really running a tough campaign in a tough district
in Alabama that looks a lot like mine
he's a plumber he's a great guy
sounds like we're gonna have to look him up for one of the next one
is it yeah
look him up and then also just one other
who I really have been just loving her messaging and energy
Jennifer Jenkins in Florida 8
running against Randy Fine
that's a that's a tough district and a great race to watch
alright thank you guys so much
we are gonna have all your information
I mean we got
I mean we just have
we're gonna take a quick picture because that's just gold
it's gold guys
um I got some before of toodles um
but I cannot thank you enough
we're gonna be watching
we're gonna be helping and supporting where we can
and I know that a lot of these folks are gonna be following you
and telling their friends
especially if they live in the States where these guys are running in
particular so um
thank you enough I cannot thank you enough
Dan and Levan
and I have a feeling I'm gonna see both of you again sometime soon
and thank you so much everybody else gotta stick around so we can
we can do some action stuff
thank you guys
thank you thank you so much
bye
bye oh
my god guys
that they uh
they were great did you all have a good time listening to them
I mean well
some of it was tough because there's tough stuff going on
but uh
they're amazing and just as a reminder
and I'm gonna put the um
this banner up with our substack
actually Gail
if you can see it
can you put our Substack information banner up for us
that would be super helpful
um and thank you so much
and so if you go to our substack
you will get the video podcast when it comes out
you can also get the audio version on all
wherever you get audio that'll come out a week from Tuesday
but also Corey
our managing editor will be writing sort of the article version
and that's gonna have that
and the show notes for the podcast
are gonna have all the links to everything
these guys mentioned Cory is really good
she was a a journalist for many years in the DC area
she'll try to run down
also some of these other candidates that they mentioned
and then now we're gonna get to the part that's kind of the action
this is gonna be the action
cap part'cause we wanna learn about our candidates
so we don't have situations like
maybe some of you might remember uh
from last week with Graham Plattner in Maine
a lot of people when they started to hear about
you know oh
he wasn't maybe he wasn't
we'll just I don't wanna go deep on Grand Platner
cause that's not what we're here for
but let's suffice it to say that there were some people who uh
didn't really know everything about him
and even aside from some of the worst stuff
and they're like you know
what do you mean his parents paid for his house
and he was grew up quite well to do
and all this other stuff so how are some ways that we can investigate
so first of all you know
you can certainly look up who your current representatives are
and all of this will go out in that
in that chat on Substack um
you know you can go to find out who's on your ballot
to votefouroneone.org that's the league of Women Voters
something that we are looking into creating now is if you find
if you go to this organization called sway
organizations or even individuals
local groups of people who
you know may have put together their own voter guide
and you might not vote for everyone who they think you should vote for
in different districts and different offices
but it might be give you a list of people
a starter list of folks to contact or
excuse me some folks to research
who might not be candidates you even knew were really running yet
um and so
we're gonna ask you to pick a couple of these actions to take
in the next week alright
so first of all
donate if you're able
if you're able but a lot of people aren't
and we understand that or you can't donate to everybody
you can do something as simple as
especially if they're in your area
putting up a yard sign putting on a bumper sticker
wearing their T-shirt wearing their hat
you could write that you like them and put it on your social media
you can write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper
if you want to go
and do a little more research on some of these candidates
you can also go to Integrity Index dot US
Integrity Index dot us and if you go to that website
they will tell you sort of their methodology of picking different what
what it is that goes into their index number
whether somebody's getting a
a d minus or an a plus
they tell you all the different kinds of things they look at
when they are coming up with that
so it's not just a number and you're not
you don't really know what they're using
as as parameters um
here we talked about what we could do besides donating
and among other things you can do that
postcard or letter writing
I know um
that Corey is going to be doing that as we get closer to the
as we get closer to the general election
now both North Carolina and Maryland are done with their primaries
but there are about 20 states that still have primaries yet to come
places like Minnesota Wisconsin
Arizona um
many of them
oh no
Tennessee just had um
many of them are either this month
and then a lot of the New England states don't have primaries until
like late August
early September I think Delaware is the last one in
in kind of late September
now it's a very small state
I get it but don't sleep on these primaries
it's so important because it's not just about
I mean
the biggest race I was involved with here was a primary in Maryland
because in Maryland like a lot of states
you know the primary sort of
can have a big determination on who's gonna win the general election
so I really can't stress enough that you need to go
if you go to uh
votefouroneone.org um
which is the league of Women's Voters site
you can see exactly when you have to register for the primaries by
you know what
the new
lots of new rules out there
you can see what all the rules are when the mail in
ballot has to be postmarked
everything else so all of that information is there and
but if you've missed your primary or you missed registering
go go now
go look
it's way be
we need to be doing this way before the general election about
just because there's people trying to pull shenanigans
and so far actually
despite all the bluster they haven't
they decimated the Voting Rights Act
but when it comes to things like getting rid of mail in ballots
or needing to have like
your retina scanned in order to register to vote
that stuff hasn't actually
you know gotten very far past the courts
so go now
and see what you have to do to make sure you're registered to vote
and votefouroneone.org is an excellent place
it's got literally everything for every state
and we looked into making something
we're like why bother this thing
votefouroneone.org is fantastic
and if you're feeling uh
we like to talk about indoor cats and outdoor cats
so if you're an indoor cat
you know you might be more like doing a phone bank
or maybe you're writing postcards
or maybe you're posting something on social media
but if you can make calls
and if you are set in your area
you're not worried about the election where you are
you should still vote you should still do all the things
support your candidates cause you just never know
but you can also you know
phone bank for you know the state next door
or donate five bucks to somebody in a different district
or a different state or host a fundraising party
or let the candidate come over and
you know do
you know a little meet and greet at your house
I mean they would be so grateful if you would do that sort of stuff
now Corey had a whole thing fit planned of us taking an action
and unfortunately as I mentioned before
Corey's uh
electricity and that and all of where she lives uh
her entire town has gone dark
so we lost Corey
but we are gonna be sending out all of this information
so that you guys can take these actions over the next week or so
and we're gonna be checking in with you via our Substack chat
which we've really just activated now
and so it's a way for us to talk to each other on Substack
without you getting emails
in your in email box uh
in your inbox and I just we're
the next one of these is gonna be
I believe on August 9th
we're probably gonna be spotlighting some more candidates
but also talking about as we get closer to the midterms
what we need to be doing in our neighborhoods
what we need to be doing to make sure um
that people ha realize whatever rules there may be around voting
and then also on Sunday September 13th
we're having our second cat Lady Palooza
and I'm gonna tell you guys first
I haven't this hasn't been announced or anything yet
it's not gonna be announced for a few days
so cat Lady Palooza number twoza
get it it rhymes haha
uh cat Lady Palooza twoza is going to have Latasha Brown
who is the founder or co founder of Black Voters Matter
is very involved in all roads lead to the south
it's a we're going to have um a
a Glen Gwen Leevi music
she's one of the co founders of Rise Above Justice Movement
but is also an award winning country music singer
and she's got a lot of very pointed songs about women's rights
it's fantastic we are going to have Trevor from my Cluck Hut
the soap people who including the Stormy Daniel soap set
uh the
if you don't know my Cluck Hut
please go uh
please go visit them on Instagram and elsewhere
they uh have an enormous following
their products are very very popular
but also they have they're gonna talk a lot about how you integrate
you know standing up for things you care about in your business
in your day to day life and then we're gonna have a certain cat lady
who talks about a couch a lot
talking about a certain lawsuit
we're gonna have Amanda from cats on the couch come
and she came last time she was part of the
the Joyful Resistance panel
but uh she's gonna talk about our uh
the the ACLU the case that the ACLU is helping her with
when JD Vance would not allow her into a public event
and that's just a few of the people we're gonna have
so keep that in mind you can find all that on mobilize
you can go to our website and find out all the information
and to sign up to get it's free
but to RSVP and get the link
and I'm just gonna hang out here for a minute
since I have extra time since Corey's in a blackout
because it has to be something every single live stream
but let me know I'm gonna sit here for a second
if anyone has any comments or any questions they have
I will sit here for a minute
but otherwise
please go to the substack and keep your eyes out for these ideas
and we're hoping that people will report back to us
before the next live stream on
I believe it's Sunday August 9th
and tell us what you did
and tell us what idea you had that we haven't thought of
and you don't have to wait until the next day
you can DM us you can send us an email at meow
at cat ladies for America dot com
tell us what you did uh
tell us you who you followed
tell us who you discovered when you started researching
folks at Integrity Index Dot us or at sway dot Co
tell us who you discovered
and found and
and you can find all that stuff at Cat Ladies for America dot com
alright guys I am so happy you're all here
please keep an eye out for all of this
and um oh
do we I saw somebody saying
we do need to talk about Gram Platner and how that happened
oh yes
that's it that's a
the coincidence of this event
I um
this was already our planned idea of what we were going to do
but uh and I've talked to a lot about it
a fair amount about it on social media
you can see my stuff but part of it is that um
you know there was a lot of money raised by a lot of
this is my point of view not only my point of view
but there was a lot of money paid
raised by consultants who weren't very experienced
weren't really on the ground
didn't know the people uh
didn't do a lot of vetting
and then they spent a lot of money um
propping them up and had some connections in order to help prop him up
and to sort of hide some of the things that were issues
and uh that money
overwhelmed the ability of information
to get through to a lot of folks
because it's really difficult to get outside your algorithms
and that's why we're asking people to do things like
go to Integrity index.org
go to I don't know if she put it on here
there's um
there's a states I'm gonna find it right now
what do I care that's my live stream
I'll look at it right now
oh yes
go to a States newsroom.com
I'm gonna I'm gonna put this in the chat here
why not hold on
you can't tell me what to do
here we go paste it boom
if you go to states newsroom dot com
and this is just a jumping off point for people
I'm gonna create a banner and put it on here
look at me go
look at me go guys
uh here we go
we'll show it there we go
if you go to States newsroom dot com
you click on then click on your state
they have is a non profit organization
they have non profit news rooms
dedicated to every single state in the country
and they will if you go there
and then put in their search bar
something like voter guide or candidates
there's a lot of information about very local candidates
and very local races in every single state in the country
and so you're not trying to look at these big picture profiles
you know in the New York Times for your local people
but also even if they are doing those on your local people
maybe that's not getting at what you really need to know
so one of my new things to tell people is to go to States newsroom.com
and then click your state
and start poking around
as looking at the election coverage and the candidate coverage
because they get down to the real nitty gritty
so yes we do need to talk about it
but I didn't want to take away from the proactive stuff
if you go to Substack and Instagram
you'll see some of my uh
very pointed comments about it
alright guys
thank you so much everybody
and we will see you hopefully before then
but certainly by August 9th
and definitely put cat lady Palooza Toosa uh
September 13th on your calendar
claws out
meow